New Kindle!

OK, I did it! I am going to abandon my K1 for the new kindle that was announced yesterday. I feel bad about it, but collections plus a better screen and longer battery life did it for me.

Any thoughts on what I should do with the old one? I don't have any family members to pass it to.

k4k

donate it to a school or library :)

Thanks, dancingstarfish. I hadn't thought of that. My options so far were:
1. sell it back via Green Earth Exchange for an Amazon gift certificate (http://www.greenearthexchange.com/online/home/index.rails)
2. save it to loan friends books.
3. donate it to an organization that provides kindles and kindle books for soldiers (e.g. http://ebooksfortroops.org/), but I think they are looking more at K2s than K1s and frankly, the money might be better spent buying/donating paperbacks for them (http://www.booksforsoldiers.com/index.php)

I will add libraries/schools to my list, although I don't know if there is such a program in my area.

k4k

You can also sell it via KindleBoards, ebay, or Amazon. The money might pay for a nice new cover for the K3, or make a nice donation.

Yes, Auntmarge, I may sell it, but I have never done this before -- not sure I want to interact with buyers. A little scared...

k4k

KindleBoards is full of nice people, and most people sell for Amazon gift cards which they mail you before you mail the item.

Thanks. I'll check their board.

I should have said they email gift cards, if that's what you want in exchange. See http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/board,5.0.html

KEEP IT!

I got a K2 as soon as they were released but still kept my K1 because I think there's something to be said for the original hardware design, with its user-replaceable battery and its SD-card slot. So keep your K1 for back-up.

Two things to remember:

(1) If you subscribe to any magazines and you have back issues on your K1, you won't be able to transfer them to another device. That's the deal with magazines, one-device-only and non-transferable, so remember this if you ditch your K1. (I've got a lot of back issues of Asimov and Analog sci-fi mags on K1 and continue using K1 for those subscriptions, to keep everything together, so that's an issue for me.)

(2) If you have sound files on your Kindle (whether audiobooks or MP3s), realize that these take up a lot of disk space even with the much greater hard-drive size of K2 and even greater for K3. The SD-card on K1 eliminates disk-space as an issue where sound files are concerned. I don't bother with sound files on Kindle, but it's an issue to consider as far as keeping your K1.

I'm not going to upgrade to K3. With the Collections feature on the 2.5 software upgrade, I don't see any new gotta-haves for K3, but you've never had a K2, k4k, so upgrading now makes sense for you. But if I were you, I'd keep your K1 for back-up. You'll hardly get anything for it on the second-hand market anyway, so why not keep it?

Those are all good points, CurrerBell. I don't have any subscriptions, though. I certainly will keep my K1 for a couple of weeks after I get the K3. The Green Earth Exchange website says $74-$94, depending on the condition -- of course mine is in excellent condition since I treat it well. Still, having a spare might be good.

k4k

I've got a K1 and I ordered a K3 a few days ago. I think I'll keep my K1 as a backup. I'd flip out if I lost or broke my Kindle.

12> "I'd flip out if I lost or broke my Kindle."

I'd have felt the same way a year ago. But now, with the price of K3, even the full 3G version, I'd just grit my teeth, plunk out the $189 (plus shipping?), and order a new one, but I'd still want my back-up while the new one was in-the-mail. And at these low prices there's no need to spend money on that extended warranty anymore, which added to the price for me on K2.

I'd really hate for anything to happen to my K1 though. With that different hardware design, it's a device I really want to keep until it falls apart.

ETA: Well, yeah, I guess there's the Kindle for PC if something happens and you don't have a back-up, but I really hate that Kindle for PC. I downloaded and tried it and then just deleted the thingy from my laptop because I just found it so difficult to read and navigate.

Remember your warranty, if something happens you can replace your kindle. I've replaced mine (I'm ashamed of this number) 3 times due to various calamities and they've never doubted me or rejected me. Every time they sent me a new one by one-day shipping and I had a replacement kindle in my hands before I could go into withdrawl :)