Kelly,
That is a very subjective question, so I suggest that you check back several times to see different opinions.
My opinion is that the less experience you have in photo editing, the more you benefit from the new features in the Elements 3 Editor. Here are a few of my examples.
-The Shadows and Highlights edit is a comprehensive adjustment to lighting that is very beneficial for many photos. It is better than the Shadows and Highlights in Album 2.
-The red eye is very improved over Elements 2 and better than Album 2.
-There is a spot healing brush that is great for touching up small spots – a common example is a facial blemish – perhaps a scab on a child’s face or arm. It is often a better choice than the Clone tool for this type of touchup.
-The warming or cooling Photo Filters have been useful to me when adjusting the color tone of a photo – either because the colors were wrong in the first place or because I am blending photos from multiple cameras to use in a common slideshow.
If you are an experienced photo editor, you are more adept at using the functions in Elements 2 to achieve these same objectives – therefore less benefit from the new version.
For the Album area (the Organizer in Elements 3), here are some of the benefits and differences
-What was the Instant Slideshow is now redisgned and called Photo Review. It is a good way to preview/review your photos to determine the "keepers" and the best of similar photos.
-In the Photo Well, there is a Stack function where you can stack similar pictures so that normally only the top photo of a stack is visible in the Photo Well. This helps to unclutter the photo well.
-For Tag searches, you can have a NOT condition – like Tag A and not Tag B.
-Slideshows are different in the Elements 3 Organizer; Printing is somewhat different. It would be more effective for you to briefly describe how you use those functions now, then we can comment.
-How Elements saves an Edited photo related to its Original is different in Elements 3 and this has given some people significant problems. So this is a caution for a problem that you might experience in Elements 3 that you did not experience in Album 2.
On the price question, if you can find a special that is periodically offering Elements 3 for $50-60 USA, then you are very close to the price that some of the earlier purchasers paid when there was an upgrade rebate.
Barb O
