Julia,
Besides the fact that you have a lot more surface area holding whatever it is you're holding with the collet chuck, you normally have a much more accurate (read less runout) tool with a collet than with a jacobs chuck......for the money. I'm sure you could buy a hyper accurate jacobs chuck, but I would bet you would pay 3-4 times the price of the beall to get that same accuracy, then you still only have limited gripping surfaces. It just ends up to be a very good, clean, accurate way to hold small things. Took me quite a while to buy mine, but am very happy with it, and finding more and more uses for it every week.
Randy,
I agree 10 days shipping isn't bad, I got mine about a year ago and it seems like it was just about double that then.
I guess he/she/they/it at 800watt has learned something in the last year, even if it's not how to send an email.