Refurbished Apple items can be bought only via the on-line Apple Store. And
it may not be possible to even get a computer without Lion on it by this date. Probably depends on when the refurbishing was completed. And these machines don't sit around too long. I think you can determine the details by clicking on any offering.
An aside: I was given a new iMac with more than I would have asked for, including the Magic Mouse. But you can't look a 'gift horse' in the mouth! Especially if it's one of your children!!
So I was forced to use Lion. But I have not had any problems with the OS, itself. But there are differences:
scrolling is reversed, strangely, it seems more natural to me now!
Some apps needed to be upgraded: Since I didn't get Lion until several months after it was released, I have had no trouble getting replacement apps that work with it.
There are differences in the Saving of new or changed files: More and more apps are adopting Apple's Auto Saving function, now I see the "Don't you want to save your changes" dialog more often because I expect them to be saved automagically!
Launch Bar is more robust: I never use it, so what?
Spaces usage has changed: I never used that before, So what!
More apps can be used full-screen: Never understood why I'd want to do that, so I still don't (except for PS Elements, but that's how it's always worked.
) There must be some other things I've already forgotten about. But I can't remember anything that I used to do that I can't. Oh yeah, there is one BIGGY!
The Finder icons are now shades of grey, no more color! 
But there actually is a freeware app that can change those back! As a matter of fact, there are dozens of freeware stuff that converts many of the new Lion behaviors back to Snow Leopard ways.One thing I just helped an elderly friend with that is so much easier in Lion: You can now resize any window by clicking any side! No more aiming at the tiny lower-right-hand corner target (which he had hidden because he dragged the window so far down! :laughhard:My biggest problem now is remembering how to scroll on my wife's MBP when I use it.There are many worse things than be forced to use Lion, namely, be forced to use Windows!
Dear Poster Child-Massive thanks for all of this great information. I am now seriously reconsidering my fleeting feelings of never purchasing a MAC again. I will definitely look into the refurbished units, and also I feel alot better about the Lion system too after reading your post. Major league gratitude-Sincerely-Marilynhttp://www.techsurvivors.net/forums/style_images/pingy/folder_editor_images/rte-emo-button.png
