Living in Canada, even a mini-lathe was out of my budget range, since there are few low-priced options here. I was lucky to accidentally find a used 7x14 for sale nearby for $500CAD and I grabbed it. I'd already figured that I shouldn't spend more than 1/3 of my budget on the lathe, since the tooling and 'optional accessories' would add up to a lot more.
My MicroLux 7x14 'TruInch' hasn't been sold for years, so this is a bit off-topic, but I wanted to mention the motor mount. The motor on mine is on a pivoting 'hinge' mount, which seems much more solid than the two bolts in slots style I see in Youtube videos. It also has a 'real' half-nut setup with two half nuts. Things like that aren't usually listed in the specs, so probably one needs to 'trust' that the sellers of higher priced lathes like LMS and MicroMark have specified better features from the Sieg factory. It's a bit of a gamble.
Having said all that, I would find it fun to 'fix up' even a lower quality 'bargain' lathe, since I don't yet have any real ambition to make machine shop projects (clock, steam engine, etc..). So I can learn while doing 'mods' to the lathe and making knurled knobs for other tools around the shop. :)
