I’m in the same boat as you. I print what we call “functional prints”, things that are tools that aid you in your everyday life than the little toys and other knick-knacks. Not to put down anyone who does print those, it’s just not my thing personally.

I had success with a used printer many years ago. I traded a guy my old Xbox One for his XYZ da Vinci Pro that was pretty pricey at well over $500. He said it didn’t work but parts for it were available directly from the manufacturer and it ended up just needing a replacement extruder for $90 and worked just fine after that. I’ve since made many modifications to it.

Used printers can be easy to come by depending on your location or if you choose online like eBay, and ones that are listed as broken can be fixed if you know what you’re doing and looking for. That was not my first printer but my third so I was aware of how these things worked and what issues might be present and how they would be fixed.

You may have similar luck but being new to the hobby, may not since you’re not as familiar with the process and how they operate. So you may want to stick to buying used in a known working condition.

But you can still get good deals on a used printer that does work and without the hassle of having to put it together like you do with some printers you buy new. But I think having to put it together can be beneficial as it helps you understand how the printer was put together and how you can take it apart if need be.

Most printers will last you a long time but you will need to replace parts on them as time goes on and it’s not uncommon for you to add new features to them over time as well. I’d say they’re more comparable to a house than a car. A car is only really good until 100k miles and then starts to break down and a house is similar, but usually lasts a lifetime as you make major repairs and make upgrades to keep it lasting. But being a 3D printer, we can sometimes print replacement parts in expectation of repairs and new upgrades, so it’s not all always as bad as it sounds.

As for specific recommendations…I’m largely happy with my decade old printer but the market has vastly changed and there are much better ones on the market so I wouldn’t recommend my XYZ da Vinci Pro to you (there are other issues with that printer too that have only gotten worse with time due to the way it was made) and I’ve since moved from FDM to SLA printing which I don’t recommend SLA for beginners or those not printing for things like miniature figures and models, so I’ll leave specific recommendations to others here.

In case you don’t know, FDM is the more traditional type of printing you’ve probably seen where it extrudes plastic onto a build plate to form the 3D object. SLA uses liquid resin in a vat and lasers to form the 3D object in that vat to stick to a build plate but upside down. SLA is more toxic and requires more safety attention on the user’s part and the printers and resin are more expensive and tricky, needing more post processing on prints than the FDM style but results come out looking more finished and layers are less noticeable. They are generally smaller and usually used by people who are printing small models like a Warhammer/Dungeons and Dragons figure. I don’t recommend it for your use case, but if you are curious, I have an Elegoo Saturn.