All good stuff so far. As a happy purchaser of 2nd hand gear off of this forum, I will repeat the fact that you will save pooploads of dough buying 2nd hand. Ions are relatively simple to maintain once someone's shown you how (I can do a full teardown in about 12 minutes now lol) and the only problems we've had with ours were running them at very low velocities for reballing. We use Eggs with our Ions (work great), but if you're going with that combo make sure you get a Q-lock feedneck (it's a standard upgrade, so if you go 2nd hand you'll probably get one for free) since they have a tendency to swing out because of the balance. Hope that's made sense
thanks all probably not goin to buy just yet (money situation) but all ur advice will save me loads of money. if any1 esle has any other suggests about loaders, guns and kit go ahead!