I've seen links to that 'free' iPod pyramid scheme around a few sites I visit, so let me just state for the record that I'd rather spend the $250 than bug my friends to sign up for crap.

What I don't understand about the whole deal is this: is eBay or whoever the other companies that you signup for really paying this company over $40 for each sign-up? (The way I understand it, you + 5 people sign up and then they send you the $250 iPod, therefore $42.50 per signup + I assume the pyramid scammers also take a cut, so it must be even more than that.) That seems like an incredibly bad use of eBay's promotion/marketing funds.

Speaking of new iPods, there's a tax-free holiday coming up and the university for which I work has a number of the new ones in stock at educational discounts, and mine's an original 5-gigger that's busting-at-the-seams full. It's a tempting deal.