whats the garmin gps 38 like?

Adam,
The Garmin 38 was a good GPS in its day but has been overtaken by later technology. I still have one and keep it as a spare. It never let me down when I was using it and still works well whenever I turn it on to keep the almanac data current. It only has 8 satellite receive capacity, as opposed to 12 for later sets. This makes it a bit slow for satellite acquisition.

They also ran out of 'time' a few years back and needed a software upgrade, this was easily done by downloading the update from the Garmin website. I should think if it has a data cable and is working, it must have had the upgrade.

Battery use wasn't bad but I also bought the 12v connection so I could use it on the boat and 4WD.

$200? Depends. If you're not too fussed about slow acquisition on start-up, don't plan to use it in forested country and are on a budget it's probably OK, although I'd try to get it down a bit.
Cheers, Cruiser

Adam, I consider the most I would advise anybody to pay for a GPS38 would be $100 max - no more.

Considering you can buy a brand new eTrek with substantially more features that is a current model with two years warranty for $290 here:
http://www.ja-gps.com.au/gpsprod_etrex.html