There is some great information on this thread.
Like many, I've purchased hugely expensive dogs (over $3000 as a pup) and have taken on free dogs. Not all expensive dogs are "all that and a bag of chips" and not all free dogs are a nightmare waiting to happen. That said, doing your homework can alleviate quite a few potential future issues...
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We've just bred our Mastiff bitch to the top stud in the country. The boy we used was tested for hips, elbows, heart, eyes, and a variety of DNA tests. Our girl was extensively tested, too (hips, elbows, etc.). The stud we used is the dad to the Best of Breed or Best of Opposite Sex winner at each of the last THREE national specialty dog shows, and our girl was the Winners Bitch at (arguably) the two biggest Mastiff dog shows in the world (Bucks and Trenton) a few months ago. He's the most winningest stud dog in the history of Mastiffs in the USA (i.e., his progeny have won more national specialty Best of Breed titles than any other stud in the Mastiff breed) and has been used on a very limited basis (he currently only has sired two litters of pups where the pups are over 2yrs of age).
So, the costs that go into a litter include the cost of all the health testing for the bitch, the stud fee, the cost of collecting and shipping the semen, the cost of the artificial insemination, the progesterone tests to make sure you time the AI correctly, the additional food (and occasionally, certain types of supplementation) for a pregnant bitch, ultrasound to confirm the pregnancy, a c-section to make sure you get them all ... PLUS ... all the costs that go into showing your dog (travel, lodging, food, entry fees, professional handler, etc.). It's not crazy to think that the costs to buy, test, show, impregnate and whelp a litter out of a world-class bitch could easily run $12,000-25,000, all-in (with the biggest variables being the upfront cost of the bitch pup, the costs to show and any emergency vet fees for the pregnant bitch or her pups). And, this doesn't include anything for the time and effort to research pedigrees, health issues, build relationships with the owners of the best studs, etc.
Now, compare that to the costs to breed "any ol' pair of dogs" ... find two of the same breed (registered or not) on Craigslist for $0-500 / each, wait until the girl comes into season, lock them in the garage for a weekend, then sit around and wait to see what happens a couple of months later. Then, the come home from work to find a litter in the backyard near the kids' sandbox and figure the pup's mom has everything under control and then sell the pups on full-registration (to whatever registry they want to use, if any) for $500 / each and you've made a tidy sum, and the puppy buyers, have ZERO idea what sort of genetic minefield they may be walking into.
All that said about dogs that win awards, the most important thing your dog (or any of the pups we're hopefully fortunate enough to whelp here in a few weeks) will ever do is wag their tail when you come home from a bad day. If you have a dog that looks like the standard but has a lousy personality, you'll move on from that breed to something else...
Good luck to you in your search! And, remember that while there are no guarantees in breeding dogs, there are some things you can do to stack the odds in your favor.
