Run away! Run away!
Every person I know who owned a Duke loved the handling but put it on the market almost immediately when the maintenance bills started coming in. As a Beech engineer once said to me after his fourth beer, "You can buy a better airplane than a Beech but you can't pay more for it."
I think the Duke might well have crossed the line into the great airplane category had it not been so slow for the power; the aerodynamics were just wrong (even though it does look fast, it's about 30 knots slower than it should be per an analysis published in the '80s). There are those who said that was done on purpose to keep it slower than the King Air 90, but no one has ever confirmed that rumor.
Can you imagine what it will cost just to inspect the thing and redo or show compliance with the ADs to get it airworthy? If it's been sitting, the engines are probably questionable as well, and those are not cheap engines to overhaul.
Reminds me of too many people who thought they were getting a deal by buying a twin cheaply. So many times it cost more to get it airworthy than it was worth... The optimistic charter operators in the '80s with the Cessna 411s, they guy who bought the old, over-wing exhaust model 310 sight unseen for $40,000 or the guys who see a Duke for only $100,000....
Cheers,
Rick
