[cutterjohn42]

Yeah, best way to get one is have them drop by a Fry's as they had them for c. $250 the other day when I looked, unfortunately with no shipping only in-store pickup. (Sucks for me as the closest Fry's is about 250m away, and their web store price and other etailer price is a ripoff v. the Fry's price considering that I could go pickup a Sony PRS-700bc in about 15m for about the same price as the Astak direct price or c. $40 more than the other e-tailer.)

There was an ebay listing last night that I found too that had closer to a decent price, c. $270 + $10 s&h in US. Listing had astak email addresses in the description but I'm not sure if it's Astak selling directly on ebay or not.

Beyond that the Foxit eSlick is still $250 IIRC, which is some sort of netronix. (OpenInkpot says EB100, but the 400MHz ARM tends to make me believe it's their EB600 model. The upcoming EB600 'Cookie' sounds better though(Q2 2009) as it has a touch screen! Although it will probably be listed at some outrageous MSRP, yet they will have a tough time jacking the price too much as the PRS-700 is limiting them, and if they try $350, it's a no-brainer that the Sony is the better buy.)

So, for me I'm either going to break down and get the Sony, or hold out for more reasonable prices on these guys, c. $200 and that's even tough for me to justify for devices w/o lighting and touchscreen... May just end up getting an ebookwise until sanity sets in on MSRPs.