Several issues:
-credit card info is out at at smaller retailers having no incetive to protect data/ gets compromised (like monocable.com and geeks.com)
-ebay retailers is a good alternate but only there since PP is better secured.
- you have valid points no doubt, not smahing your game here...
i am not sure if it goes here but....i saw this and wanted to put this out:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=2570726&sku=M17-4168&cm_sp=Footer-_-Spot%2004-_-Networking_M17-4168
i found this when i was looking for replacement laptops for work. so no...