As someone who started 40 days ago and has amassed a nice amount of gear and wealth, I would say just level up and buy what you need. It's the unfortunate design of EQ that you can't really go and get your own decent low level gear most of the time, with a few small exceptions perhaps. Check out this guide on the wiki, it is pretty helpful in listing places you can make decent plat while leveling up:
http://wiki.project1999.com/Treasure_Hunting_Guide