[roebeet]

For my portable electronics I attempt to buy used, whenever possible. My reasoning is that the device basically loses value as soon as you open it up and, in the case of portable devices, it will get some scratches from almost day one. The one negative is the lack of a warranty, but it's a calculated risk.

In the case of an e-reader, I decided on a SONY PRS-300 because it does all the basic stuff I need, alternative firmware is in development to add things to make it even better, it fits in my pocket (a personal requirement which eliminated 6 inch readers like the Nook/Kobo), and it's old enough that finding one cheap on eBay was not too difficult.

I basically use it for EPUB books, at least for now. I haven't dealt with PDF's or anything else with heavy graphics, so I can't really comment on that yet.

EDIT: You got me curious on CBR's, so I did a convert via Calibre (CBR input, PDF output and then pushed to my PRS-300). 16MB size for one comic book which isn't too bad, and the SONY actually renders it fairly well. Two issues to keep in mind, however:

1: only ~400MB free internal memory on the device, so you won't be able to keep too many comics on the device at one time.
2: The PRS-300 (SONY Pocket Reader) is a 5 inch screen and you might find it a bit too small to read a comic, comfortably. A 6 inch reader might be a better fit, for something like this.