I usually only buy refurbished stuff. And then I usually only buy from smalldog.com. The deals come and go every month or two. smalldog will get in a small shipment of refurbed goods and they sell them for a good price, then they are gone and the dry spell returns... The trick is to not follow the sheep. Like looking for a used machine off of Powerbookcentral.com's classifieds or, heaven forbid, eBay. Don't get me wrong. eBay is great for many items. However, it is often the case that people overbid. Especially on Apple laptops. P