so im looking for a digital camcorder around or under $200.  im not looking for anything fancy. just something to record video. is it worth looking into for under 200?  am i gonna find anything thats not crap?  any suggestions or insight would be appreciated.

To be quite honest, I don't think you'll find anything worth spending money on in that price range. Going back to my days selling them (granted, it was almost 9 months ago), the decent ones start at about $250 or so. You might be able to find a good clearance item, or an open box, but I'd say look at $250+. My recommendations would be a Canon ZR100 ($279.99 from a quick google search), or any of the Panasonic camcorders (The model numbers start with PVGS or GRDX) The PVGS are the lower - middle grade, and the GRDX are usually more expensive because they're smaller. You're other best bet is ebay. If you have any specific questions about specific camcorders, feel free to IM or PM or email me, I'm always happy to help out. If I can get ahold of him, I'll ask one of my friends who still works for my old company what kind of discount I might be able to get you. I think I remember getting my parents a camera + bag + tapes + tripod + extra battery for like $300.. so we'll see if I can find something like that...

if you are interested, I have a minidv JVC for $100

why so cheap? two reasons: i'm out of work  and the camera has an issue every once in a while (never dropped, so I assume its an internal defect), where it pretends it's tired or something and refuses to turn on, but I only need to tap it once very slightly on the side and it works then. this doesn't happen often.
uses minidv tapes, quality is great, it's small enough, grey metallic color, etc etc.

if you are interested, i can post some pics of the cam and even sample video taken with it.