I recently bought a genuine (AFAIK) Silva costing about £30, from an online trader well known on this forum, and was shocked to discover it had a very visible 1.5 degree index error (the index mark on the compass module didn't line up with the direction arrow on the baseplate). Back it went for a full refund, and I bought a Suunto elsewhere, instead.
Interestingly, the Chinese Copy of a similar Silva I bought previously for £7 had no discernible error of this kind* - it's even better, in that respect, than my Suunto, which has an index error approaching a quarter of a degree. Even I can live with that, however! The CC is graduated in mils, though, and I wanted one in degrees, to match my prismatic sighting compass. That is the only reason I upgraded.
* [I did check out my Chinese Copy in the shop (Mountain Warehouse) before I bought it; other examples might be worse.]