Poor Man's Ferrari?

Starving artist with very intermittent income...non-audiophile-spouse is the breadwinner of the household. Intermittent-income-earner has eye on refurbished Mark Levinson No. 27 amps and No. 26 preamps on ebay which frequently show up at attainable-but-stretching-it prices. Are the potential audio world related pitfalls here as formidable as those oft heard horror stories about the blue collar guy who sinks a year's pay into a 1982 Ferrari 308 or is this sort of purchase a worthwhile goal for somebody on a really tight budget?