There are some pretty good mechanical keyboards that are cheap. I really liked the CM storm QF rapids I have. I have also heard of other keyboards from ducky, PLU, and keycool that are decent, and pretty cheap (50-80USD range)
ALPS keyswitches are less common than cherry, at least in modern keyboards. They are pretty confusing, and everyone seems to prefer the old "complicated" ones. I thought the green alps on a certain ducky keyboard sounded pretty good, though I haven't tried them myself.
I like the tactility of the ALPS keyswitches on my ALPS-u-lator, but I don't think they'd be very good for typing.
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If you like small keyboards, you can try the Cherry G84-SPAUS model. I was very pleasantly surprised by it: I hadn't thought a low profile switch could be that good, and I use it at my desktop constantly. I think I was able to get it for $15 shipped from eBay. The best bet would be to grab a decent IBM model M or old ALPS 'board from goodwill or maybe ebay, if you really want value for money.