Heh, see what I did there with the title? Witty ain't I?

Okay, I've been doing a little research on the net, reading up on the WACOM tablets you lot are all going on about.
After visiting the official webpage and watching all those little demo's on the college broadband, I've come to the conclusion that I wan't one. A Tablet I mean, yeah sure I want the broadband, but not gonna get it just yet.
I want one of those really nifty pens too, but here's the big question.
Which one should I get? I was looking at those Intuos2's but like most corporate webpages, they didn't really give me any prices to go by. Remember i'm still a lowly student, so i can't spend that much, yet I'm not gonna go buy the cheapest thing out there.
I want something with both reliability AND affordability.

So, any reccomendations?

Steal one!! Bwahuhaahuaahauahah!!

If you go to the store section of the Wacom site they have prices.

I got an Aiptek and am rather sad about it. :(

Maybe E-Bay will help you, I got mine there and I am happy with it

I currently have a Graphire2, the baby one.

Im fairly happy with it.

graphires are about 100 bucks canadian and the intuous are around 300-500

Originally posted by Digital Jackass
graphires are about 100 bucks canadian and the intuous are around 300-500

Unless you get the X-tra large ones then about $700 for the 9x12, $800 for the 12x12, and over $1000 for 12x18.

:)

eek, i dont earn that much in a month anymore :(

I used to, but alas going where your heart tells you to go makes you poor :|

All you need is the affordable Graphire 2. I bought one two years ago and haven't put it down since.

they make a 6x8 Graphire for US$100 which i think is a good deal. also (at least in the USA) Wacom offers excellent discounts to employees of stores that sell its products, i can only assume they would do the same in the UK - go make a friend at your local mega electronics retailer and get one cheap. I got an A4 Intuos 2 for around $260 that way (instead of full retail of around $450)

I honestly dont know what I would do without my tablet. I dont use it much at work, most of the stuff is page layout and html, etc but form my paintings and such....

my recommendation would be to put aside a little extra cash, and then purchase a better tablet rather than scrounge what you can just to have one. about a year ago i purchased an intuos2 6x8 usb for about $330USD which included 2nd day shipping via fedex. i felt that i got a pretty deal and have been overly pleased with the tablet since i have had it.

i did a little research online, and ended up avoiding ebay. if you do go with ebay, i would recommend reading the sellers return policy & warranty information. for such an item, i wanted to have the ability to return it for a refund should the need have come up. at the time i had money in hand to buy one, i did not find a good price AND seller that i felt comfortable with buying from. so, i looked elsewhere...

» pricegrabber (http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=53/topcat_search=1/form_keyword=wacom+intuos2/mode=googlecp/ut=18f09845bdfda252) - this was a great tool to see who was selling the tablets, for how much, and for any other special deals that came along with it.
» c|net shopper (http://google-cnet.com.com/4007-5_9-0.html?qt=wacom+intuos2&part=google-cnet&subj=wacom_intuos2&tag=cnetshopper) - another price comparison engine
» academic superstore (http://www.academicsuperstore.com/q/tname/f/item-index/v/Intuos2/index.html?sourcecode=lcg&promocode=0D6J02XX) (certain purchases have free shipping)
» zdnet (http://google-zdnet.com.com/4007-5_15-0.html?qt=wacom+intuos2&part=google-zdnet&subj=wacom_intuos2&tag=zdnetshopper) - another price comparison engine

personally, i would not recommend another brand than wacom. there are others who have had other brands without troubles, but rarely have i heard of someone who bought a wacom and had nothing but troubles with it.