Couple thoughts:

I started in a pair of Jackson Mystiques. I am not a large adult (5'5'', 130), but I managed to break down that pair very quickly skating about 6-8 hours a week and moved into Jackson Freestyles about a year later. (I generate a lot of power for a beginner.)

That said, I think they were a good true beginner skate. The blade wasn't great, but I was able to learn the basics, and it wasn't very expensive (around $80.) And they were comfortable, which was good when learning the basics.

"My daughters used Bronze Medallions for over 2 years. I was satisfied with them, but as others have said, the stock blade wasn't terribly well-made"

My daughter seems to like her Bronze Medallion skates. Even I noticed a difference in how she skates with the MK 21 blades instead of the blade(ISE Spiral) that is on her old Blue Ribbon skates. If my daughter does well in the Bronze Medallions, I will buy her the same boots next yr. :-)

Angie

Oh, the Bronze Medallion blades are okay on the business end, but they've got a rough finish and spot-welds at the stanchions. Definitely a step up from the Blue Ribbons, but not as finished as the stock blades of the Jackson Freestyles they use now. (Bronze Medallions also didn't hold the sharpenings as long as the Freestyles.)

They were fine for the levels they skated at, but once they started working on higher-level jumps and spins, it was time to move them up.

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Well- every pro shop has a brand they push. USA Skates pushes Harlick. The Pro Shop accross the street inside the ice arena pushes Grafs. El Segundo pushes Riedell. The pro shop inside the Culver City rink pushes SP Teri.

So it's a good idea to know what brand you want BEFORE going to the shop, because most of the time pro shops won't even let you try the brand you want, they will tell you how much better the brand they're pushing is.

If you have a wide foot, they'll recommend customs before offering to order you a wider boot half the time, as well.

With that said, I don't think you could find a decent pair of new skates that'll last you over 6 months and be comfortable for under $250 dollars. Riedells are definitely going to be the best beginner boots for the money, as well, and IMHO I never found that they run narrow, though I hear everyone say that, too. I find Grafs to run narrow and I hear they're for wide feet though, so go figure.

No I agree with the narrow thing on Grafs, Risport runs wider and that's supposedly a narrow-foot boot already.
Edea runs REALLY wide by the way.

Yeah, the next time my daughter needs skates, we will re-evaluate and see where she is. She's still pretty low on her levels. She is in basic 5 and will begin private lessons in a few weeks. So, she is not jumping yet. I wanted the Wilson Excel or th MK 21 blade and her skates came with the MK 21. I think the stock blade for the Bronze Medallion is the ISE blade, we bought these used and they came with the MK 21. When I was looking online at Skatebuys and else where, I think I saw the stock blade was the ISE Sapphire. I was going to order her skates through the rink(it was going to be cheaper then online) and we were going to order the Wilson Excel or MK 21 blade instead of the stock blade. The lead instructor at her rink said those were better blades then the Sapphire. She had an ISE Spiral blade on her skate before and I can see the difference between the MK 21 and the Spiral blade. She seems to skate smoother, if that is possible. LOL. Of coarse, take this comment with a grain of salt. I know very little about skating and blades, which is why I asked other peope for suggestions when I was looking for Janae's new skates. LOL!