Office Depot 6" Kindle WiFi with Special Offers $19.98 YMMV

jleh said:   azs1 said:   Well, close, but no cigar. The Kindle showed as in-stock, but after much searching in the backroom, they determined that the listed one was actually the display model (which doesn't actually work like a "real" one).

I had a similar experience too. When I got to the store, only the newer Kindle tablets were on display. I asked if there were any older eInk ones available, and they checked in the back room. They came back with only the older Kindle Keyboard 3G for $107 and the Kindle Keyboard for $87, which I passed on.

I mentioned that their website indicated that they had one of the Kindle 4s available, but was told this was the display model. I asked if I could buy the display model, but was told that it couldn't be sold, and had to be sent back to the manufacturer.

Fair enough -- but what was suspicious (?) though, is that when I checked the store inventory website after I got home, that store went from "1 In Stock" to OOS.

I don't necessarily think there was anything nefarious about the checker turning to OOS. I think that the display models were just entered as inventory when they shouldn't have been. They can't be sold because they are not fully functional.

Edited to add: Stopped in another HD this evening that appeared to have one in stock according to the online checker, but when they checked into it, was told that it was the floor model (which they can't sell).

I am now officially giving up...lol

jleh said:   azs1 said:   Well, close, but no cigar. The Kindle showed as in-stock, but after much searching in the backroom, they determined that the listed one was actually the display model (which doesn't actually work like a "real" one).

I had a similar experience too. When I got to the store, only the newer Kindle tablets were on display. I asked if there were any older eInk ones available, and they checked in the back room. They came back with only the older Kindle Keyboard 3G for $107 and the Kindle Keyboard for $87, which I passed on.

I mentioned that their website indicated that they had one of the Kindle 4s available, but was told this was the display model. I asked if I could buy the display model, but was told that it couldn't be sold, and had to be sent back to the manufacturer.

Fair enough -- but what was suspicious (?) though, is that when I checked the store inventory website after I got home, that store went from "1 In Stock" to OOS.

Do you know the SKUs of the Kindle Keyboard and 3G version? I am definitely interested.

JIWC said:   Do you know the SKUs of the Kindle Keyboard and 3G version? I am definitely interested.

Unfortunately I do not, as they were not on display, and they took them back into the back room when I declined. They currently don't show up on the OD website either, but I did some quick Googling around and found possibly these:

622426 - Kindle Keyboard 3G
622453 - Kindle Wi-Fi Reader Graphite

If those are indeed accurate, and you do find and purchase them, do kindly share what the latest clearance pricing on those units are.

Toddler said:   Isn't is possible that after searching unsuccessfully for the item and determining their inventory was wrong, they simply corrected their inventory in the system? Sorry if that kills the conspiracy theory.

That's certainly a possibility, so maybe "suspicious" was too strong a word (hence the "(?)" suffix). However, I didn't get a chance to share the specific SKU with them, and they weren't interested in looking it up in the computer when I offered to give them the SKU, so they would have had to look at all their eInk Kindles available, and then update the inventory accordingly.

In any case, I accept the YMMV nature of these clearance deals -- you win some, you lose some. On the flip side, I've been pleasantly surprised at Staple_s before, where when I couldn't locate a particular clearance item and an associate had to get it from the back, he still gave it to me even though he looked very much interested in the item for himself.