Personally I LOVE used guns. Used guns have been broken in, taken apart repeatedly, barrels have had copper in them and are usually pretty well off. All things that generally require levels of experience to get to and as a N00b with no idea what you are doing, makes an excellent “beginner” pistol no matter what the make and model.
Used guns are not a bad thing at all.
Look at your first car. At least most have a used car as their first car. Probably dinged it, dented it, broke a part or several on it or maybe even totally wrecked it. Now change the word Car for Gun. You can get a totally gorgeous weapon, never fired by anyone but you, no scratches on it and factory fresh. Take it apart once and gouge a screwdriver through the frame, or slide, whatever. I was BULLSHIT the first time that happened.
Used gun with fading or chipped Cerakote, or scratches already on it in the same place I would have made them? Dirty uncleaned pistol that someone put 100-500+ rounds through and decided it wasn’t for them? Cleaning product I want to try or just flat out don’t know what I am doing? Used gun is perfect for all those tasks and more. Plus, I feel like it is an animal shelter and sometimes I like to rehabilitate…
Things like field stripping, cleaning and general maintenance have a lot of similarities between makes and models so personally, I would twist up bang up and clean up a USED gun before spending my hard earned money on a beautiful gun I love once I know what the hell I am doing.