Inexpensive starter system

Used, of course...

Dual 1019 turntable $50-100
Entry level Grado, Stanton or Audio-Technica cartridge $50-75
Hafler or Dynaco preamp $50-150
Hafler or Apt Holman amp $100-150

The good thing is that you will have plenty of room for upgrades. ;)

Still, you will get enough information to actually enjoy the music sort of in a way the artists intended.

if you could stretch to say $750 you could get very, very nice starter system. a brand new rega r1 w/ cart would be ~$395 and a used rega brio integrated (which has a mm phono stage) would be $350ish. that amp only offers 40wpc so speaker match is somewhat impt. arcam also makes some nice integrateds with phono stages that can be had used in teh $300-$500 range (there is actually an alpha 3 listed now for $200 that you may want to check out - that plus the new rega r1/cart would be right at your $600 number). a one box amp saves on hidden costs since you only buy one ic cable (table to integrated) and there is only one power cord to upgrade down the road.

What Wrtickle said. Can't go wrong and it will sound better than 90% of what is out there.

I think it would help if we knew something about what speakers you have, what do you know about setting up a 'table, what kind of music do you intend on listening to, what is your listening room like, etc.

Agreed, basic rega will serve you very well...sometimes that's better than cobbling odds/ends together.