What to look for. If you're really lucky, you can find a good used American frame. Steel is reliable, reasonably light weight, easy to align or repair, and offers excellent value. In the early 90's, Specialized made a steel frame called the Allez. If you have ever seen the bikes that we have in our house , you'll see that I love this frame, and if you look hard, you can find one for a song.
Parts is parts.
Basically, parts is parts. Some people will swear up and down that Campy is better than Shimano, others will say that Campy isn't innovative and thus Shimano is better. Shimano stuff is smooth out of the box, light, reasonably priced, and good performing. Neither manufacturer makes bad parts. When it comes to performance versus price, the mid-range groups from both manufacturers will give the average rider more than enough performance.