My experience echoes everyone else's. To all appearances, a new cover with a barely detectable scratch on the front. Doubt that this was ever used.
Strangely, it came in a large box with big notices on it that there was a lithium ion battery inside. Don't remember that the reader came with any such notice, and it certainly didn't come in a big box.
Amazon is going to have to work hard to get me to upgrade to a new reader. Can't imagine how they could improve it except maybe make it possible to charge the cover battery independent of the reader, and I certainly wouldn't buy something because of that.
But I've said that I wasn't going to upgrade many times, so never say never.
Jim