It's a cold fact that somebody is going to take a depreciation hit on most new equipment purchases and you can bet the queen's keyster it will be the original purchaser. This is reason enough to avoid buying new equipment at retail. If you can get a sufficient discount on new gear, that might make it worthwhile. Or, if you can get into something at a very low original purchase amount, say $170, then you stand to lose little but you still lose something. In the case of well researched used purchases, loss can be kept at or near zero. Bear in mind that resale prices are directed by street price rather than list price. If an item is readily available at thirty per cent discounts then you can look for the resale value to be correspondingly reduced. One of the best examples I know of is the famous Talon Khorus.
Since you have a somewhat limited budget and no prospects of increasing it in the next couple of years, I would expect you to be very cautious about missteps.
And with new, dealer sourced gear, you will lose money even if you love the stuff, although the loss might be delayed by years.
There are members here who are dealers, members who worship their dealer and members who avoid dealers. They all have advice for you.
Since you have a somewhat limited budget and no prospects of increasing it in the next couple of years, I would expect you to be very cautious about missteps.
And with new, dealer sourced gear, you will lose money even if you love the stuff, although the loss might be delayed by years.
There are members here who are dealers, members who worship their dealer and members who avoid dealers. They all have advice for you.