If you’re looking for a cheap device on which to read those cheap e-books Amazon and others have on sale today, and $50 is still too much for you to pay, Amazon has a couple of used 7” Fire tablets available for about $30 each, with free Prime shipping. One of the least expensive e-readers you can get can now be had for even less. And a used Fire HD 6 can be had for about the same $50 price as a new 7” (or you can get a new one for just $20 more). And those are far from the only used Amazon devices available. (Add $20 to these prices to get rid of Special Offers, of course.) I don’t think these are one-day rates like the e-book listings, but they’re listed under the same “Gold Box deals” section.

When you get right down to it, Amazon has some great used and refurb deals even on its own competitors, such as the Nook Glowlight deal I mentioned yesterday. There are plenty of deals on Kobo readers, too—a $35 used N905, a $34 used Kobo Mini. I suppose it makes sense, since Borders isn’t around to sell them anymore. And I’ve discussed all the cheap non-Fire Android tablets you can find there in another post, though not all of them are necessarily any good.

There are plenty of other sources for cheap tablets, too. Groupon puts the Nexus 7 on sale from time to time. Ebay has some good prices on used kit, though you have to be careful and read the descriptions closely. Surplus and salvage places like GearXS have possible bargains, though they’re another caveat emptor case. Wal-Mart, Fry’s Electronics, Best Buy—there are lots of possibilities.

It honestly amazes me when I look at these prices just how cheap e-reader and tablet technology has gotten in just a few years. Even leaving aside all the off-brand and competitor stuff available, a $30 used Fire tablet might not be much of a tablet compared to more expensive Android devices, especially when you take into account the annoying restrictions on what software you can run. But it’s still a major-brand-name product that I’ve found to be pretty reliable.

It can still access the Internet, send or receive email, socially network, and so on. And, of course, it can read plenty of e-books and other material. (More so if you finagle the Google Play applications onto it.) Is an end to the digital divide just around the corner?

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