For your first piece of welding equipment, I think you should consider an oxy-acetelene unit and take a course on how to use it. You can cut, heat, braze and weld with it and you are never tied down by an electrical cord. After you learn to weld with gas, MIG seems really easy.
I do have a MIG welder. It's a 220V Miller Sidekick XL. It's been absolutely trouble free for over 10 years now. Welds up to 1/4" material (you can't do that with a 110V unit).
If I want a pretty weld, I use gas, otherwise the MIG is the usual tool.
