I'm of 2 minds on this one. Now I know price is on everyone's mind and it was when I first bought my flippin stick over 20 years ago, I still have it and is it heavy but it's for sale if you want it's shimano and I re-guided it and put a cork handle to drop some weight.I have a Loomis ls 904, a mb 843 in gl3, a mb 844 in imx, a shimano crucial crc 70mh and a crc 72 h, a st croix pc76hf, 2 mitchell flippin sticks which are also for sale as you can see I do alot of flippin and have at least 4 rods rigged all the time.
Now I see the desire not too pay too much but all the loomis rods I custom made and they by far surpass anything the manufacturers put out to-day even loomis themselves which are just shimanos lackies. Loomis makes all shimano crucials i believe. Loomis is shutting down their blank division because of shimano. I have found another blank manufacturer that can duplicate the crucial spec for less than a crucial sells for. So my crucial's are going up for sale after I have duplicated them
My favorite flippin stick right now is the loomis 844 in imx it's so light you hardly know you have anything in your hand. I use a calcutta 50's and with braid and picasso spider jigs and have had years of good fishing from this combo.
So you can go with price but buy used if you can first rather than new. If you want to come by you can look and feel the action of each rod you just need to drop me a line LOL
I'd be more than happy to help you out.