I bought two National Brood bodies, roofs and budget floors from the Thorne's January sale last year. I made the error of not putting them together straight away and left them in a heated room for 4 months, 1 was niceley warped when I came to put it together, other than that it is fine, obviously it's not as top class as say Hivemakers which do look beautiful, but for the price I'm not complaining.
The roofs are also fine and I have no problems with them. The budget floors though are not so hot and I won't be getting any more of those. I've got some excellent OM floors from another hivemaker in Somerset (sorry Hivemaker, but I was given them........)
I have also been given a lot of National parts, brood boxes, supers, roofs all old, all had wax moth, been badly stored etc, but they have been by and large repairable, some are cedar, some are pine, I can tell by the weight as they are now all painted. Regardless of if it is a first or second, well treated they will last you for years, buy what you want to look at and pay what you can afford.
Frisbee