The act of playing a record degrades it because its a physical action of a very hard needle tip (Usually diamond) rubbing against a polymer channel. The degradation with new, cheap turntables is when they're balanced poorly, where they press hard into a record. If you buy a turntable with a counterbalance thats properly balanced you'll minimize the wear over time.

I prefer buying vintage (Think 70's and 80's Japanese, not 50's jukebox), but as long as you buy a turntable with the few features it absolutely needs and a new and decent cartridge (think Shure, Ortofon, Grado, etc).

If you dont want to think about it and just want product to buy, U-Turn Orbits were a pretty good deal last time I paid attention.