It can be quite cheap here, cast iron. I got a green enamelled dutch oven for $40 which is great and used for everything (here in Vancouver), but the enamel is, though not exactly fragile, it's not super tough and you can see that. It was made somewhere in Michigan.
We have a pile of Le Creuset stuff in Toronto which we have picked up a bit at a time since the early 1990s. No dings or chips, and if it weren't for the colours dating them you couldn't put an age on them; though they are used all the time.
I was at a conference in Newcastle in, I am guessing 1998, sidled off for a haircut and headed back via a John Lewis. There was a lovely lemon yellow fry pan with a long wood handle there on sale. I was late for the conference and by the time I got back to the shop, it had gone. Never saw anything like that again in a solid colour. They went to the current graded tones after that, with only that kind of stone colour as a solid option.
I was looking at a Le Creuset fait tout the other day ... about $450. Kind of blew a raspberry and wandered off
EDIT - Oh .. turns out you can get some astonishing second hand le creuset bargains on ebay. This is going to get heavy, if not exactly spendy. Sound 26cm fry pans for around $25. Bit of scuffage on the teflon, but I'll be helping that to get off in any case
Got one on the way!