nelsonm - 1:54 am on Jun 5, 2012 (gmt 0)

Yes, When i tested my theory in jsfiddle, it appears that $(':select').val() does appear to always get the option where <option selected="selected">.

However, $('select').val() merely gets the currently displayed option regardless of whats been preselected via <option selected="selected">.

[jsfiddle.net ]