Affordable design  

Yes it's true that new...
Yes it's true that new designs from young designers, SOMETIMES are not so cheap.
But I'm not sure that buying Vintage it would be always better. Are you so sure that vintage it's always "a great source of quality"?, often at an affordable price? Sometimes you can find expensive and bad quality.
As whitespike said, in VINTAGE, we need to "keep our eyes wide open".
And I think that, (this problem), it's avoid in new designers route.
Where do you suggest to search/look for? How do you manage all these?

New designers & Vintage route -pros and cons-
yes, VINTAGE it's the other source frequently recommended in DA.
I see these are the two most recommended.
Which are the pros and cons of each?

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This point is very seldom mentioned: in vintage things you see how objects made for use hold up to use/wear.

Very good PRO for VINTAGE
"you see how objects made for use hold up to use/wear." or you see how much.
And you can not never do it in a new object.
It's great. And it's true that's very seldom mentioned.