Am seriously considering buying an ibook through mail order.
I will ask my brother to order it for me. He lives in LA. Would
like to get your recommendation from where to order.

would like to buy the ibook 500 with the combo drive dvd/cdrw.
i would like a higher hard disk at 40GB.

would also appreciate how much this thing would cost me.

thanks!

What to look for:  It sounds like you want a site that does custom order machines.  I know there are a couple sites out there that let you pick from any hardware that you could configure at the Apple store, and for the same price.  Look for low or no shipping costs, and stores out of state so that you don’t have to pay tax.  (Yes technically you ARE supposed to claim purchases above $500 or so that you bought from a different state on your taxes, but c’mon!  Who is ever going to find out )

It’s much a matter of choice, however as a rule the three “Big Boys” for mail order I use are
Smalldog.com
Macmall.com
Macwarehouse.com

All three have been around for years, offer tech support, and as a rule know their stuff.

My first choice would be Small Dog

Good luck!

Thanks guys!