Hobart, Miller or Lincoln is what I'd look at if buying new. Buying used is sort of a hodge podge deal. Hobart is owned by Miller IIRC and is considered a step down, but still a damn fine welder.
You do want a wire welder with gas. You can still run flux core through it, but gas with solid wire is so much nicer.
The problem with buying a $200 wire welder is, you'll get to where you really like welding, you'll fine yourself welding up all kinds of stuff, and you'll get pretty decent at it and you'll find the $200 welder is a piece of crap.
I can't see how people live without owning a welder. I've fixed enough stuff to probably save me $1000. I tend to use it once every couple of months at least, and that's just for around the house stuff, not even hobby stuff.
You need a minimum of 130amp 120v welder. Later, you'll wished you'd bought a 185+amp 230v welder (I know I do).
One suggestion is to go in together on a welder with a buddy, this is what I did. We bought a Miller 130 at the Street Rod Nationals when it came to town about 8 years ago. We've been thru about 5 of the 3' tall bottles and typically use .030" and .023" solid wire with it. We only go to the flux core when we run out of gas and need to finish something up. The welder with the gas kit was $600 and to sign up for the bottle rental was a one time $80 fee including the bottle and gas. It cost about $30 everytime to swap out bottles. We use a 75%argon/25%C02 mix. We usually are welding in the garage, so we don't have to worry about wind blowing away the shielding gas.
It lives at his house for a while until I need it, then it stays at my place until he needs it and it goes back. Works okay for us.