Yes, you can find yesteryears highend models at very discounted prices, used even lower.
As mentioned, the Rega is a very good bet.
However, just want to point out, again, that in my opinion you get a lot more performance for your money if you use a computer and get a good standalone dac. Very good dacs doesnt cost much and they will beat cd players costing quite a lot, besides a good standalone dac can be used for other things also, your cable tv tuner for instance. This way you will get the same high quality digital to analog conversion from all your digital sources.