Amazon 6" Kindle price now.......$259 with Free Shipping...

Thanks OP, I was going to buy my daughter a Kindle for Christmas and almost pulled the trigger the other day at $299, but thanks to your post I got the Kindle, leather cover & reading light attachment all for $308 this morning. Heck of a good deal, thanks for your post!

You can save a few more $ on the refurb. It's $219 LINK. BTW this is the second price cut in the last 3 months. July's price cut was a response to Sony's new models and lower prices. Today's price cut is obviously because the early adopter market is saturated. I suspect more price cuts are to come in the next few months as competition heats up. At the end of this battle I suspect Adobe EPub will win out as this is becoming the defacto format of most readers and eBook stores. Even Sony is abandoning it's LRF format, and when Sony abandons its proprietary format that's something.

Chupa said:


Sure, and you can buy a dump truck instead of an SUV too. Point is, an eReader is a tool, just as a dump truck and laptop are. But those can be the wrong tool even though they can accomplish the task. If you've ever done a lot of reading on a laptop screen you are aware of the eye strain due to the backlit screen. eReaders use a different technology that isn't backlit and has the feel of a book or newspaper, allowing you to read for hours w/o any eye fatigue. Also, the typical laptop weighs 5lbs and uses energy whenever it's on. If you are on battery power you have about 3 hours. eReaders, OTOH, weigh about .5lbs and only use energy when flipping pages. Again, it's just about using the right tool for the job. If you want to pack up the kids and drive that dump truck down to Florida for vacation you can, but it's not the most efficient, effective, or enjoyable method.

I am sure it is a good price as of today. My trigger point is when it drops below $100. A Kindle falls into one of those categories which I love to have but must wait. I am drowning in toys and gadgets already by reading about too many FW deals already.

For all those who purchased and received the Kindle within 30 days. (received within 30 days)

I purchased the Kindle Sept4th and it arrived Sept 11th. Their return policy is 30 days from the time you receive your order.
I emailed them requesting a credit and they said no.

I called them and told them I am still within the 30 day time period to return the item.
Instead of me returning it, then re-buying it, would you just give me a refund of the difference.
Customer service looked up my order and promptly put the credit on my credit card.

Chupa said: You can save a few more $ on the refurb. It's $219 LINK. BTW this is the second price cut in the last 3 months. July's price cut was a response to Sony's new models and lower prices. Today's price cut is obviously because the early adopter market is saturated. I suspect more price cuts are to come in the next few months as competition heats up. At the end of this battle I suspect Adobe EPub will win out as this is becoming the defacto format of most readers and eBook stores. Even Sony is abandoning it's LRF format, and when Sony abandons its proprietary format that's something.

The Description of the $259 version says Global wireless/Latest generation. The $219 refurb says U.S. Wireless. I'm assuming all that mean is that you can't get wireless overseas with the refurb. That shouldn't matter to me since I rarely leave the country. Is there any other additions to the $259 version other than being new and having global wireless?

It's true that the epub format is winning, at least everywhere but the Amazon store. The take-away for the casual customer on supported formats is this: If you are interested in buying ebooks and want the best selection at the lowest prices, the Kindle is the way to go, as the Amazon store is expansive and consistently $5-10 below the competition pricing for most newer books (~$10 for new releases, and a large selection of books in the public domain). Also, if you do a lot of travel, the Kindle 2 can access Amazon basically anywhere it has 3G coverage (Including covered areas of Europe and the Americas at the very least).

HOWEVER, if you are interested in checking out copy-protected ebooks from the library, which are essentially free, then you might be better off with a device that natively reads the DRM-ed .epub format (the Kindle will not). Most libraries that carry ebooks either support .epub exclusively or at least have a much larger selection than other formats the Kindle can read. You savvy FW'ers can get a membership to, say, the New York City public library system, which has a very large selection for not a lot of coin in membership fees, and enjoy free reading of newer releases (subject to hold and time limitations just like physical copies) on, say, any of the Sony devices.

Is it possible to get the best of both worlds (ability to shop the Amazon store when you want, as well as enjoy the larger selection the .epub format brings you at your public library) with a reasonable amount of work (say, some detective work in Google, install a program or two, and perform a three-step process to put .epubs on a Kindle)? Yes, but not without breaking the copy-protection on the .epubs you check out of the library, which essentially makes them non-time-limited, portable, and convertible to any format you want. But this option is/may be illegal, and at the least violates your agreement with the library, and that is a discussion not for these pages. But it is very possible.