Kindle Keyboard reliable? Lot of faulty for sale

[vans]

I searched on eBay a couple of hours ago for a Kindle Keyboard and notice that of the first 10 I looked at filtering by "ending soonest" 7 of them were sold as being faulty.

Of the 7, 4 had cracked screens and the others were frozen.

I guess it was just coincidence, but I also wondered if they had some inherent unreliability or fragility?

[ucfgrad93]

I have had my Kindle Keyboard since June 2011 and haven't had any problems with it.

[Pookeysgirl]

I've had mine since January 2011 and have never had a problem with it...so far. I've dropped it a few times. Hard enough for it to partially come apart. I popped the back piece back in place and no problem afterwards. As long as it's in a good case and you don't sit on it there shouldn't be any issues.

[Mike L]

You can't draw any conclusions from the seven faulty models you saw on eBay. It's quite possible that the very fact that they were faulty was the reason they were being sold. It's not a representative sample.

If there was some "inherent unreliability or fragility", I think we'd all know about it by know - and so would Amazon.

Mike

[DustyDisks]

I have had my k3-3g for two years in two more months. It has been dropped (in case) trampled on by my dog and cats, left out in the boiling texas sun, survived one battery replacement by me, and so far unless "Murphy" does not strike me down because I am bragging about this, my kindle k3 looks and works as good as it did new and out of the box.

[vans]

Originally Posted by Mike L

You can't draw any conclusions from the seven faulty models you saw on eBay. It's quite possible that the very fact that they were faulty was the reason they were being sold. It's not a representative sample.

If there was some "inherent unreliability or fragility", I think we'd all know about it by know - and so would Amazon.

Mike

I don't disagree, I am not trying to make any point I just thought it was a lot.

I must have been bored today because just after I posted my question I then did another ebay search (UK).

Searching by "Kindle Keyboard" produced 197 results but 4 of those were just cases leaving 193

Using "Kindle Keyboard (fault, faulty, spares, repairs, broken, cracked)" produced 37.

I then looked at the low value Keyboards that did not mention any fault in the description and immediately found another 13 being sold as "spares or repairs". I stopped looking at about £9. So the total number that were faulty was 50 which is 26%.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by vans

I searched on eBay a couple of hours ago for a Kindle Keyboard and notice that of the first 10 I looked at filtering by "ending soonest" 7 of them were sold as being faulty.

Of the 7, 4 had cracked screens and the others were frozen.

I guess it was just coincidence, but I also wondered if they had some inherent unreliability or fragility?

Broken screens are not faulty they are broken.

[DustyDisks]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Broken screens are not faulty they are broken.

Yep!
They usually get broken by having something stupid or dumb happen to them. They usually do not just break by themselves.

Edit: Some "accidents" are no fault of the owner!

[vans]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Broken screens are not faulty they are broken.

That is why I wondered if the screen were fragile (more prone to breaking than other Kindles).

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by DustyDisks

Edit: Some "accidents" are no fault of the owner!

In my house, they are generally the fault of the owner's dog.

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by vans

That is why I wondered if the screen were fragile (more prone to breaking than other Kindles).

No more fragile than others, from what I can tell.

[DustyDisks]

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

In my house, they are generally the fault of the owner's dog.

Your dog wouldn't be named "Marley" by chance?



Sorry for the slight kink
in the "Topic".

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by vans

That is why I wondered if the screen were fragile (more prone to breaking than other Kindles).

No, I don't believe so. I've been reading daily on mine since mid-April of 2011.

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by vans

That is why I wondered if the screen were fragile (more prone to breaking than other Kindles).

Yes, they are fragile. They are made of glass, and glass breaks. But I wouldn't think they are any more or less fragile than other e-readers - certainly not enough to be a reason for not buying them.

Your researches into eBay are interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Mike

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by Mike L

Yes, they are fragile. They are made of glass, and glass breaks. But I wouldn't think they are any more or less fragile than other e-readers - certainly not enough to be a reason for not buying them.

I'm pretty sure all eink screens have the same glass substrate, so the K3 isn't any more fragile than any other eink ereader. I would think the DX and other large format screens would be more prone to breakage, as their larger form is easier to "twist."