Spaw -

Agreed: you can get any product in "decent" or "junk" versions and lots of go-fast stripes are a dead giveaway of shitty performance (usually).

I have one good dial gauge that I refer to for my "calibration standard." I don't know that it's incredibly accurate but it's good enough. I have one digital that I use quite a lot because it's convenient, but I cross-check occasionally with the dial. It's not a "bottom of the barrel" digital, although not particularly expensive.

I have about five good pencil gauges, simply because I need vastly different ranges for tractor (10 psi), auto (30 psi), sport bikes (55 psi) and touring bike (75-90 psi), and because one tire is more accessible with a "two headed" gauge that I can "hook" the stem with.

Then of course there's the can of "retired gauges" that are too good to throw away but bothersome to use, mostly because of old hard seal gaskets that cause some leakage if you're not extremely careful about how you hit the teat.

John