I'm supposed to get a Miyata 610 frame/fork that has a cantilever brake setup and is in pretty decent condition. I'm giving either $30 for it, or a set of aero brake levers if he wants them. I've got about $200 worth of stuff to put on it. I found some good bargains on shimano parts on ebay, plus I got a few pieces off of some of my parts bikes. The most expensive part was a set of 700c Mavic wheels with shimano xt hubs for $110. That makes it about $230 invested plus time, but it will be ready for touring once I get some racks/panniers and put it all together.
So basically you can build your own nice Miyata for that same price(if you do careful shopping), and it will be built EXACTLY how you want it. If you don't have time/patience for building your own, then that's a different story. It's going to end up taking me over a month to get mine finished, but I won't be going anywhere for a couple months.