Today only, $30 shipped Sansa Connect, possible $5 coupon, possible scratch!!!

Today (Nov. 23, 2009) only, Yugster.com has a Sansa Connect for $25 + $5 shipping.

I got a popup after about 10 seconds that offered me a $5 coupon off any purchase over $5, e-mailed to me if I supplied my first name and e-mail address.  $3 additional shipping for each additional Connect. 

So with coupon:

$25 for 1st Connect

$28 each additional Connect. 

EDIT: Just saw this in the Yugster description: "** This player may have some minor scratches due to packaging"**. It appears to be small scratches in the screens, from reading two posts in the discussion:

“Ours were new, but both had a couple of small identical marks on the screen caused by the ‘white box’ repackaging. You can’t see them when the screen is active though.”

 

“The screens both had small scratches , but not bad.” 

A third post by a previous buyer didn’t mention any scratches.

Message Edited by jj2me on 11-23-2009 12:03 PM

60 day warranty, too.  Not bad!

At these prices, we can remove all the old threads that bemoan the lack of a source for spare batteries.

Though these Connects have probably been sitting around for a while, and I think someone said that the type of battery that’s in the Connect has a limited shelf life in terms of its ability to hold a charge.  Not sure what the shelf life is.

Keep it in the fridge at ~40% charge level.  According to this chart, storing at room temperature (25C/77F) at a 40% charge level loses only 4%/year.  And in the cold part of the fridge, even stored at 100%, it only loses 6%/yr. (and only 2%/yr. @ 40% level).

Anecdotally, I have never yet had a li-ion battery go bad, except in two refurbs.  People often claim li-ions have a life of 2 years or 300-500 charges.  Those figures must be for daily charging.  I’m still on the original battery of a PDA I bought as an open box in 2003 (which I’ve only charged about once a week or less).