I had a Saracen aluminium frame hardtail with V brakes as my second bike (only because the first fell off the car at a very young age and was replaced by the company who made the defective bike carrier). I loved it to death and only moved upward because the trails we were riding were so rough that a hardtail was giving me a painful choice between burning thighs (from never sitting down) or aching kidneys (from the constant rattling). Their full-suss bikes were not great then, very heavy steel things which lost most of their momentum into the suspension; but they did make nice hardtails.

Mine was pretty decent and robust for a cheap bike. I gave it to my mum when I got a new one and she rode it for a while although it was too big for her. She has a full-suss Specialised (that she never rides!) now so they've taken it over to France for their house there and I look forward to riding it a bit when we're there next summer. I did lots of local off-road trails on it with no problem, it was the steeper rockier stuff we started playing on that gave me the problems - and that took a couple of years of riding really.

If you don't need the money it might be fun to play on and see how it goes. Check out the second-hand value first though on ebay - if they don't hold their value well it might be worth selling it as new without riding it. I know Marins hold their value really well, I can't remember how Saracens do.