Sometimes I love shopping on craigslist!
I needed a cheap-o chain saw to remove a couple of trees in my back yard. Saw an ad for a McCulloch for $30 listed as "hard to start cold, won't start warm" yet it includes 2 extra chains and a case. I figured hell, if it'll run long enough from cold for me to cut these couple of trees, $30 is well worth it. I could always sell it "for parts" on ebay after i'm done with it and most likely get my $30 back. I emailed and asked if it was available and if he could verify it would at least start before I came to get it. He assured me yes, so I went to get it after some further email exchanges and then a phone call.
When I arrived, the guy seemed fidgety and nervous but hey, a stranger was at his house late at night so whatever. He sure did have a hard time getting it to start, but what seemed odd to me was that he didn't once touch the primer bulb on the saw. Whatever, maybe he knew a better way of getting it running than the instructions. After he fought with it for a few minutes he finally got it to run. I told him that was good enough and peeled off $30 to hand him. No point in haggling IMHO over $30 as it was the cheapest saw I could find on CL and he's had a few other calls for it. (Saws go quick here in redneck country.) My hope was that he just didn't know how to work the damn thing and it was a decent saw overall.
I get home and toss it into the garage. With the rain, I haven't had a chance to mess with it until today. I go to the garage, look at the directions on the handle and proceed. Full choke, Set trigger lock, Primer bulb 10x, pull 1x, choke to 1/2, pull 1x and BAM fires right off and purrs like a kitten. I let it warm up for the directed 10 seconds, choke off and decide to stretch it's legs a bit. This thing runs GREAT! Ok, let's see how the chain is. Eh, it cuts but could use a sharpening, still I already cut most of what I needed to so bonus. I shut it down and decide to test this "won't start hot" statement. I flip the kill switch back to run and pull the cord once. Yeah, purrs like a kitten again. Hmm, lets try again. One pull, it's again purring. Hmm, $30 well spent!! Anything I cut with it from here out is just icing.
tldr cliffs:
Bought "barely running" chain saw from craigs list for $30
Includes 2 extra chains and case
runs perfect