Cheap student flute?

Orogogus

My landlord's daughter is starting the flute this year in school (5th grade), and I was asked to help find an inexpensive student's starting flute for her.

1. What should be the target price range? I somewhat doubt that she is going to be heavily devoted to it. The local music store's website is advertising a year's rental for $195, or buying it outright for $495. Is this about the normal rate?

2. Suggested brands?

3. Suggested vendors? I'm reluctant to buy an instrument off of eBay or Craigslist.

Any general advice is welcome, too.

Thylacine

Look at pawn shops.

Also think I've seen flutes at Hastings for around $100 or so. I played the flute in middleschool and quickly became sick of it and wanted to play something else...but couldn't because my family bought me a flute and didn't want to buy something else.

I personally suggest buying a low end flute, letting her try that out for a year and if she really does like it her family can invest in a more expensive one, perhaps for a birthday or Christmas present.

Thylacine

http://www.markshep.com/flute/Finding.html

I also just found this, which looks quite useful. With a beginner student a name brand flute isn't going to sound much different....much of the price difference is in the durability of the instrument, which I think a cheaper one is worth getting for the ability to try it out.

supabeast

Get something cheap and used. Flutes get damaged easily—every time they get bumped or dropped they need repairs or tweaks. My mom spent way more repairing a flute my sister and I used than she did buying it.

Trentus

(I'm not a flautist, so I don't have a great idea about price or manufacturers. The ones I did mention do make some very good student level instruments though, and I would expect the quality of their flutes to be just as high)

I'd say just rent it for now (her music teacher should be able to give you a list of reasonable places to rent or buy from. Some places might throw in a cheap (and very flimsy) music stand too). If she decides she doesn't want to continue next year, or quits early, then you don't have to worry about getting rid of a flute. If at the end of the year she decides it's something she might like to continue with for a little while, then maybe fork out a couple of hundred dollars and get her a nice student level Yamaha (second hand is fine), or if Jupiter make flutes, then one of those probably wouldn't be too bad either.