my $rec = '      <td align="center" valign="middle" class="pdad">
           extract this, please!
       </td>
       <td width="2"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="2" height="1" /></TD>
      </tr>
     </table>
    </td>


    <td width="1" bgcolor="#dddddd"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" /></td>


    <td bgcolor="#FFFFF7" align="center" valign="TOP" nowrap>
     <table align="center" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
      <tr>
       <td width="2"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" width="2" height="1" /></TD>
       <td class="pdad">$689,900</td>';

my $tag = '(?:<[^>]*>\s*)';
my $match = qr/$tag(.*?)$tag{17}\$(.*?)<\/td>/;

print "MATCH: $match\n";
if($rec =~ m|$match|is)
{
  print "YAY!!! $1, $2\n";
}
my $match2 = "$tag(.*?)$tag" . '{17}\$(.*?)</td>';
print "MATCH2: $match2\n";
if($rec =~ m|$match2|is)
{
  print "YAY2!!! $1, $2\n";
}


##</code><code>##

MATCH: (?-xism:(?:<[^>]*>\s*)(.*?)(?:<[^>]*>\s*){17}\$(.*?)</td>)
MATCH2: (?:<[^>]*>\s*)(.*?)(?:<[^>]*>\s*){17}\$(.*?)</td>
YAY2!!! extract this, please!
       , 689,900