craftgrrl | Question regarding iron-on transfers of a printed image.

I checked the memories, but I wasn't able to find precisely what I was looking for.

My question is: what do you guys think of iron-on transfers for t-shirts? Specifically, what about the iron-on transfer paper that you can buy at computer stores and such? Does it hold up well to washing? Anything I could do to prolong the life of the tranferred image? Is it worth the fifteen dollars for the pack of paper, or would I be better off stenciling? Frankly, my dilemma in regard to stenciling is how to get a graphic image (my boyfriend's World of Warcraft character) onto a tshirt without losing recognition, thus the prospect of iron-on transfers.