Where I'm located (Vancouver Island), anything under $500 would be a steal of a price.

Although some deals come up every now and then in Vancouver, just getting there and back adds another $2-300 to price of the machine just in gas and ferry. Hmm... then there's the high likelihood of having to spend the night in Vancouver too, which adds another hundred bucks.

Everyone out here on the island knows how expensive it is to get on/off the island, so even "project" machines are listed at $500+. Anything of even reasonable condition is usually $1k and over.

But ,for "absolutely can't go wrong at that price", I'd pick up anything within 100km if it was listed at $300 or less.