Pricing by attributes alternative?

[awhfy99]

First, a little explaination so you will see what I am trying to ask.

I would like to add 3 conditions (attributes) to every product in a store. They would be identical in every way except for pricing. Option "A" on product 1 may be priced differently than option "A" on product 2, etc. I tried to get the basic attributes working on a test store, so that I could try the pricing by attributes mod but that is kinda like pig-latin to me. I don't seem to know what needs to be done, or in which sequence to do them in. I am not even sure that that option would work, since I use EZpopulate to upload everything and have heard horror stories on doing attributes with EP. A step by step roadmap might get me where I need to go, so I can try it out for fitness, so any ideas are most welcome.

A quick alternative option that I did was to to change the manufacturers name field to reflect the desired option values (ie. New, Refurbished, Barely Used) so that EP could be to used without having to play with the attributes at all. This does mean more products (three for every one actually listed) but I don't know if there is an easier solution. If I do keep it that way, I could use a little hint as how to set a default status to one of the options (ex-manufacturers), if this is possible, and preferrably by using radio buttons instead of the dropdown menu. I am thinking that the removal of the "Please Select" field in the dropdown might do the trick but I haven't yet found that dropdown menu. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

[awhfy99]

After re-reading the instructions another half dozen times, the attributes admin finally made sense. It does do what I thought but I am not really pleased with the way the cart looks before checkout. If 2 of the same products with different attributes are purchased, it is not possible to tell why one is at a higher price than the other. It is clear in checkout as the attributes are displayed. I may try to install the price by attributes mod to see if that is any clearer. About all I really need now is to figure out how to set the default to one manufacturer.