Here is my input:
I started as a new beekeeper last April and I bought two nucs and have since gone on to make more colonies, do splits and make unions, I have made colonies queenless deliberately and accidentally, I have made mistakes. Mostly, I have learned that many beekeepers have extra swarms, colonies, equipment, knowledge and advice that they are quite content to hand out for no charge so no further outlay for bees is necessary; as a new beekeeper I did not know this.
My point, and it has actually already been stated, is that new beekeepers will quite happily buy a nuc and bring it on with their own equipment but the likelihood of that same novice buying a complete hive with 60,000 bees, a super and who-knows-what in diseases is almost nil.
My advice for what it's worth is to give all your stuff to your local BKA apiary in return for some honey and put the initial outlay down to experience.
The big alternative is to bite the bullet, make time for your bees and carry on regardless. If you only have one colony then this year, or next, or the one after, something is going to go wrong and you'll have no bees to worry about anyway and the problem will largely solve itself.
As a novice I wouldn't have bought someones old hive and colony. I would (and did) however buy a nuc from a reputable dealer with the assurance that it was disease-free, had a mated and marked young queen, had at least five frames of BIAS and had the backup of the beekeeper that sold it to me.
Stuff is only worth something if there is someone willing to buy it; good luck with that.
.. and obviously i have a load of honey that i will not eat through doing the correct things...so it only seems sensible to me to sell it and buy more kit as i am Quickly expanding and doing ok considering i do not know what i am doing.
