My first machine was from a small repair operation in the north and I had to pay the shipping, so the total price was well above what a local purchase would have been. But it was my first machine and I had ants in my pants instead of patience. It wasn't that big of a financial mistake but it taught me to look for local private sellers, as in not more than a couple hundred miles. Of course, my pins are not in the 'A' list, so shipping constitutes a fairly significant portion of the avoided cost of going local. My "wish list" pins, however, may require a dealer transaction as I rarely see them come up inside the state through a private seller and out of state pins will likely require shipment. As other posters have noted, it's all about how bad you "need" the pin. P/F condition is paramount as the rest can be handled with minimum expense, unless, of course, you need a $700 set of plastics or a whole new series of circuit boards.
the other Skip