Electric Guitar prices: WTF?

I'm currently practicing (refuse to call it playing right now) on a Series 10 guitar that I got from a friend who wasn't using it. (I'll try to post a pic later). Unfortunately, the thing was in bad shape when I got it. It's old, was gathering dust in a corner of his house for several years. I don't know the first thing about guitar maintenence and ye olde guitar centre wants to charge me $150 an hour just to take a look at it. Uh, no.

So, I was hoping to hop online and find a cheap electric guitar to upgrade on. Yep. That went well. Everything's at least over $200. Second, I have no idea what makes for a quality guitar. Mahogany, maple, Indian rosewood, humbucker pickups, neck wood versus body wood. Holy crap!

Thankfully, I found a pretty good site that sums it all up. Although it's a commercial site, and therefore a touch suspect on its info (you never know if they're funneling you into buying *their* product), at first glance, this looks very good. And it's all done in a concise, clean style.

http://www.sweetwater.com/shop/guitars/electric-guitars/buying-guide.php#2

I've got to think that anything at all is better than what I'm currently playing, but then again, playing something at all is better than air guitar.

Right?

I'm looking for something that doesn't have too wide a neck, has a decent sound, and, most importantly, something that stays in tune. I know this is a super-new blog, but any suggestions? Should I try Ebay? (I'm extremely reluctant to do this for obvious reasons of quality control).