I started off where you are. Before you decide what to do with this smoker, review what you want to do with it.
Where do you live? Florida, which means no below zero temperature winter smoking, but, how low do winter temperatures go where you live? Outside air temperature and wind plays a huge role in using a COS. Lower temperature smoking in a COS is a very inefficient and expensive activity, might be better to spend that cash on nicer meat instead of fuel.
Is spare time something you have little of? If yes, store the COS to play with later when your lifestyle changes or pass it along. It's all well and good to say if you learn to cook on this you can cook on anything, I agree with it….. but, if you are regularly pressed for time you will rarely use that COS and that will stand in the way of you learning to cook on it. Don't forget the learning curve will cost several hundreds of dollars in meat and charcoal, maybe more.
Do you want to smoke large pieces of meat eventually? It's takes a considerable amount more time to do that on a COS.
I bought a second hand Charbroil COS for $50 and it was a waste of money for me. I live in Ontario, Canada, and cook through the winter so it was a terrible choice of smoker for me. Subzero winter smoking must always factor into smoker choice if that's your geographic reality.
I have limited time to play with my smoker while it's cooking. I have a kamado now and smoke meat anywhere from weekly to biweekly, but sometimes more often. If I was still using the COS, I wonder if I would use it twice a year, just don't have that much time to blow off these days. If I was still using that COS I would hardly know how to BBQ, but because I bought a kamado, I have a lot of experience making and eating BBQ. A busy person needs a simpler cooker.
I like to smoke whole pork legs and whole pork shoulders. My COS could do ribs, chicken and fatties within half a day from start to finish. I can't imagine how long I'd have to babysit a whole pig leg. :shock: They take 14 hours in my kamado at 250'F, would take a lot longer in a COS. I would never have learned to smoke a pig leg in my COS, yet smoking whole pig legs has become one of my greatest joys in life. Don't let the smoker you decide to invest in separate you from life's special joy.
I got a super heavy-duty charcoal basket welded for my COS at the cost of about $70. Bad move, the basket is worth more than the smoker and now that I've dumped the smoker I have an expensive basket sitting in the barn doing nothing. I made a cardboard mock up so was able to work out a beautiful design to go in and out of an offset firebox with one handle. I'll never get the money back I paid and I used it about three times. You absolutely need a basket for a COS, make it cheap yourself, don't throw away money getting a good one made. The basket is for charcoal efficiency and will give you about 20 - 30 minutes of time for yourself in between chimneys of lit coal. Without the basket I had to light chimneys back to back to keep it going at temp. I tried the baffle in about three different positions but never found its sweet spot. Charcoal efficiency is an aspect of smoking that is seldom discussed and over years the fuel will be a larger investment than the smoker itself. Don't forget this. A UDS is one of the most efficient charcoal burners around. Cheap vertical smokers will always be more charcoal efficient than cheap offsets. Trading your COS for a Weber kettle or other and making it into a UDS is one of the best ideas I've seen, sure wish I'd heard/taken that advice when I was in your position. I spent about 4 times more on charcoal to smoke in my COS than I do now in my kamado. If you plan to smoke meat once or twice a week the charcoal inefficiencies will add up fast.
