If you plan on doing soldering regularly, choose an iron appropriately. You do get what you pay for and may find it harder to even learn soldering skill with a $10 iron than with a $17 iron.
As I teach more and more workshops I am amazed at how AWEFUL some of the irons my students bring in are! They heat up, they melt solder, they do work, but they get dirty too quickly and rarely have consistent heat. Within weeks or a month, a shiny iron tip looks like the above tip — which is covered in oxides and burned rosin. That gunk makes the iron frustrating and difficult to use since it will not transfer heat through the gunk and melt solder or even achieve a proper temperature.
I’ll cut to the chase. Radio shack brand soldering irons universally suck. Always have. I admit I had one, and I used it. It made life harder for me and I didn’t know it. It was a mess, the tip was barely alive in a coating of black crust. Furthermore, replacement tips only came in 1 awkward size that continually wobbles on the iron and falls off. Ugg. And they’re still that way…
The alternative? You don’t need to spend $200 or even $50. Weller, a respected brand, has an entry level iron for 13.49 (model SP23-L). I had a similar plug-in Weller that was probably 30 years old and still worked! Now, the “entry level” is not going to be amazing, but it weller has many replacement tips, accessories and a reputation. The next model up is even better…
The best deal I’ve found lately, though are the mid-level xytronics irons. The $8 xytronics iron is pretty awful (tried a few), but the temperature adjustable model is pretty great for the $28 price tag. Usually adjustable irons run $60+.
All electronics sells them online.
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/IR-258/16-30W-VARI-TEMP-SOLDERING-IRON/-/1.html
The same store has the Xytronics soldering station, too for about $70. I bought one for a school lab and was so impressed that I always recommend them for heavy use, unless yo can get a Hakko.
Finally, what do I use? A Hakko936 (about $100). Always loved them, but I do enough soldering to NEED a $100+ iron.