roninchuck wrote:

Is there a brand that give good value for the money?

Depends upon how you define value and what sort of work you
intend to do. 5C collets should be sprung ever so slightly
open so that exact size stock will readily slip through the
collet without marring the surface. Hardinge talks about
this. Hardinge, Royal, Lyndex are the top names in
descending order of quality, but really, are very close.

I've never found significant runout in a Chinese collet but
have heard of it. What I have found are collets that are
sprung small so that it's difficult to get say, .500
material in a 1/2" collet. If you have time, collect your
collets on ebay. I've got nearly a full set now, at less
than 1/4 the price of new, shipping included.

For occasional hobby use though, chinese collets will
probably suffice.

Jon