With either style of vehicle, I'm planning on buying used. Although if I go with the TC route, I will probably buy a new truck and a used TC. Lightly used trucks seem to cost about the same if not more than a new truck. and cheaper trucks all have 100K+ miles (don't really want to start with a truck with that many miles).
This is probably going to sound stupid, but budget isn't my main concern. I obviously don't want to spend money unnecessarily, but I'm willing to spend a little more over a longer period of time if I find something that I think will be a better fit. Most of the TC and class C's that I've looked at have been on the east coast, since that's relatively easy for me to get to to see. The first TC I went to look at was a 2002ish Lance for $7K, and I also looked at the new lance 1172 for $50K, and some class C's in between there.