There are a lot of factors to consider when shopping for electronics. You can get buried in a heap of technical specs and geek jargon without much effort at all. There’s one factor, though, that the current economic climate has brought into the foreground: cost. This has lead many enthusiast to consider buying used items.
Is Buying a Used iPad a Good idea?
People buy used items from their friends and family or popular weekend garage sale all the time, but should you buy a used iPad? As with any used purchase, you should do plenty of research beforehand. Get to know the product and shop around to get an idea of what the right cost should be. Buying a used iPad can be just as safe but even more rewarding than buying one new.
When buying expensive electronics like an iPad, I would recommend staying away from garage sales and ads you may find on craigslist. Picking up a used iPad from a friend or family member is fine, but it’s not too often a good buddy just happens to be selling his iPad. Your best bet would be finding a good deal on eBay.
Used iPads on eBay
So, why would I recommend eBay over the other options? Mostly because of the protection you’ll get when buying through eBay. If things don’t go smoothly, you’ll have a few options to correct the situation. This is especially true if you pay via PayPal. If someone takes your money and tries to run, you can file a claim and chances are really good you’ll get your money back.
Buy a Used iPad
If you’re ready to start looking, a great place to go is the used iPad section at BuyUsedGear.com. All of the items are from current eBay auctions, but filtered down so that you see more of what you’re looking for and less of the distracting third party knock offs. You can jump in and find a great deal faster, which means you’ll be enjoying your iPad even sooner too.
While you’re there, you can also shop around for a few iPad accessories. After all, you’ll have some extra cash to spend.
As a market, ebooks and ereaders have gone from being relatively simple with a few major players to tangled web of content providers and hardware manufacturers of varying compatibility in just a few short years. The competition promises to keep prices low, features competitive and digital-rights management minimal, but it’s become overwhelming for casual consumers to step into the market and look beyond the staid pillars of Amazon of Barnes & Noble.
This economy entropy is poised to get even worse (or better, depending on your perspective) with Google announcing that they have partnered with iriver to bring the first ever ereader integrated with their open Google eBooks platform.
Called the Story HD, iriver’s ereader most closely resembles a third generation Kindle, with a full QWERTY keyboard at the bottom, integrated dictionary, built-in Wi-Fi and the standard-issue 6-inch eInk screen that we have all come to know and love. It’s a full ounce lighter than the Kindle, but is ever so slightly thicker. With two GB of storage, it can hold half the books that a Kindle can, but honestly, how many people are actually running against that capacity limit?
The real story is the integration of the Google eBookstore. So far as we can tell, it hasn’t made a tremendous splash in the ebook market, mostly due to the fact that at just eight months old, it’s not well-integrated with the most popular eReaders on the market. There are definitely lots of novelties to be found with it. The Doodle Mode on their browser reader is a nice digital distraction for kids, who can color, do mazes and the like.
Google has also done an admirable job promoting their affiliate program. While authors can certainly make money by setting up accounts with Amazon and Barnes & Noble, the Google eBookstore seems to have better terms for authors and is ubiquitous in the book blogosphere. They’re even making an impact on old-fashioned book stores. Politics and Prose is one of the more popular independent book stores in Washington D.C., for instance, and they have integrated Google eBooks onto their homepage to give eReader addicts a way to support their local establishment without having to clutter their house with dead tree editions.
Google is definitely carving out a niche, but whether this iriver reader is a serious part of their long-term strategy remains to be seen. At $140 and retailing only at Target, it doesn’t seem destined for success, but time will tell.