I'm in the (very exciting) market for a Macbook! Is it worth it to buy used?

I’ve been having a few problems with the laptop I have now. I’ve had it for 3 years and it was cheap, it’s an ASUS and recently the CD drive has stopped working. This is a problem for me because I use the CD drive quite frequently for various tasks. Also the battery life on it now is barely an hour. Anyhow, let’s just move along to the fact that I want a Macbook. Just the regular one, not the Pro or the Air. So, those are a thousand bucks, which is kind of a lot for me right now. But I’ve been looking at them used and you can get them for around 500 dollars, with like a 60 day warranty or so.

So, is it worth it to buy a used one? My gut tells me yes, why wouldn’t it be? But I’m not a computer wiz. I’m pretty computer-literate, but I’m not super techy. Or should I just shell out the extra cash and get a brand new one with a longer warranty or whatever? Any input on this would be greatly appreciated, and if you have any other tips on Mac buying I’d be happy to hear those too!