I have been watching eBay for a Book Reader, since I am overseas. I found an auction for one with a message saying that it would cost $250 for the reader but to contact him off site. Also, there was a strange picture in the auction and it was in the wrong location. I emailed him and got this in return.

Hi, the system is new in box, 1 year warranty, comes with all accesories. My paypal adress is unavailable at this time and i require the payment through western union money transfer. I will ship within 24 hours after the payment is done using the UPS Air Services so you may receive the unit in less then 72 hours.
For our protection we will do this deal trough ebay and our transaction will be supervised by ebay safe harbour team.



The total amount is 250 $ including the shipping and insurance fees.



If you wish to start the transaction i will need the following info :



Ebay Username :
First Name :
Last name :
Address :
City :
State :
Country :
Zip Code :
Email address :



I will contact ebay as soon as i receive the info. In shortly time you will receive an invoice from ebay. You must read carefully the invoice. There you will have all instructions about payment.



Regards

Yep, I fell of the turnip truck yesterday. I know a fun thing to do is to string these guy along but I can't be bothered. I would put a link to the eBay auction but they removed it.

The search continues.

I bought mine from eBay, but at a premium - US$450. That seems to be about the going rate. The guy I bought mine from seemed to be selling lots of them, and was very good to deal with. His eBay ID is "epicnovel". Might be worth seeing if he has any active auctions for them.

Don't forget, there are people on this forum who are willing to buy Readers and ship them overseas. You can search the threads here, or you can try the Flea Market thread (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=124). I don't know how well you can trust the people on eBay--or here, for that matter.

It usually helps to have incriminating photos. :)

I watch eBay more for interest sake; to follow the marking asking price. I am still holding out in hopes of finding a Chinese model (where I live now) that is reasonably priced. I don't want to get a V8 if the V2 will be out soon and the StarEBook seems too proprietary and expensive. I still may get a Sony but I will wait for the price to drop. Now, if Amazon releases theirs for $50... :)

What I find funny about the eBay auctions is that most of the readers for sale are shipping to US only. Now why would an American, who can walk into a Borders store or one of the online dealers, pay a premium for one of these? The eBay market is only useful to foreign buyers who cannot purchase one from Sony, yet most of the ads restrict them from bidding. Makes no sense whatsoever.

Is the Reader widely available in stock in shops in the US? I see that Sony's on-line store is quoting a ship time of several weeks, and I assumed that this was the reason they were selling on eBay for prices higher than retail.

Perhaps they are more available than people think. I found 3 places in town that had them for sale (when Sony was saying 4-6 weeks for online). Two Borders and a CompUSA.

None of them had a display and only one even knew they had them. I picked mine up at the CompUSA but it was a bit of a search. After spending 10 minutes looking around for a display, unit on a stand, sign, map fragment, anything, I asked a clerk (who had never heard of it) who looked it up, agreed that they should have that "Sony book thing" and called a floor manager.

We finally found them in the PDA area case (makes sense), on the bottom, behind the counter. Behind some other Sony items. Managers response? "Guess they got moved there because no one was buying them."

The moral? Ask! And if you have heard that a particular chain carries them (or will carry them) have them check their inventory. Heck, even Sonys site only listed one of the locations as having them so even that is pretty unreliable.

Many people when selling on eBay say US only because there is a market for the goods here and they don't want to deal with the hassle and scams of trying to ship to foreign addresses. Here anyway it is harder to ship out of the country, has variable fees making it harder to quote shipping rates and you have to worry about customs. If you can sell the goods internally for the same price with less hassle, why not say US only?

As for the cost, if you buy the reader here for $350 + tax (say 6% = $21) + international shipping and packing (say $15) + paypal fees (about $16) + ebay fees (about $16), that is around $420 to just break even, so the $450 price is pretty reasonable. $500, not so much.

Compusa.com had these in stock as of yesterday anyway - in fact my partner ordered one from them a few days ago and it shipped next day!

As for the cost, if you buy the reader here for $350 + tax (say 6% = $21) + international shipping and packing (say $15) + paypal fees (about $16) + ebay fees (about $16), that is around $420 to just break even, so the $450 price is pretty reasonable. $500, not so much.

I paid $450 + $35 "priority shipping" to the UK, plus another $130 import duties and VAT when it got here; that's a total of $615. I think it was worth every penny :).

We finally found them in the PDA area case (makes sense), on the bottom, behind the counter. Behind some other Sony items.What? No "Beware of the Leopard" sign? I'm disappointed. :laugh4:

Jeez, I didn't catch the reference and had to google it! Sounds like I need to reread HHG, one of my most favorite books. It was the first book when, while reading it, I would quote passages to my friends. Ahh, good times.

That's probably my favorite line of all time ... except maybe for: "you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means."

:) The Princess Bride :)
"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

Yup, you got it in one. :grin:

I paid $450 + $35 "priority shipping" to the UK, plus another $130 import duties and VAT when it got here; that's a total of $615. I think it was worth every penny :).

:bulb2:

I got mine from BH Photo Video (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/) for $US 350 + the brown soft case for $US 40 and shipping to Australia via UPS Express for $US 49.50.

Total = $439.50 (minus a few cents).

Thankfully, Australia no longer has import duties for low cost items such as these. I love Australia... :D

But don't you have to hold it upside-down to read it in Australia? :p

You can turn it into landscape mode when displaying PDFs, and then lie on your left side.

I also just bought a Reader from BH Photo Video - great service although the UPS fee is a bit steep - I live in Sydney, Australia.

I've had a Librie for a couple of years now and have loved using it from day one. It is awesome to travel with and have taken it on Safari in Africa, up Mt Kilimanjaro, hiking and camping - avoids running out of books to read in the evening, even down the beach in Sydney .It has been one of the best purchases I have ever made.

The reader is slightly smaller than the librie and has more of a quality feel to it. Like the instant on feature whereas with the Librie you have to wait for a reboot each time you turn it on.

Books have never been a problem as you can find them online using tools like MIRC. Hopefully Sony will broaden out their range quickly.

Looking forward to a couple of new features in the firmware update!!!

Hey Sony - hurry up and broaden out your distribution to overseas - especially for English speaking countries - there shouldn't be too much of an overhead.

Heh, I don't think it's the overhead stopping them, they're already pretty international. Best guess around here is not having international book distribution rights. :shrug:

Welcome to MobileRead, praias. :nice: