Auctioneers ask for double Kindle's retail price

Auctioneers at eBay were asking for more than double the retail price of Amazon's Kindle e-Reader on Friday.

A check of eBay at 2:45 p.m. PST showed prices for the e-Book reader went as high as $930. TechCrunch reported that a Kindle, which retails for $399, was bid up to $1,500 earlier in the week.

Has Amazon really discovered untapped consumer demand for digital-book readers?

The e-tailer, dabbling in electronics manufacturing for the first time, sold out of Kindles soon after introducing them last month. The device connects to the Web to download books--a feature that separates it from other e-readers that must sync to a PC to load a book.

Amazon has said it won't start delivering on new Kindle orders until after Christmas.

The company said it sold out of the Kindle in under six hours after the handheld went on sale. Some critics questioned how many Kindles Amazon had in stock. The company declined to say.

[avagee]

omg $1000 for a reader?

The cell phone you already have makes a fine reader for novels etc - you just need to find the content. Who wouldn't pay a few dollars for a 'disposable' novel to read on their phone?

I get free titles from http://www.booksinmypone.com.

[chinesejudge]

My god, you must be shrooming

Are you kidding me!? You honestly expect people to scroll through
a 200 page novel on their phone? Yeah, awesome. It is a wonder
they didn't call you for ideas. Can't wait to peruse Atlas shrugged
(1168pp) on my Razr. You know, .7 sentences at a time. Great.

[davebell55]

reply

Thanks for the LAUGH! I completely agree. .7 sentences at a time! That cracks me up. Plus, Atlas Shrugged ROCKS! Dave

[GroverCleveland]

What a fraud

The whole spot-shortage/auction demand deal couldn't possibly be real. My guess is that it is all being engineered by somebody to create hype. An e-book reader? I wouldn't pay half the list price for it, and I read lots of books.

[tarrantm]

Juicebox for 12 dollars instead

It's kinda lame when the 12 dollar Juicebox can do the same thing.

[kevin westmoreland]

Juicebox for $12 !?!?!?!?!

Man, you are overstating the case. Maybe you can built the circuit board for a few bucks, but you still need something like an e-ink display to read anything.

You can make your argument using any other portable reader out there, but don't talk fantasy. Your little reader will still cost you over a hundred bucks easy, and the display will be small and not as clear as the commercial readers.

[j_a_s_p_e_r]

Asking vs. Getting (and the the occational NPB)

Ebay has a 2 major problems the first is a human one. You can ask what you want for an item, you may even get a bid if you are lucky. But don't expect to get paid every time.

Non Paying Bidders is one of the chronic problems that plague Ebay, then there are also the hijacked accounts where they claimed to have moved to a foreign country and want the item shipped on their "client's" DHL account.

The second problem is that EBay charges an arm and a leg. Selling a $300 item costs $4.10 for insertion, a picture and gallery. Closing fees will run $10.25 and paypal (owned by Ebay) fees run $9.81. Its a rip off

[tech_junky48]

just buy a cheap laptop

at $400.00 each, you might as well just buy a laptop. Bestbuy has a gateway with a dual-core processor and vista home premium on sale for the same price AMAZON is charging, not counting the ebay markups.