Travis wrote
If you're gonna cheap out on your pedals, the hardware is the worst place to do it..
This is absolutely true, and it goes for any hobby. I'm also a guitar builder, and the most expensive part of building a guitar is...(wait for it)...your TIME. Material costs are secondary. And while you may want to use less expensive parts for experimental builds, certainly anything you plan to keep and use should use the best quality parts you can afford.
In the case of $0.50 Chinese pots versus better quality $1.00 pots, the difference in cost for an average build is about the price of a Starbucks small coffee. Same goes for other parts. In fact, part of the attraction of pedal building for me is that the average build is relatively cheap - maybe $20 - $30 in parts, depending on the enclosure, switches, etc.
So, yeah, don't get cheap parts...