Benefit for jQuery("#item_id").val() over document.getElementById("item_id").value?
<p>Is there any benefit to using jQuery over <code>getElementById()</code> to retrieve an input field's value?</p>

<pre><code>jQuery("#item_id").val()

document.getElementById("item_id").value
</code></pre>

<p>In other words, is JQuery necessary to retrieve a value (i.e., does it cover special tricky cases)?</p>
