>I'm weary of buying used guitars online. And very weary of $200 guitars. A >used or cheap guitar that seems good to a newbie could have major fret >problems....amongst other things. Excellent condition, new strings and packed really well.

Weird... I've found just the opposite but I guess it's just pure luck.
I just bought a Yamaha acoustic for about $100 and it's amazing. Same thing with the Bass I got.
You've gotta expect to get what you pay for though.
I wouldn't buy a $500 +plus guitar off eBay.
I guess I think of it more as a cheap way of having a large variety of instruments at your disposal when you're multitracking. Every song starts to sound the same when you use the same instruments all the time.

Sometimes btw, you can overlook slight fret problems if the sound and feel of the instrument overall is worth it.
My 75 Gibson won't play some notes at all but you just learn to adjust your playing so that you go around them. Overall it's worth the inconvenience cause the feel of the neck is like butter compared to other guitars I've played.
(My other guitars are like cheese graters in comparison cause the frets are so high.)