Ok, I am not an expert. However, I do build and repair mandolins so I have a bit of experience in dealing with the real world of instruments. I have gone into many music stores and can't help but to pick up the mandolins that those music stores present to the J Q public. After playing so many really good production instruments and so many good hand made instruments I can't bare the products offered by most music stores. They are tinny in sound and with very little volume. Sorry, but threre is a big big difference and most musicians with experience can tell the difference. The action is almost always way off, and a person looking to learn how to play a mandolin has no clue how to correct the settings of the bridge or make any adjustments to the instrument. Even setting them up better does not help much. A good domestic instrument has all this done on the bench, before you even see it. A good builder will tap tune the top and carve the tone bars to bring out the best ring the selected wood has to offer. That is something to realize too! A good builder will select wood that has all the right properties to produce the best product. The factories that produce hundreds of instruments a day just picks the next piece of wood in a four foot high stack, good or bad. Even with that, the wood selected will be shaped exactly like the last ten, ususally a punched out piece of plywood, which is saturated with multiple layers of glue. That glue comes from a 55 gallon drum attached with a hose and hopefully the glue is not out-dated and will not delaminate after several years, thus causing the top to collapse or the sides to let loose of the neck joint. Then the neck will move forward and the strings will be three quarters an inch from the fret board. Try playing that one. A good builder will hand set the slots on the nut and make if from hard bone or pearl. This will give you good wear and will produce a better tone for sure. The '#976 of 23000' (for that month) you just wasted your money on, will have a plastic nut that is not set up properly and can never be set up properly.

Bottom line is this: you get what you pay for. If the really really cheap instruments were all that, then most of the musicians you listen to every day would be playing them. The really really cheap instruments will only discourage you from achieving your potential as a future mandolinist. I have seen too many young ones learning to play end up giving up because they can't come close to reproducing the sounds they are awestruck by in the first place. Pay the extra bucks and get something that they can hand down to their grandchildren, after a life time of enjoyment. You will not get to do that with the really cheap stuff that is everywhere in todays market. Buy from a ship load of identical junk, or from a local luthier.I hope this helps.