The Kindle 2 is now expected in the early first quarter of 2009.

The current Kindle is once again sold out and very likely not available new again from Amazon at all. The ship date from Amazon is 11 – 13 weeks. It is fair to speculate that date will match up with the early 1st quarter 2009 date for Kindle 2 and assume the current model will no longer be shipping new. This has caused used Kindle prices to rise once again. Currently, the best deal from the Amazon Marketplace is about $540 and I have observed some Ebay auctions ending right around the $500 price range.

If you must have a Kindle now, expect to pay about $500. If you can wait a couple of months, you’ll be much better off as you should be able to buy the new version at the usual, lower price. Of course, the price is not set in stone yet and there is no telling how many units will be available at launch. You could end up waiting even longer once again. My guess is that Amazon will be much better prepared with inventory for Kindle 2, but we have no data to back that up and you can’t assume this will be true based on the original Kindle launch.