For a basic bitch beginner home lab, finding something like an i5-i7 laptop/optiplex on craigslist/fb market is more than good enough, right? My initial uses are basically thinking to be a plex server, NAS, and maybe a VM to run a pihole or something.
For a starting homelab, I would look into Optiplex. Would be more powerful than a laptop (most likely). As mentioned, i5 or it or higher.