I bought a cheap Philips player which can have region 1 software installed just so i have the option of buying either region 1 or 2 discs but in the 18 months since i bought it i have only 2 discs which are region locked to region 1 so really it is a big paperweight
I own an Oppo BDP-83 with region free modification for blu rays and DVD (after having had a Panasonic region free DVD player). It's also SACD and DVD-Audio compatible.
Since I own DVDs and blu rays from different regions worldwide, I can get cool editions or bargain movies/series' from anywhere without worrying about region codes.