Well, it looks like that time you’ve been waiting for is at hand. If you wanted an Amazon Echo, but it cost too much to buy it new, you can now get a refurbished model. They come with the same warranty as the original Echo, the same support, and so on—and the same abilities to play music and audiobooks, control compatible home automation systems, answer questions asked in natural language, and so on. That’s right, if you act now, you can save all of…nine bucks.

Seriously. Refurbished Kindles tend to be a great deal, slashing at least $20 to $30 off their price. Refurbished Fires are similarly discounted to a great extent. Even the $50 Fire’s been seen refurbished now and then for $30 or so. But here’s the Amazon Echo, with a standard list price of $179.99, going refurbished for $170.99. What the heck, Amazon?

Maybe the Echo’s still such a hot item that Amazon knows it doesn’t need to mark it down very much—especially given that the brand new model is out of stock right now. In any event, despite my hopes for a lower price, it will be a while yet before I can afford to get one for myself, or recommend it to my audiobook-loving parents.

NO COMMENTS

The TeleRead community values your civil and thoughtful comments. We use a cache, so expect a delay. Problems? E-mail newteleread@gmail.com.