I am looking at this from a different perspective.
you either buy a pickit2/3, or build your own, for $30 plus more. all you get for your money is a programmer.
now, for $7, you get a STM8S Discovery that is a programmer, a debugger, a dev board, with an led and a switch, around a chip with 32K flash and runs up 24Mhz (equivalent to a 96Mhz PIC).
or for $10, you get the STM32 Discovery: 32K flash, good for 24Mhz, 32-bit chip, etc.
or for $30, you get a USBKEY2 that is a 128K flash, 16Mhz chip, with a built-in programmer, debugger, and is a dev board with switches, leds, and temp sensors, to name a few.
why should anyone waste his money on a pic or a pickit2/3 or even the clone?