Equal or better tonearm than Jelco for like amount of money

I am not a fan of big "S" shaped arms with removable head shells. Many of them are too massive for some of the more compliant LOMC cartridges
and many MM cartridges. It is easy to add mass but very hard to take it away. So, it is better to er on the light side IMHO. 
The loss of the Jelco is however very unfortunate as they were very decent arms for the price. SOTA use to supply them with their tables. Now they are using Origin Live. I spoke to Donna recently and she lead me to believe that they are working on their own line of arms. Given the recent changes in the market it is a brilliant time to get going.

The Origin Live Alliance is a very decent low priced tonearm that can be adapted to most cartridges. It does not have  a removable head shell. I personally do not like contacts out there anyway. I think Frank Kuzma has the right method with his head shells. 
Tonearms can be very safely purchased used as long as you can evaluate them prior to purchase. If there is no external sign of damage and the bearings are smooth and tight you are in business.
Put the Syrinx PU3 on your wish list. If you can find one in good shape grab it. It is an amazing arm. You would have to spend $4k to beat it and many, more expensive arms can not keep up with it.