Thanks Dave, very insightful, Hermes is one of the highest priced brands out there, their $3k gator belts are just ridiculous. Some of their buckles are said to contain Palladium/platinum and those cost around $500 in addition to the belt. Name brand really isn't a big deal to me. I'm in the hunt for quality leather merchandise, I went to the LV store just to see just what kind of quality $600 could buy.
On a side note does anyone know fellow leatherworker.net members who makes leather belts for formal purposes? I would be interested in checking some out!