I inherited a Craftsman compressor with the house I'm in. I love it. It has made keeping the tires on my vehicles inflated properly at all times much less of a chore for starters. Over the years the fuel savings from that alone could pay for one. And an impact wrench was the only way I could get the drain plug out of my differential, but I'm not a big dude. For the same reason, it makes lug-nuts much less of a hassle. Was also absolutely must have when I did battle with the huge nut holding the front chain gear on my motorcycle. The list goes on...
The one I have was not working when I got it (well, might have run for a while but was bleeding lube everywhere). After looking into whether to replace or repair, I decided to repair for two main reasons: replacement cost and it's oil-lubed and uses a belt-driven flywheel. It seems much like our diesel Benzes, keep it lubed and maintained and it will run nearly forever. The electric belt drive motor can easily be replaced if it ever burns out. Got $25 worth of gaskets from Sears and it runs like new, reaches cut-off pressure in about 30 seconds.
This is nearly the exact model I have, but mine is old, red, 20gal, has hard wheels, and didn't come with gauges/filter:
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00919541000P?mv=rr
I'd say lurking the craigslist ads for the towns in your area for a while could pay off.