There are many different brands, and levels of flutes available on Ebay. If you are looking for a student model flute, you would probally want to go with a Selmer, Yamaha, Gemeinhardt, Emerson, Pearl, Jupiter, or a Bundy flute. Those are all very good brands to consider for a beginner. Most of theses flutes prices don't get any higher than $500. If you want a little more advanced flute, then you might want to consider all those above brands (except for Selmer and Bundy), because they all make good step-up flute. Most of those flutes could range from $400 to $1000. It just depends on what you want. If you want an advanced flute... then you would be getting into the big $$$$. Most of those flutes would be in the thousands, but some good brands are Yamaha, Pearl, Muramatsu, Sankyo, Allora, Mateki, and Miyazawa. Most of those are hand-made, or can be hand-made.