If you want to overpay for a machine get set on buying that one "special" title. If you are new to the hobby, I would buy whatever come available local and cheap or at least reasonably priced.

Buy from someone in the hobby, they normally will sell you a good machine that will work well for the price.

You can get a dead pin that has been in someones basement for years with all kinds of problems, that is how I started (I actually bought a pair of dead machines). I learned a lot, but I have a ton of tools, space, and have been fixing things for a longtime. It still was a huge learning curve.

I did not save any money buying dead pins to start. The price break was not enough. If you can find a pin for nearly free that is dead the price break might be good enough to justify the headaches of a dead pin.

Otherwise I would get pin that works and might have some cosmetic blemishes. Keep it for a few months and have fun with it, you will learn a lot. Don't worry it will break often enough for you to learn all about repair. This will give you time to find your "dream" pin and not overpay for the first one you find. It will also let you learn what you do and don't want to fix and repair and that will help you pick what level of pin you want to buy.