I whole heartedly agree with you Louis, the Dualit is worth the premium price. Solid construction and no nonsense operation. I especially like the manual timer, and lever lift. This gives the user total control over the toasting time. I bought mine on ebay in excellent used cond. for $89.00, shipping included.
I had a Sunbeam T-35 for 14 years that I paid $5.99 for at the Salvation Army Thrift Store, and it was great, until it wasn’t. And once it stopped being dependable all the tweaking I tried wouldn’t bring it back to working right. I donated it to Goodwill, maybe some else was able to get it working right again.
Eddie