Sold Out Kindles Going For Up To $1,500 On Ebay

People are really gullible.

Where’s your review Mike - has it already arrived?

wow, can’t wait to hear fave steve’s take on it.

the old “scarcity increases demand” model… works every time

When will people learn what a bandwagon is? Especially when that bandwagon costs $1,500.

I can’t believe that people will spend money to buy this product. Amazon’s idea of selling an ebook reader is great, but the device itself looks like a white version of the Apple Newton.

Speaking of Apple, Amazon should team up with them to launch an 8-1/2 X 11 version of the iPod Touch. Then I will spend $1000 for the device.

Steve??? Jeff??? Where are you?!

How many paper books can you buy for $1500?

You can use something like: http://packageexpress.com/ to forward “US only” packages to any address in the world. And they only charge $3 + cost of shipping! I used them before for getting stuff off of Amazon that only shipped within the US.

How is it that only Apple can close in on these type of robberies? thats what it is, robing, albeit the rich.

Why can’t other manufacturers anticipate demand acuratley for a change.

And I thought $400 was an absolute ripoff. This isn’t a kids toy or anything, I am absolutely baffled by the fact that anyone would go out of their way to buy this thing for themselves or any other adult.

Still don’t see the appeal of this product. Not that I would use it, but when will we be seeing an ebook device for the iphone?

Does anyone see the irony in an Amazon product showing up on eBay? I guess it shows that eBay really still has the edge over Amazon’s marketplace when it comes to attracting the crazy buyers.

Maybe there is more to it? Perhaps Amazon won’t allow it to be listed by 3rd parties. Thats odd considering they could profit on both the retail and after market sale.

Very impressive. Amazon has a new future in the electronics business. Watch out Apple, Sony.

I would wait for the color version

Don’t quit your day job Mikey! Looks like your assessment blasting the device was not reflective of most consumers!

That’s easy; I don’t want one!

Hey, if you paid me $1,500 I’d take one. What? Oh, never mind.

Wow.. Who would have thought I’d find a good quality post on skin cancer prevention just when I needed it!

Guys. Just because several tech-folks don’t think it’s worth the cost, doesn’t mean normal people aren’t ready to pay for it. Ease of use is more important than hundreds of features and fancy design.

What was the original stock? 100 000 items?

One big difference between Kindle (also Sony Reader) and iphone is the formers are not using LCD, they are using eInk which is more like a printed paper. Plus it has ultra-low power assumption and can last for thousand of pages. Think about how long you can read on a iphone or a itouch even on a letter-size screen?

You’re talking crazy now! I really thought we’d be seeing $300 for the Kindle on eBay. Unbelievable. I guess some people bought the hype. If you ask me, I’d rather spend $400 on an Asus Eee PC. Much more flexible (and cool). I’d be embarrassed to be seen with a Kindle in public.

Ok, even I’m getting sick of the Kindle posts. Let’s talk about Microsoft Bob instead.

I’ll wait.

An electric etch-a-sketch for $1500, what is this world coming to?

Viral marketing 101: Put 10 units for sale. Sell them out. Get news sites to report “OUT OF STOCK DUE TO HEAVY DEMAND!” Get some marketing flacks to post some Kindles on eBay, then get some shill bidders to drive up the price. More gullible sites bite, “Sold Out Kindles Going For Up To $1,500!” Pretty elementary school stuff in this age of da Intienut!

Jeff Bezos could take a lesson form Steve Jobs with marketing and availability. Even $400.00 takes average people out of the running. As much as it hurts upfront, the price should be around $150.00 and a monthly commitment of purchased books etc. Mr. Bezos could set up a point system at Amazon.com where hard books contribute to a straight discount. I would love a Kindle but at $400.00 plus?? there a lot of other cools devices, heck maybe even a couple at the same price.

No thanks… 1500 for an ebook reader?
I prefer to read them on my laptop…

“”I’d be embarrassed to be seen with a Kindle in public.”

It wasn’t made for people who care about such things. It was made for book readers, not shallow tech-geeks.

Are we missing the point? The kindle can be used to wirelessly browse the web from almost anywhere - FOR FREE - versus $80/mo to do it with your phone on a tiny screen. Granted, it’s not a full-fledged browser, but better than nothing… that $80 really hurts!

@C Wallace

The online connection isn’t free. It’s labeled as “experimental”, and if you read the fine print, Amazon retains the right to charge for connectivity at any time. Kindle’s competition isn’t the cellphone, it’s the lowly paperbound book itself.

Actually the cell phone might give Kindle a run for its money - at least for reading prose. The small screen size of the phone absolutely disappears as you read a few pages and get into the story.

You can get a good sense for the possibilities for free (’carrier charges may apply’ at http://www.booksinmyphone.com they have hundreds of classics and some modern stuff all packaged to run on phones. Find some thing you know you will like and give it a try.

@HP. Until they actually start charging for online access, it’s free. Right?

When the Kindle is “bathtub safe” I’ll buy it.

I am extremely interested in the Kindle - although not $1500 worth. $400? Absolutely. So, why is the Kindle something I would definitely buy? Well, it’s because I am not 25 years old — and more to the point, my eyes are not 25 years old. They don’t work well anymore. I need to enlarge the print on my screen to be able to read my email and books are now very difficult for me to deal with. The Kindle will let me enlarge the print in books and I will be able to buy them easily. So, for me — a no-brainer even if the box is clumsy and it’s ugly and more than the Sony. I wouldn’t buy the Sony because of the inter=mediate step of downloading to my computer. This business model works for me and the clunky design is accesptable. So why am I bothering to write this to this forum? Easy. I’m preaching. Here’s the pitch: when you make smart remarks about “everyone” and “nobody” — don’t model those characters entirely on yourself. There are other market segments, other demographics ful of people with desires and desires that are very different from those of the groups you belong to. This means that products that are pointless for you may still be very successful because they fulfill a need for rather different folks. It ain’t all about you.

@Jack: The Kindle is touted as an e-book reader, not as a free (and crippled) web browser. To buy it for “free” web access is a bit daft, especially with the “experimental” status of “free,” and in light of the crippled web browsing. If free/cheap web access is the main concern, the Kindle is not it. It will live or die on its merit as a book reader, not of any ephemeral freebie.

@Elder: The question isn’t whether or not the Kindle has appeal to some people–it obviously does for you. The question, rather, is how many people are attracted enough to fork over the $400 price for it. The Sony reader has also sold in some numbers, but it has had minimal impact in the bookreading market. Given that the Kindle has basically the same screen size & tech as the Sony, plus some ergonomic/aesthetic issues, the easy bet is that it will fare about the same as the Sony’s.

It’s easy enough to know if Amazon has hit the motherlode. If the Kindle sells well, then Amazon will publish its sales numbers soon enough, rather than relying on the inane “sold out due to heavy demand” marketing tripe.

The smells like PR spin. Interesting that you can still ORDER NOW at Amazon.com (Amazon puts that in all caps, after noted in it is “sold out”). If it is sold out, why can I order it?

There are only two scenarios:

1. Amazon has launched a PR reality distortion field to build buzz for a failing product launch, or
2. Amazon spent three years developing a device, launched it a few months before the holidays, put its CEO on the cover of Newsweek bragging that the device was the future … but somehow neglected to build enough Kindles for Christmas. Uh-huh.

Amazon/Kindle fluffers, read this article, key quote excerpted below:

“Killing the Kindle and deflating Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos — now that’s something worthy of Jobs and Apple.”

MacWorld is next month. Soon TechCrunch and the others will start blogging about it (and I’ll look forward to reading it). Go guys.

Kindling
by Robert Cringely
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pu.....03573.html

“Fluffers”? Feeling nostalgic, Chrisco?

@Mark:

Coincidentally, the iPod launched at the EXACT SAME $399 price point.

And in terms of availability, it is very difficult to fault Bezos for underestimating demand. Estimating demand for a 1G CE product amounts to little more than a fancy guessing game.

And as for the conspiracy theorists out there who believe that Amazon under-stocked the product in order to create artificial scarcity, you’re all nuts. That might have been a credible theory had the shortage lasted only a couple of days, only to be relieved by a just-in-time influx on December 1st. But the fact that Amazon will have been unable to take orders for an entire month leading up to Xmas day means that they are leaving millions of dollars on the table while forgoing a large part of their potential installed base.

Jim (#39): Hehe, sometimes the fingers just can’t find the words… and “fluffer” seemed like a fun word to throw in there, especially for fellow poor souls who crack up when they learn what a fluffer is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fluffer

PS: Like your blog.
PPS: Did you read that Cringely article (link posted in #38)?

@chrisco: Mac fetish frenzy? How does a Mac tablet “be a significant addition to a video-viewing ecosystem” and also “be a great e-book reader, too”? Cringely was never quite the same ever since getting dumped from his Infoworld column. Video nowadays means HD (H.264 and VC1), given the likely res of a book-sized tablet–which in turn means a GPU with enough power to work those codecs–which in turn means short battery life. I don’t think “great” is the term when a book reader has a batt life of 2 hrs. Or may be Apple will reinvent the battery too?

@Heelo: “might have been a credible theory had the shortage lasted only a couple of days”

How does that work exactly, a 2-day shortage? “Oh, the warehouse manager swallowed the door keys, and we had to wait for him to poop it out before we can get to the goods”?

People will do anything to make news!

Michael,

Thanks for posting this! I was about to return my Kindle to Amazon for a refund, but I saw this post , listed my Kindle on Ebay and sold it for $835.00.

Thank you!

I’ve never seen such crap elsewhere — obviously written by know-nothings who have never touched or even seen a Kindle. I’ve owned mine since Dec. 4th, and absolutely love it. I’m 81 years old, have always been an avid reader since early childhood, and for the first time I am reading books I had always wanted to even see — but now I own them! And they even thought of us oldsters who need larger type. The price tag of $400 is high for a retired person like me. But I think I got the world’s greatest bargain considering what it does for me, and the money I save on books. And my time. And the lifelong learning I have always subscribed to. Come on creeps — get with it and try something before you sound off against it.

People, I read better on my Sony Ericsson K850i on the free e-book reader known as ‘Wattpad’. It works on any java enabled phone like my brothers Razr V3 is a great example and by the way did I tell you that it’s free!
Not only can you read every piece of great literature ever produce but also upload your own content!
Don’t believe me??? Check out for yourself on http://www.wattpad.com !
There is a catch that you will be charged by your service provider for Data transmission charges(GPRS or EDGE) but it can, however, be overlooked by the fact that you can download complete book on your PC and send it to your mobile. Isn’t it just great??? I’m lovin’ it
It surely beats the shit out of ‘Kindle’!

I’m not at all surprised that people were willing to pay this price, though it generally seems the Kindle appeals more to book-lovers than gadget-lovers–which I think it perfectly fine; an e-reader had better appeal to book-lovers! My mom has been dying for one, which led me to writing about it at http://www.thetechbrief.com/20.....ks-evolve/ . I don’t think she’d ever want to spend more than the actual retail price, though.