Rule No. 8: Buy Best-of-Breed Companies

Editor's note: Jim Cramer's new book, Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World, is available in selected bookstores now. As a special bonus to RealMoney readers, we will be running Cramer's "Twenty-Five Rules of Investing." For more about the new book and to order it, click here. Today, we present Cramer's eighth rule of investing. To read about his first rule, click here; for his second, click here; for his third, click here; for his fourth, click here; for his fifth, click here; for his sixth, click here; for his seventh, click here.

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In cars, we buy best of breed. Not even an issue. We pay up for the brand because we know that a brand, a good brand, signifies reliability. It signifies a higher level of service, a quality of ownership that can pay dividends for years. ...