Noob to this forum. Looking to buy Android tablet soon

Don't own any Android devices yet, so this is really a new venture for me. I'm tech literate but have always had Win or Mac devices (desktops, laptops, netbooks) and unfortunately a Blackberry for work.
I really want to get into the Android market and want to start with a tablet. Looking for something fairly cheap I can use for general use and can still let my kids play with.

Any suggestions?

I would recommend an Android 2.2 device. Currently there are some alternatives from shanzai players and Archos is releasing a few interesting devices. For the US it is still in pre-order phase (you can find more info on the archos tablets here, there is a thread dedicated to it). As for the shanzai tablets, running Android 2.2 are about 3 devices (maybe more...but most are just re-branded versions of another). The Wits A81E has been out for a while but as far as I know the video performance isn't that good. Other tablets have been released int he past week and more will come in the near feature. There is 10" tablet with a capacitive multi-touch screen and 512 RAM. It can be bough from Merimobiles (or maybe even other websites...don't know exactly witch other websites have it in stock). You can find some more info about this tablets (and some other with Android 2.1 or older) at the link in my signature. The Buy Now links from that page are with my affiliate ID. If my info helped you and you decide to buy a tablet from the ones there I would be graceful if you use those links.

Thanks for the detailed reply. I have been doing a lot of research and was waiting for some of the newer devices to come out after Black Friday, but there was not really much. Now it looks like I'll be waiting until after Christmas for something good to come out. I'd really like to have something to take on vacation to play and surf with.

Any suggestions now that more devices have come out? I'd prefer responses from users that actually have used a device, not just trying to sell one.

I got the Pandigital Novel from Kohl's a month ago. I played around with it for a week or 2 but decided it was too slow and didn't like the 4:3 screen and returned it.