European used testequipment for "beginners"?

[Neomys Sapiens]

Another Hamfest with a fleamarket worth looking at is the UKW-Tagung in Weinheim, usually 2nd weekend in September. And there is one in Dortmund on St.Niclas day in December.

[jpb]

One thing I've found is that if you are patient opportunities arise to get new old stock at good prices. This is how I've got much of my kit.
I bought my LeCroy WaveJet scope from an advert I saw on amazon but then switched to negotiating with the company directly - they were stopping being dealers and had stock that was nearly ten years old but was still "new" so I got a good price.
I got my TTi power supply as new old stock when TTi were upgrading their ranges and some enterprising person took their existing stock and sold it on.
I bought both my counters as ex-demo (one Tektronix and one TTi) from TTi. The Tektronix one I saw on the Tektronix ebay store but they don't ship to UK but I then contacted TTi (as Tektronix dealers) and they were able to give me the same deal.
I got my function generator from the Keysight ebay store but it probably took most of a year before they had what I wanted and were willing to take a lowish offer.
I just got a new Fluke 87V off e-bay (a couple of days ago) for £190 including postage - but I'd been looking for one for a while most other prices seem to be more.

So my advice would be not to try and get everything at once, have patience. Ask companies/dealers if they have any ex-demo stock often they do but don't advertise the fact. Use ebay but beware of high prices. My experience of ebay has been that most of the time people are asking stupidly high prices for kit but every now and then there is an opportunity to get it at a reasonable price.