pla is shinier, much much much easier to print with and sands pretty easily. You'll probably have to paint and lacquer to get a really shiny finish.

I printed with abs for my first 5 moinths or so, then tried pla and will now only use abs as a last resort.

All printers can use pla - but you need a heated printbed to use abs.

And nylon - hell that's a real bastard to get decent prints from.