I managed to get mine off ebay for £20 including p&p, so it was about £17 without p&p. I have to say that it does do ;
such a good job, and Minsky has started to come round to it, whilst he still won't let me near him with any other!
I've examined both brushes, ones got lots of needle like spokes, and then the furminator only has one line of small, blunt-ish spikes, and if i was a cat and had to use one as my hairbrush, i'd definately choose the furminator! The regular brush has much longer spikes and they are quite sharp, so i can imagine it would irritate the skin, whilst the furminator only touches the fur and seems to remove it gently, whilst a rubber brush pulling the hair sounds pretty darned sore to me! (I have curly hair and used to be told at gym class to wear rubber bands to tie my hair back if I forgot a bobbel. When I took it out, about half my hair came out too and it was NOT fun!)
I can imagine with teh cat brush that it doesn't tug too much and only removes the loose hair, but the furminator does remove a lot more hair and prevents shedding (and hairballs!)
So yes, I'm a furminator fan too
I did Darcy once and have't had to do him again since!