Comments on: Black Friday: Caveat emptor

By: Dan E. Bloom

Dan E. Bloom — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:50:30 +0000

Chris, you left out those who will be left behind when the Rapture comes:

“It is only a few more days until Black Friday, the day that strikes horror into the hearts of Christmas [and *Hannukah] shoppers everywhere.” [Hannukah begins on Dec. 21 this year, following ancient lunar calendar, as the great sages suggested...]

By: Steve Jordan

Steve Jordan — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:56:26 +0000

Hopefully there won’t be too many people rushing out to buy electronics on Black Friday without having some idea of whether or not they’ll do the job they want. Anyone who goes out blindly buying products like that is innn–saaaaannne! (as they like to say in the bargain biz)

There aren’t any such products to tempt me, fortunately: I still read on my PDA, and I like it that way. And as nice as it might be to support your favorite device maker, I personally think it would be better to encourage the booksellers to sell more e-books for ALL devices, not just a device or two, and see the sales they’ll get that way.

By: karen wester newton

karen wester newton — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:33:35 +0000

It depends. If buying now means you can’t possibly afford to buy something phenomenally better in two years, then wait. The best reason to buy an eReader is because you don’t have enough time to read and you’re hoping an eReader will help with that– and it will if you can carry it with you everywhere. If you spend $260 now, and then want the latest and greatest in two years, you will probably be able to get some of your money back by selling the current eReader on eBay or Craig’s List. And as the above commenter says, there will always be something better along later; don’t let that stop you unless cash is really tight.

By: Kate

Kate — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:14:34 +0000

While I agree that dedicated e-readers are overpriced, I would still encourage people to buy them. This is fairly new technology, which is always more expensive than old tech, but if no one adopts when it’s new, it will never have a chance to become old.

So buy those e-readers, and in a couple of years from now, upgrade.

We’ll all be happier, then.