[Jack]

Originally Posted by Helena1982

All wise words
you wouldn't buy a car without a test drive would you?

Here is a dead simple example
warm water e.g. Red sea July = 3mm shortie wetsuit, a cheap one will cost you £50
UK most of the year = Dry suit, a good one will cost £600+

Hire the kit from your local dive centre and build up your own kit slowly, EBay is OK but buyer beware. Remember you can't try stuff on for size and for stuff like regs you must have them serviced before use. This will cost about £70 depending on the regs.

Welcome to the world of diving and long may your shiny bits glisten
__________________
Breathe deep and dive shallow
or better still grow gills and head for the abyss

Here's an idea....

Hire get some experience of kit and research and decide what you want, then, (and only then) think about ebay. If you know what you are after and that it's right for you, there's no reason why you have to buy brand new, with the exception of wettie/drysuit and even then, with the latter anyway, you may well get away with new seals and it's good as new. And if you get something off eBay and it's not quite what you wanted, you can just put it back on there.