Is Galaxy.com blackhat?

[SkinLaboratory]

They advertise themselves as the internet's oldest free searchable web directory.  The MozBar shows their homepage: http://www.galaxy.com/ with these stats...  PA: 77, mR:5.81, mT:6.59,  DA:93

These numbers seem good.  In order to get listed with them there's a $10 fee for a standard listing.  So I started wondering why they weren't hit by Panda/Penguin.

After searching SEOMoz and not finding any information that satisfied my curiosity I did a google search for "galaxy web directory". It doesn't show up on the first page.  To me this indicates a ban or penalty.  If it's penalized, why is Moz giving it such great numbers?

Also, are there any paid directories that would be worth the $$$?  I thought the answer was supposed to be automatically no these days, but I keep hearing that some Blackhat still works.  I don't like the idea, but if it's working I don't want to be missing out in the SERPs.

[BeardoCo]

There are multiple paid directories - as far as what is worth the price tag?  It really depends on what your competition is supporting in their link profile.  I personally don't engage in any paid directories, not because I feel like I'm going to get penalized, but I don't think any of the sites are worth a yearly amount.

1)Yahoo
2) Business Directory 
3) Best of the web
4) BBB

[Chris.Menke]

You know what I do when I want to get sense of whether or not a directory page might be worth it?  I go to the directory page that I would expect to get a link from, click on a link, then run a OSE report on the page I land on to see how it shows in the report.  Do that for a few more links on that and other pages and you'll get an idea of it's value.  Keep in mind that directories are often not a good choice when it comes to long-term link value.