ah ha ha.. ayayay...
i dont know about refurbished ipods (but why?), however, a solid state player potentially offers less troubles.
i know creative just came out with a new line of flash-based zen players that accept an SD card expansion-- so you will be able to add greater capacity in the future.
http://www.creative.com/products/mp3/zen/
they should be affordable, and creative is pretty good at sound-- they make sound cards for fuck's sakes.