craigs up here have a linc weldpak 125, good condition for $350.
If it's junk, as you think,  I'll pass and keep looking. cheers!

I've been sitting on a pair of  full size oxy/acetylene that fell off a truck some time ago.



fell off a truck


I don't know about where you are from, but around here that's code for
Stolen.....

I have a midsized Smith torch. The mixing barrel is big enough to make cutting anything I have easy enough. When I bent up a backhoe wheel I bought the rosebud tip. I beat on it for days, but I got it. The tire beads up, no tube. I was fighting a fire, ran over a stob, instant flat and I had to drive out of the fire, down to the house. Dude, ever seen a car wheel someone drove on with a flat? Try it with a 13,000pound backhoe. Went through two bottles of oxygen in just a few days.

Open it up. LOOK at the wire and the feed rollers.
I would have him pull the wire out and put it back in.
It may require some finagling to get it to run out to the tip.
Check out the wire feed speed control. If the rollers can't deliver a constant rate of feed at the various speeds then that is a problem. Maybe not insurmountable, but something to consider.
As WD points out, it's not supposed to be spitting wire if you aren't pulling the trigger. I don't know what all could do that, maybe just contacts in the trigger, maybe a relay in the box.
There are some good 110 volt units out there. Honestly, if I was looking, I would go talk to the guys where I buy rods and oxygen. And I would Google the unit you're looking at.
Hobart model number not dependable,
                                     Junk,
                                      maintenance issues
                                      Best welder ever
Just try different search terms.