Starbuck said:
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You have no idea how many people ask me about the Kindle here. I keep getting questions whenever I pull it out. Some people have bought them for their wives (and were aghast at the 3-month waiting period. Guess it's not a good Christmas present). I pulled it out while we were waiting on fuel/maintenance at a coffee shop in Iraq and it certainly turned a lot of heads. I've almost memorized the "pitch" by now. A few people have noted that I never go anywhere without it (I lug it to and fro in one of my pockets. It's not that the Kindle is THAT small, it's that we have big pockets).
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Welcome, Starbuck!
Here's a workaround that works for the 3-month waiting period: a lot of people (including me) have purchased refurbs, which are basically indistinguishable from brand new Kindles.
The challenge is, refurbs only get posted every now and then by Amazon, and get sold out quickly. So, we have a service - the only one on the web, as far as I know - that alerts you the moment a refurb becomes available on Amazon.
As a result, our members on the 'refurb alert list' get the best chance of getting a Kindle when the refurbs become available.
Here's how to get on that alert list:
http://www.kboards.com/refurb-alert.php
The most recent batch of refurbs became available a week ago (Jan 6). So we may see another batch arise before long.