Check the pawn shops and local music stores for used stuff. You'll likely end up with a better playing and better sounding instrument for the same money. Plus you'll be able to play it before you buy it so you'll know you're spending your money on an instrument that you'll enjoy playing. Buying any stringed instrument online without being able to play it first is a crap shoot.
FWIW, when I bought my Takamine, I had narrowed it down to the particular model I wanted. Then I went and played every example I could find in every store I could find. The last store I went to had six of them in stock. I played the two on display and didn't like them. I was leaving when the sales guy said he'd get the other four out of the back for me to try. He pulled all four out the boxes for me. It was one of those four that sounded the warmest and fullest to me and had a really nice action that felt great under my fingers. That's the one I bought and I still like playing it more than ten years later. I never could have done that buying one on ebay.
