I haven't touched an arcade stick in so long.. Being a semi-broke college student, I just grabbed the Hori Fighting Stick V3 for $60 with my copy of KoF XIII - which came with the bonus pre-order CD's which is both awesome and sad.
Honestly have no idea how terribly (?) this stacks up with say a $200 stick. People seem to say it's a good entry level one, though, and I'm definitely liking it.