You're liking the big boy, BIG SCALE stuff eh? Bigger scale = bigger price tag most of the time. I will have to admit I do love the way 1/8 truggies handle rough stuff. It's like driving an old Cadillac with wide arms and big tires. I'd tell ya to look at a Yeti XL or Ofna's Hyper MT Sport, but I forgot your plans were to keep the price tag under? I'm having issues with parts that came in my normal sized Axial Yeti kit ...more on that later in another thread.... when I get the right parts to finish my build.
More than likely you will have to purchase a used larger scale RC if you want to keep it within a lower budget. Like in your first post Wasney, you said you liked what you thought was 1/8 scale, but in actuality was 1/10 scale Traxxas. Maybe take a step back and reconsider 1/10 scale trucks to buy something new rather than play the "I wonder why the dude's selling that thing" game.
Believe me, I know what it's like to toss and turn at night thinking about all the cool stuff out there nowadays. Do some searching on anything you are thinking about purchasing. Look at reviews; video reviews, or threads with reviews in them. It took me over six months to finally pull the trigger on my new ride. Let me tell you. I don't have the money to be buying RCs left and right; I went from thinking one platform was gonna be right for me and ended up getting something that I never thought to much of. I asked myself many times what I wanted my new RC to do. Hopefully soon, I will share my thoughts with my Fathers Day gift to myself.