Hi,
Buy it cheap or don't buy it. Don't be afraid to offer a hundred bucks! The seller may just want it out of the garage.
My friend Darin Hill of Hill's Cue has bought many old school lathes over the years and has rebuild and revitalized them to look and run like new. He is a expert machinist and mechanic and I have seen the 100s of hours he has toiled over the years in sweat equity to make them pristine.
If you are looking for advise now and don't have any experience this could be a very demanding task to take on. Grinding bed ways, installing new bearings, chuck problems and many other jobs can need to be done to make that thing accurate and repeatable,
That lathe is good for tips and ferrules or making ring billets or cut offs if you attach live tooling to the tool post and install and indexer. You could also drill and tap shafts and cut the step for the joint collar and rings.
New China Lathes are not expensive and are more than accurate for cue making.
Good Luck
Rick G