Brand new Kobo ereaders for $79.99 a good price?

Grimm · 02-28-2011, 02:13 PM

Is this a good price for brand new in the box Kobo ereader? Just wondering since on the Kobo site the black one is $139.99 still. Thinking about gifting a few out.

jbcohen · 02-28-2011, 02:21 PM

The lowest price that I have been able to find thus far has been $100 from Borders.com.

Grimm · 02-28-2011, 02:28 PM

So it is a good price then? Sweet, I have the opportunity to buy quite a few of them at the $79.99 price.

jbcohen · 02-28-2011, 03:34 PM

If the re-seller is willing to take a dive on a product I'm all for it. Take it but make sure that you have some sort of procedure if something is wrong with the Kobo when it arrives. Also make sure that you do what my pals in the IT industry call exceptance testing: take the first year that you have the Kobo and try to make it fail by 1) leaving it on all night; 2) use every menu option; 3) upload books and remove boosk from the Kobo; 4) Do everything that you can think of in the first year to make the Kobo fail. If it passes then you have a great product and if it fails make use of the warranty that typically extends to one year only.

coinín · 02-28-2011, 06:34 PM

Don't suppose you can share a link to where these are available? I would love to get one for my mom.

Grimm · 02-28-2011, 09:35 PM

Actually it's a local buy. All new in box. Going to take a look at them tomorrow.

John F · 03-01-2011, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grimm

Actually it's a local buy. All new in box. Going to take a look at them tomorrow.

I believe it is at all Borders B&M stores that are closing. It's the clearance/going-out-of-business price.

jbcohen · 03-01-2011, 09:05 AM

If you are correct john F, I would have no qualms about buying one at that price if I was in the market for an electronic reader of which I am not.

John F · 03-01-2011, 09:10 AM

I was browsing in a border's store (that was closing) Saturday. They had a sign that listed all the clearance specials. It said $20 off the sale price of a Kobo reader. It looked like the sale price was $99. So I assumed the price was $79.

bill_mchale · 03-01-2011, 10:22 AM

The only concern I would have would be to make sure that these are the wireless Kobo readers. Not that the original ones are not good readers, but I would guess that they are not quite as good a deal at $80... particularly if you are planning on buying multiple ones. Also, they may not be supported as long as the latest version of the Kobo is.

4Foot · 03-01-2011, 11:10 AM

I can't of course speak for Georgia but here in Ontario, Best Buy put a load of Kobo Readers on sale but they were all refurbished. I think the price may have been $49 but could have easily been $79, my memory is not so good. These were not WiFi units.

cutterjohn42 · 03-02-2011, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

The only concern I would have would be to make sure that these are the wireless Kobo readers. Not that the original ones are not good readers, but I would guess that they are not quite as good a deal at $80... particularly if you are planning on buying multiple ones. Also, they may not be supported as long as the latest version of the Kobo is.

I bought my wifi at a borders a couple of weeks ago, and it seemed to me that all they had were the Sony 350(IIRC) and the Kobo wifi which they had displayed on a (ROFLMAO) folding table(this is in a store not on the to be axed list yet!). Further they ONLY had the black wifis(not likely to be getting any more stock ATM either I suspect), which was fine by me as bright colors are irritating in brightly lit situations. (It's even worse with Sony who insists on sticking as much of that junky chromish looking plastic on their products as much as possible, not so bad on their readers but it was horrific on their clies.)

Too bad that I'm past 14d or I'd be tempted to return #1 and go to another local store on the to-be-axed-list for a $79 wifi... actually as the casing of the kobo is so cheap(low build quality, not to mention all the basic reader features missing in the fw, borked USB xfers, etc.), they should've been at $99 to begin with. (My case started to pop apart upper right hand corner(side) near the SD slot... only reason for it to happen that I can think of is from when I put the SD card back in after sideloading some content since USB xfers seem to be borked for me... case popped back together easily, but yeesh... good thing the wifi is serving primarily as a backup for my PRS-505...)

Not bad though for $79, esp IF they get their act together and cough a good fw update with at least bug fixes AND SOME of the missing reader functionality, e.g. GOTO PAGE #, BOOKMARKS(?!), some sane sorting options, "I'm Reading" management, etc.

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02-28-2011, 02:13 PM	#1
Grimm DRM killer Posts: 471 Karma: 793120 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Just northeast of Atlanta, GA Device: ASUS Transformer Prime (Sold: Nook, Kindle 3, Nook Color, Nook STR)	Brand new Kobo ereaders for $79.99 a good price? Is this a good price for brand new in the box Kobo ereader? Just wondering since on the Kobo site the black one is $139.99 still. Thinking about gifting a few out.

02-28-2011, 02:21 PM	#2
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,029 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Where am I? Device: Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition and a Samsung S24 Ultra	The lowest price that I have been able to find thus far has been $100 from Borders.com.

02-28-2011, 02:28 PM	#3
Grimm DRM killer Posts: 471 Karma: 793120 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Just northeast of Atlanta, GA Device: ASUS Transformer Prime (Sold: Nook, Kindle 3, Nook Color, Nook STR)	So it is a good price then? Sweet, I have the opportunity to buy quite a few of them at the $79.99 price.

02-28-2011, 03:34 PM	#4
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,029 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Where am I? Device: Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition and a Samsung S24 Ultra	If the re-seller is willing to take a dive on a product I'm all for it. Take it but make sure that you have some sort of procedure if something is wrong with the Kobo when it arrives. Also make sure that you do what my pals in the IT industry call exceptance testing: take the first year that you have the Kobo and try to make it fail by 1) leaving it on all night; 2) use every menu option; 3) upload books and remove boosk from the Kobo; 4) Do everything that you can think of in the first year to make the Kobo fail. If it passes then you have a great product and if it fails make use of the warranty that typically extends to one year only.

02-28-2011, 06:34 PM	#5
coinín dust bunny Posts: 158 Karma: 512427 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo WiFi, Sony PRS-650, BlackBerry PlayBook	Don't suppose you can share a link to where these are available? I would love to get one for my mom.

02-28-2011, 09:35 PM	#6
Grimm DRM killer Posts: 471 Karma: 793120 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Just northeast of Atlanta, GA Device: ASUS Transformer Prime (Sold: Nook, Kindle 3, Nook Color, Nook STR)	Actually it's a local buy. All new in box. Going to take a look at them tomorrow.

03-01-2011, 09:05 AM	#8
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,029 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Where am I? Device: Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition and a Samsung S24 Ultra	If you are correct john F, I would have no qualms about buying one at that price if I was in the market for an electronic reader of which I am not.

03-01-2011, 09:10 AM	#9
John F Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,849 Karma: 70000001 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kobo Clara 2E	I was browsing in a border's store (that was closing) Saturday. They had a sign that listed all the clearance specials. It said $20 off the sale price of a Kobo reader. It looked like the sale price was $99. So I assumed the price was $79.

03-01-2011, 10:22 AM	#10
bill_mchale Wizard Posts: 1,451 Karma: 1550000 Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Maryland, USA Device: Nook Simple Touch, HPC Evo 4G LTE	The only concern I would have would be to make sure that these are the wireless Kobo readers. Not that the original ones are not good readers, but I would guess that they are not quite as good a deal at $80... particularly if you are planning on buying multiple ones. Also, they may not be supported as long as the latest version of the Kobo is.

03-01-2011, 11:10 AM	#11
4Foot Member Posts: 18 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Unionville, Ontario, Canada Device: Kobo	I can't of course speak for Georgia but here in Ontario, Best Buy put a load of Kobo Readers on sale but they were all refurbished. I think the price may have been $49 but could have easily been $79, my memory is not so good. These were not WiFi units.