As I mentioned before, I just recently started regularly watching the 4 AM (Pacific) syndicated Buffy episodes on FX. I knew they were later episodes, but after missing a couple days, I saw that they were abck to 1997.
The episode right now is "The Witch", episode 3 of season 1. So for people like me, now's a good time to jump in, although I will still buy the DVDs eventually.