One of the eBay Daily Deals, which always come with free shipping and handling is the Refurbished Panasonic Toughbook CF-50 offered for $497 by eBay power-seller "dealdash". The laptop ships from Palo Alto, California.
This is an older laptop however, so if you are looking for the latest bells and whistles, look elsewhere. The main reason for looking at this is because you want to have a laptop in situations where you don't have to worry whether you can drop it or get it wet, or it is too dusty, or someone will spill a drink, and things like that. Having said that, it's not totally indestructible, so be sure to check the Panasonic specifications to see what type of hardship it can take and not break.
Also please note, that the seller offering this on eBay is offering 10% of the final sale price to a fund that supports children of fallen soldiers. A very worthy cause, and a small token of appreciation, this being Memorial Day weekend.
Here are the main specifications of the Panasonic Toughbook CF-50:
* Intel Centrino TM mobile processor (Pentium M 1.7GHz, not dual-core)
* 512mb memory
* 60gb hard disk
* 15-inch display (4:3 aspect ratio, not widescreen, UXGA, 1024x768)
* cd-burner with dvd playback
* touchpad
* ethernet, 56K modem
* definitely no webcam
* floppy disk drive (!)
* weighs almost nine pounds
* MIL-STD-810F
* Windows XP Professional
