Count me among the 18-200 VR owners. I love the lens--it's actually the only one I have right now. I ended up paying $250 for mine, and it included a B+W UV filter and a Tiffen Polarizing filter. If money is an issue, I suggest looking for big packages on eBay (sold by individuals or authorized sellers, otherwise you'll get grey market) and reselling the items you don't want. I got really lucky when I bought mine, because some seller had just listed it with a D50 body for a really low price, and at the time I had a 10% off paypal coupon and Live.com was offering 25% cashback on eBay purchases. I later sold the D50, and ended up with a really sweet deal on the lens and a couple of nice filters.
If you buy new, I'd look for a better deal than $680. Last I saw on Amazon, it was around $660 with free shipping and no tax to most locations. Check Abes of Maine, too.