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Nook Touch Hits $65 on Ebay – Is This the Beginning of The End of B&N?

A new deal came across my inbox this morning, and for the first time in a long while I was surprised. Barnes & Noble has set a new low for the Nook Touch. You can now get the refurbished unit for a mere $65 on Ebay. That' s a record for B&N, and it’s under half the original retail for this less than a year old ereader.

This deal comes only days after Barnes & Noble offered the Nook Color and Nook Touch as a pair for $150. They sold over 5800 units in that deal, but apparently it wasn’t enough.

When I wrote about that past sale, I mentioned that B&N seems to be working their way toward giving away their ereaders. That doesn’t seem like such a joke anymore does it?

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Comments


George March 30, 2012 um 12:10 pm

This is all Amazon’s fault!! 😉


Andrea March 30, 2012 um 12:12 pm

«Is This the Beginning of The End of B&N?»

Or is B&N trying to sell its life dearly?


fjtorres March 30, 2012 um 12:46 pm

Take your pick:
It is either a desperate bid to clear inventory or a desperate bid for market share.
Either way, desperation doesn’t hint at a good outcome.

And it brings up the quesion: why such a rush to move STRs if you are looking to expand internationally? Might this not be a hint that any international Nook expansion is not coming soon?


Logan Kennelly March 30, 2012 um 1:22 pm

Seriously, you are killing me here. "Kindle Fire Refurb – $139" – you clearly mention that it is a refurbished model and make no commentary. In this article, a 34% discount on a refurbished unit not available retail is doom for the company.

Meanwhile, fjtorres is of the opinion that B&N should dump refurbished units onto the international market as new products … I’m sure customers will appreciate that.

Or perhaps B&N is still most of its products in stores and they don’t see low prices on used products shipped from a central warehouse as threatening their product’s value?

Nate Hoffelder March 30, 2012 um 1:45 pm

I made no commentary on the KF refurb because that post was in the deals feed. That is just for mentioning deals, not opinion. (And I’m still thinking about it.)

B&N, on the other hand, has had one sale after another. At some point it is worth commenting on.

fjtorres March 30, 2012 um 6:52 pm

They’ve been flogging "refurbs" for *nine* months now, at ever-dropping prices.
So this is not a new thing.

Given that many refurbs are actually excess inventory and not returns *and* B&N’s US market share has been flat for those same nine months, there is good reason to suspect they are up to their gills in unsold *new* STRs.

Timothy Wilhoit April 2, 2012 um 11:46 am

I see they’ve sold 870 in three days. That doesn’t seem like an explosion of pent up demand. More flogging…

Mike Cane April 2, 2012 um 4:04 pm

I bet a lot of those sales were to people who already have one. Now they have cheap one they can try to root. Or even a backup for one already rooted.

I was wondering if someone pre-rooted those, could they then sell then on Craigslist for a few bucks more? B&N reg can be skipped for rooting and owners can reg their B&N accts later.


Marie March 30, 2012 um 1:31 pm

Nate — This post says "Nook Color and Nook Tablet," which WOULD be incredible — but then I clicked the link to the earlier post, and apparently you meant Nook TOUCH. Might want to fix that in this post.

Nate Hoffelder March 30, 2012 um 1:42 pm

Crap. Fixed.

You’re right, that would have been incredible.


CJJ March 30, 2012 um 4:19 pm

Well with a year subscription to the New York times they literally are giving them away. Saw this in-store today. Haven’t checked to see if this is a on-line offer as well.

anti March 30, 2012 um 4:53 pm

The one-year subscription is $20 a month.
So I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone unless they read the Times religiously.


Robert Nagle March 30, 2012 um 4:49 pm

It’s funny. Nook and other e-ink devices are perfectly good devices, but they play second fiddle to the android devices from Amazon and BN (and soon device makers not tied to a bookstore). I have to wonder how many authors really need the DRM protections offered by the bookstores. If authors started using more DRM-free ebooks, then these cheapo devices could be simpler to use.

Mike Cane March 30, 2012 um 5:31 pm

>>>Nook and other e-ink devices are perfectly good devices, but they play second fiddle to the android devices from Amazon and BN

eInk Nook has always been an Android device. So too now is the Sony Reader. Kobo is Linux.

Bill Smith March 31, 2012 um 10:59 am

"If authors started using more DRM-free ebooks, then these cheapo devices could be simpler to use."

This x a billion-zillion.

I love the idea of ebooks…but there is no way I’m going to drop a dime on an ebook reader while DRM-schemes prevent me from backing up and transferring my books as easily as I can my MP3s.

Make it easy to buy a book, put it on my device, and let me just read the darned thing. Go DRM-free so I know I’m not losing my whole library if I ever change retail outlets.

B&N could also dramatically improve its fortunes with a "Nook for the Cloud" via browser option and building a usable store.


meth March 30, 2012 um 5:04 pm

"Barnes & Noble is trying to strike at Amazon with another device. At its labs in Silicon Valley last week, engineers were putting final touches on their fifth e-reading device, a product that executives said would be released sometime this spring."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/business/barnes-noble-taking-on-amazon-in-the-fight-of-its-life.html

fjtorres March 30, 2012 um 6:54 pm

That turned out to be the 8GB Nook Tablet at $199.
No earth-shaker, after all.


Mike Cane March 30, 2012 um 5:34 pm

You know, B&N might have had a bunch of returns with the 1.1 update because of a WiFi bug that prevented people from fully accessing some routers and hotspots. This could account for it. That bug has been fixed in 1.2, so perhaps these fire sales will go away.


Mike Cane March 30, 2012 um 7:04 pm

Hoo boy. Checked out the ebay listing. Dig this:

>>>Touch Screen Technology Multi-Touch

That may be so, but B&N has *not* enabled multitouch on it. MT is available only via an XDA kernel hack.


Tyler March 30, 2012 um 10:50 pm

What this probably means is a new e ink Nook this summer. The Nook Touch rolled out in the first week of June. A new one could be in the works (wasn’t there a rumor of a new Nook a few weeks back?). The Nook Touch could be made smaller and lighter like the new Kindles and new Sony.


Jeff Rutherford March 31, 2012 um 5:19 am

Why is this surprising? I don’t think it was ever BN’s intention or Amazon’s for that matter to make money off of hardware.

They’ll make money off the content – Amazon’s strategy too. And, I’m sure you’re aware of the price analysis of Amazon’s continual price drops on the Kindle and the speculation if they’ll eventually give Kindle’s to customers for free. I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if Bezos made that decision at some point.

Nate Hoffelder March 31, 2012 um 1:27 pm

Never? No, you’re wrong in that.

It’s true now that they cannot turn a profit on hardware, but that only happened in late 2011. Amazon made money on the K2, K3 and original Kindles. Even after the price drop in mid 2010, Amazon was still probably making money.


Karla Moran December 29, 2013 um 12:24 pm

Buenos dias, he adquirido esta lector de libros y no puedo configurarlo en español ni puedo bajar libros gratis, es esto posible o no puedo usarla, alguien que me ayude por favor!


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