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you should be using illy anyway
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Right, but using the right tool for the job is also a vital part of getting what you pay for. In what universe -- except the sub $50 dollar one -- is MS paint ever an option for a logo?
Inkscape starts at $150-175...ish and Illustrator at $200-$250 or so. It's just that most people who don't pay for the right tool for the job don't get it. Nobody will tell you what you didn't get at that price -- I'm just being more honest than caveat emptor requires.
At $250 you get a bonus:
No obscenities ...who gets it that 90% of these graphic designers (and zero clients) probably knew exactly what they were doing? Again, you get what you pay for. Trouble is, people don't think graphic designers can retaliate. Wrong.
At $300 you get a bonus:
No copyright infringement.
While this is a little tongue-in-cheek, it's only half kidding. These are not my prices ...this is literally the probability (very roughly guesstimated) of getting what you pay for. The lower you go below fair market price the higher the risk you run of getting something you didn't bargain for -- like paying five or ten thousand dollars for copyright infringement.
Further, many graphic artists don't know how to legally transfer copyright. That means many businesses don't own the logos they paid for. What's the percentage? Hard to say. What I feel would correlate quite well is the sliding percentage based on price paid.
It works the other way. You know who gets a good, honest logo for $20? BusinessWeek. Why? Because they have a legitimate claim on being good for your portfolio. BusinessWeek will put an article about their new logo and the designer into an article worth $50,000 in advertising, easily. A company like BusinessWeek is a thought leader, influencing the key executives deciding on business identities. Doing projects for companies with the life expectancy of a fruit fly is not good for your portfolio. Companies who can't even influence clients to pay enough money to afford a business identity can't influence anybody to do business with a graphic designer.
Dead links to companies who no longer exist is not good for your portfolio.
How do you tell if a client is a good candidate for portfolio work? One hint: They have the money to pay market rates.