I've moved on to doing recipies from extract - but I'm giving kits one last try. My first three brews were kits. One was pretty good (an IPA, Brewers Best), one was not too good (a wheat, Brewers Best), one was downright awful (a porter, Listermann).
I have since made several brews from recipies that all turned out well. I am about to attempt one last kit - from Listermann, an ESB. For $25 or $27, if it is reasonably good, that is hard to beat - I end up paying just over 50 cents per beer. It arrives today or tomorrow - I'll definitely post early results in a 5 or 6 weeks. My guess - I am betting on mediocre, hoping for "pretty good."
I just would like to find a pretty good, cheap kit.