I recommend buying the Agent18-brand case. It's thick plastic, semi-frosted for a nice visual effect, and has a cutout area for the dock, headphones, and click wheel. Apple sells them at their online store (or possibly at a physical Apple Store--I don't have one around, so I can't check.)
I'm buying a Nano soon, and plan to get the Agent18 case, plus the Invisible Shield. For the amount of money these things cost, a few more bucks invested in long-term protection is not a big deal.
I recently bought a 5th generation 60G video iPod and there's virtually *nothing* out here locally, as far as really good protective cases goes.
I had the thing for 2 weeks by the time I finally located a "kickstand" leather case by Belkin.
At that point, the sleek black face was already getting scuffy even though I took extreme precautions with it and didn't even take it out of the house.
I put the kickstand case on and then had to remove it the other day to get a dog whisker out of it.
Something inside the "protective case" raked a scratch down the length of the iPod that nearly made me cry.
Maybe the stitching or a rough spot where the clear window joins the leather, I don't know....
But, the things are nearly impossible to keep scratch free.
The 4th generation 60G I had before this one was a lot bulkier but also a lot sturdier, both in finish and construction.
Now I wish I'd kept that one instead.
Oh, I forgot to mention that mine's *black* which makes the scratches show up really bad.
I agree, I dont have a problem spending the few extra bucks for protection.
Thanks for your suggestions. :o)
MM