I am considering buying one of the new Kindle Touch 3G’s. I know they are sold directly by Amazon for $149 with the advertising or $189 without the ads. Amazon will even ship it to you for free, since it is over $25.
So I thought I would check on eBay just to see if someone had some sort of deep discount that they were splitting with consumers and I might be able to save a few bucks. But there are several people selling thing for a premium, at $229 for the same device without the ads. That’s a 21% markup. You can also get the same device with the ads on eBay for $180, also a 21% markup.
Why would anyone buy one off of eBay for a huge premium?
Dunno why, but people are stupid - I sold my Kindle Ad-free (“Keyboard” - the touch wasn’t out at the time) on Ebay for $50 more than the Refurb ad-free price on Amazon at the time, just by including two cases that I had bought on ebay for a total of like 10 bucks together. Didn’t expect to turn a $40 profit, and a profit over what I actually paid, selling a used kindle.
Which is to say, there are actual buyers out there who will pay more than amazon, for some reason. I don’t know if they just check ebay and ignore amazon, or what.
There’s a waiting list for the Kindle 3g Touch. I ordered one in mid October. The estimated ship date is currently Dec 1. This is the second time they’ve bumped it up. I’m just hoping I get it before Christmas.
I guess getting it from Ebay is quicker if you’re willing to pay someone else that already has one.
Could it be for overseas buyers? In Australia the cheapest Kindle is $139, while I know someone who bought one in the US a few weeks ago for $69. I’m pretty Amazon won’t ship kindles to Australia so it could be cheaper to buy one on ebay.
WTF? I’m in Melbourne, I bought my Kindle in February and Amazon shipped it to me air express for (as I recall it) US$20, maybe $25. Amazon have no problem shipping them to Australia and it only took 4 - 5 days to get here.
1: There are a few places Amazon will not ship and most ebay sellers who are offering over market prices will ship to those locations.
2: Amazon is credit card centric. If you do not have access to a credit card and you do not have easy access to a retail outlet ebay is your only option for some items as ebay allows you to pay directly out of your bank account.
The Australian prices are the same as the American ones, except in AUD so actually slightly cheaper. The difference is that the ad versions are not available.