Help with selecting microphones!?

It depends on what you are going to use it for - record an acoustic guitar, electric guitar, singing, environmental sounds, speech, band, etc. but any microphone under $20 is going to be really junky. Seriously it is like buying a used car for $400. Don't expect much. Murzy's $10 Radio Shack mic is probably going to be better than anything you can get now for four times that price. It probably wasn't made in China, the dollar has devaluated and say what you will about them, Radio Shack sold pretty high quality gear. I had a pair of RS condenser mics that took a single AA battery back in the late 1970s and they were shockingly high quality. I wish I still had them.

Don't worry too much about the quality, when you begin recording, the way you use the microphone and associated equipment is MUCH more important. Read a book on recording or check out Youtube, there are lots of videos with quite good audio recorded on mobile phones, which usually have small, cheap microphones. There are lots of good mic. brands like Sennheiser (my fave) Shure, Beyer, AKG, Crown etc but for $20 you may not be able to get one of these. You might consider buying a used USB mic that cost 2 or 3 times as much new.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audio-Technica-ATR2500-U...

Hi Maplin here in the united kingdom do a microphone with xlr cable and usb lead.

There are lots of "computer microphones" floating around that you could probably get for free.

I've been given two in the past and tossed them out because I had no use for them.

I use a $10 mic that a bought from Radio Shack years ago. works great