Two things... The $35 plan doesn't have unlimited nights/weekends or free mobile to mobile minutes. The $45 plan would probably work out about the same as sprints 450 limit plan for most people. The biggest issue with most of the prepaid carriers is coverage (this is the issue I ran into when I tried out Cricket). With Virgin you are on sprints towers, you don't have roaming on verizon's towers like you do with a sprint plan.
According to their site, the stores that sell Virgins are in the malls, and, of all places, the local Sprint stores. They don’t have nuthin 4G, the upgrade phone is the Triumph, which is about 300 -- that would eat into the relative savings but still works. With 1200-minute plan, 50 * 24 plus 300 for the phone makes 1500, still 500 saved... I may have to visit my Sprint guy.