There are some rarer instruments where you almost have to, for instance a bass sax. You aren't going to find one for under several thousand even in bad conditio

There are some rarer instruments where you almost have to, for instance a bass sax. You aren't going to find one for under several thousand even in bad condition, and if you buy new it's hard to find somewhere to try one model, let alone compare more than one of the half dozen new models.