Re: BOY!! Do I need HELP!!!
It seems like Lulu is pretty up and up and honest about what they are and what they are not. They're basically a self-publish POD offering but without the basic trap (no contracts, no upfront fees, etc.). The unit cost is high, even with the volume discount, but you set your own royalties and they pay you, I believe, quarterly. On top of the print cost they charge you a service charge. So let's say your basic cost per book is $8, and you want $8 royal, the price of your book would be about $18? A little steep for a paperback, but still not too bad.
There are other services if you don't supply your printer-ready covers and ms. You can use their stock covers or design your own. You can let them typeset your ms (follow their ms guidelines) or typeset yourself and give them a PDF.
The ISBN and ISBN PLUS programs sound reasonable. With ISBN PLUS they put your in Ingram or some other distribution databases. And your book is automatically for sale on their website.
I think Lulu is a viable solution. But I think they're still considered vanity since just about anyone can print and sell their books without any quality control. It's good for someone who wants to sell a few hundreds of their book. It's easier than having to completely do it yourself (e.g. printing it at Lightning Source and registering your own ISBN, etc.) So for someone who knows nothing about self-publishing it's a viable solution, but there's probably still going to be a stigma of "vanity."
I've used them to do a mock copy of a book -- it's not for sale to the public... a better choice than Kinkos and CafePress, in my opinion. They're good to make anything from books to pamphlet or manuals, etc. The quality seems decent, actually a notch better than Cafe Press and cheaper, too.