The way a party determines is best to divide up the treasure can be a defining characteristic of a group of players, a function of the characters themselves, or a vital necessity prompted by the campaign or setting in which the game is being played. I've found that greedy characters make for poor adventuring fellows and some level of teamwork always wins in the end.
I've run groups that have added up the value of every magic item they have gotten (down to the last copper piece) to ensure that everyone got their even monetary split or the rewards. While this can be argued to be the most fair approach, there are circumstances where this might cripple a party. If a single item of great value turns up that can only be used by one member of the group, should fairness dictate it be sold if that item can lend to the survival of the whole?
Some groups I've seen have kept a running ledger and made sure that the "have nots" were not forgotten and had dibs on future items. This, at least, removes the loss (in a misguided attempt to foster fairness) of powerful items. Mind you I've never been a big fan of Meta-gaming, so those tallies had to be made by either appraisals by group members or by potentially unscrupulous merchants or NPCs who may not always give the proper values.
There are other groups (that rarely last long) where rolling off for first choice eventually winds up with some marked disparities. This lack of balance often played out in such a way that one or two members of the group survived through an entire campaign as other players struggled, generating character after character in an unending cycle, never able to keep up with the Jones's. Sometimes the prominent group members would be unwilling share the equipment from the fallen with new members, opting instead to sell off those items they couldn't personally use so they could secure additional gear for themselves.
I remember an incident where a Red Dragon swooped down and snatched one of these walking candy stores, carrying him off to a place where he could be disected one-on-one. There was some complaining but in the end the player couldn't deny he was the one ripe piece of fruit on an otherwise barren tree.
The group who did the best in all the campaigns I have run had a system where they sold off minor items if a major magic item surfaced on the market that would prop up a lesser member of the party. They frequently pooled funds to make each member of the party as effective as could be. In between other quests, they'd seek information on items that might help bring the group to a better balance, even if tracking down those items put them into danger. They were the epitome of a well-oiled machine, on and off the battlefield, and after three years of gaming together the original characters all retired as a group, appropriately enough, to run magic item shop.
