How much money do you want to spend?

You can buy something with the same or more space on it for a fraction of the cost of an iPod. There are some things that iPods can do that 'regular' MP3 players can't, though so I think it depends on what you want to use it for.
I should say I don't have an iPod, I just have a tiny black regular MP3 player that I love to bits, so maybe I'm a bit biased.