Buying a Refurbished Kindle

If you're looking to save some money on a Kindle by buying it used, consider purchasing a refurbished Kindle e-reader. Refurbished means the Kindle was made with a defect. The Kindle was then sent back to the manufacturer, fixed, examined for other defects, then put back on the market at a lower rate. In many ways, buying a refurbished Kindle is a better deal than buying a new Kindle. You buy at a lower price, and it's guaranteed to be free of defects. Not every new Kindle has been examined by quality control, but a refurbished one definitely has.

Amazon.com often has an option to buy each item used or refurbished. There's usually a lot more used Kindles available, but you can usually snag a good deal on a refurbished Kindle.

Ebay is another place to go, but be warned; that site is the wild west, and you can never be quite sure what you're buying. Make sure you buy from a reputable seller and read customer review before buying.

Used Kindles will usually be cheaper than refurbished Kindles, so it's all a matter of cost benefit, and what features are important to you. A used Kindle will be cheaper, but less likely to be perfect. A new Kindle will cost a lot more but will most likely be perfect. If it has a defect, you can return or exchange it. A refurbished Kindle will cost more than a used Kindle and is more guaranteed to be fault free.

Note that you can often buy a refurbished Kindle for cheaper than a new Kindle with the "special offers" feature. I personally dislike the "special offers" feature. It basically means that you take a discount in price in exchange for being advertised to by Amazon sponsors. I was able to buy a refurbished Kindle without the special offers for $30 cheaper than a new one with the special offers. Not everyone will be able to snag this deal, but if you can, go for it.

Now it's time to load up your refurbished Kindle e-reader with books. Kindles are expensive, and the last thing you want to do is have to buy a bunch of e-books to load up onto it. Check out my hub on finding free Kindle e-books for advice for tips on inexpensively building a Kindle library.