Funny you should ask; lately I've been collecting travel sizes of different stuff to see what I like. I probably have about 50 right now.
www.basenotes.org can help you better understand and refine your tastes. They have an extensive database with some good reviews. It's alot like BITOG for fragrances.
Some favorites, along with approximate pricing for a bottle:
Juicy Couture: Dirty English ~$40
Davidoff: Cool Water ~$30
Ralph Lauren: Polo (Original Green) ~$65
Chanel: Allure Pour Homme ~$85
Of course, if you're on a budget AXE (the rest of the world calls it Lynx) Kilo and Amber are well reviewed and totally decent for about $5. Old Spice is a cheap classic, but you might smell like some girls' grandfather. Same goes for Brut. They're good if you don't bathe in them.
Before I set out to find the world's best cologne, I wore (depending on the weather and time of day) Hanae Mori - HM ($65), C.O. Bigelow - Elixir Blue ($10), and Armani - Aqua Di Gio ($50). HM smells like chocolate and sweets and you probably already know how AdG smells since everybody and their mother wears it. Really the best was the Elixer Blue, which for $10 you can't beat with a stick. Very clean with a little bit of green and woodsy scent.
The reason I wanted to get away from these was because I am trying to distance myself from the sweet/clean/watery scents that men are wearing commonly now and get back to a 70s-80s type of thing with some woods and musk to it, but without being overpowering or smelling like an old man.
