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Sony Reader sold out at TigerDirect.com after $99.99 price earlier today (updated)
July 4, 2007 | 8:15 am
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By David Rothman
Remember I said I’d buy a Sony Reader off eBay if the price got low enough, ideally well below $200?
Well, fate was kinder than I dared to dream. Sony’s E Ink machines went for just $99.99 via TigerDirect earlier today. Alas, as I’m updating this post at 2:14 p.m. Washington, D.C. time, I see that TigerDirect has sold out—after an earlier bump from $99.99 up to around $249 and then $329.99. Perhaps different lots of machines were involved. Or a typo? Or, far more likely, a Fourth of July bargain?
So were there any catches on the deal I got, along with the TeleBlog readers who read this post earlier and acted in time? Perhaps. I didn’t see a “refurb” notice, but, as I wrote, I may have missed something. Also, please note that my Reader came with limited exchange privileges. But supposedly—I don’t know for sure, because this wasn’t on the TigerDirect page—the deal qualified me for $150 of free books.
The bottom line: Now, for a profit, I can sell on eBay, and if I decide to keep the Reader, it’ll be a useful as a demo machine for the LibraryCity.org project. I myself prefer decent LCDs to the current E Ink, but, hey, plenty of people disagree. Meanwhile I suppose I should buy a bright lamp to deal with the issue of, as I see it, insufficient contrast between the text and background.
Obvious question: So we’ll see a new Reader, very soon, with better, more contrasty E Ink? Meanwhile a big thanks to the MobileRead gang for spotting this one. Let’s hope MR folks were right about the $150 in free books.
For sale: My Sony Clie PEG NX60/U for $100 or best offer. For me, the screen is more readable than the Sony’s. Unit includes cradle and 256M memory stick and AC converter, but nothing else, no operating system disk. The metal case has a little notch near a corner, as if someone once took a saw to it (came that way off eBay). Also, keep in mind that, last I knew, you couldn’t use an absolutely up-to-date version of Mobipocket. But, yes, this things should work fine on new books in the Mobi format. Terms: Buyers pays in advance via Pay Pal and pays for shipping. Sold as is.
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Comments:
Too bad the shipping is $76.
And the only method of payment is a wire transfer which costs an additional $25!
To Scandinavia, the shipping is outrageous—but here’s my grand total for a buy from Alexandria, VA:
Total for all Items:
$99.99
Shipping & Handling: $8.49
Sales Tax: $0.00
Grand Total: $108.48
My sympathy about your Sony Reader situation, Marcus, but then, considering the healthcare situation and other stuff over there, maybe in the end life’s a tie.
Thanks,
David
I called the order help line and the rude guy who answered spoke bad english and asked me directly where I’m from and when I said “Finland” he said “you can’t use a credit card with us” and immediately hang up before I could say anything else.
These guys won’t sell me a reader. I live in Canada they won’t take my credit card and were not helpful. They won’t help figure out how to get the money to them. Anyone got any ideas.
i bought that. Thanks!
I just purchased one of these readers myself. I have the old Gemstar GEB1150 and will relay my experiences with the Sony eInk display once I get this bad boy.
At $99 maybe I should buy 2?
I was thinking about it–and by the time I’d made up my mind, they were out.
Darn.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
The $150 worth of ebooks seems to be different. It’s now $50 of ebooks and $100 worth of public domain classics.
As the mobileread guys have speculated, it’s likely that Sony is clearing out their inventory in preparation of their next batch of Vizplex displays. My guess is that Sony will be making an announcement next Monday. NAEB, where are you?
(Personal note: I awoke 9:30 to the sound of David R.’s excited phone message about this deal. I could hardly believe my eyes/ears).
I just recently got my hands on a Sony eBook Reader this weekend at the Border’s bookstore in Flint. I instantly fell in love with the size and over all design of the device. I am bummd that I didn’t take advantage of the $99 deal at TigerDirect, because I definitely couldn’t have afforded the $349 price at the bookstore. Then again, I don’t exactly have $100 just laying around here either.
But, this is some reassuring news, either that the device will come down in price, or that something better is coming along, or a little bit of both.
[...] However, as far as I’m concerned this is still moot. I still haven’t found an e-book reader that meets my standards. The Sony Reader is edging there, but it’s still a couple of generations away. (Incidentally, the 1st generation is was on sale for $99, most likely to clear the warehouses for the 2nd generation.) When it comes to e-readers, I don’t want an all-in-one device like the iphone. I’ve decided I’d rather have a dedicated reader device that does that job well. I want a screen the size of a paper tablet, with no more than double the weight. Needless to say it needs to render text and illustrations crisply. It needs to read the new e-pub format as well as text files and PDF without a lot of hassles with conversion. It needs wifi so I don’t have to physically connect to my desktop to transfer books. That means it needs a file manager. It also needs to support USB so I can attach a thumb drive and transfer books. It needs to have respectable battery life–certainly much better than a laptop. [...]
[...] In both cases, the price vs. functionality equation is not necessarily compelling for most. But the buying rush prompted by a recent deal on the Sony Reader demonstrates the pent-up demand for a low-cost but capable device of this type. Similarly, the huge interest in an expensive but highly functional device like the iPhone indicates that given a powerful feature set and outstanding usability (mixed with a good dash of marketing élan), a high price tag would not necessarily be a deterrent for a device of this type. [...]