I love love love hooping! Not too long ago I bought a glowie hoop, give a totally different feel to hoopdancing itself. I am still yet to try fir hooping, but they are so costly... as per the decent costing hoops you can look into these sites : http://www.hoop-store.com/ http://www.hooprama.com/ http://www.tailspinhoops.com/catalog.html hope that helps.
I'm a hooper too :] I love it. LOVE it. I make all my own hoops out of irrigation tubing like many of you said, too. They are really fun to make and design. I get 100 ft rolls of tubing from Lowes and yeah it is about $50, but it makes about 7 hoops, which I sell for $25-30 ea. so it's worth it!