I would check out the mics from Blue, especially the yetis, if they aren’t too bulky for placement for you:

http://www.bluemic.com/yeti/

You can pick up a M-Audio usb mic with little stand and pro tools recording software from ebay for about that. Its a large condenser microphone that should record harp well. Very good value.

I’ve not used the mic but I use M Audio preamps in my studio which are excellent and have only heard good things.

Yes thats the one. I’ve not tried it with Skype, but its a microphone, it should work with any program that requires a microphone. For some reason they always say “manufacturer refurbished” on the advertisements and yes that is scary, but you get a guarantee like you said. Condenser microphones draw power from the PC (or an internal battery or another source) to work, whereas dynamic microphones (which you are probably more familiar with) don’t require it. They provide in most cases a better frequency response than a dynamic microphone, which means they can give you a clearer, cleaner recording – all other things being equal.

If you get one and it works but you don’t like it, I will buy it from you, I’m sure I can use it here for something, one more microphone never goes astray.