There’s an auction on Ebay right now that’s either a once in a lifetime chance to own a TouchPad Go or it’s a scam. I’m still not sure which.
When HP launched their webOS tablet, the TouchPad, word quickly leaked that they also had a 7″ tablet in the works. The 7″ model was going to be called the TP Go, but due to the timely death of the original TouchPad, the smaller sibling never actually hit the market.
Update: The auction has been pulled. According to Ebay, someone (HP?) filed a trademark or copyright complaint. There’s a good chance it was probably a bogus complaint, but Ebay usually takes auctions down first and asks questions later.
Second Update: I just got an email from the seller. He wants to sell it outside of Ebay. Yeah, I’m gonna let someone else get it. I don’t think it’s worth the risk of loosing that much money.
But we do know that it exists. It’s been through the FCC a couple times and it’s shown up on Chinese tech blogs once or twice. And now one of these elusive tablets may have shown up on Ebay.
This particular TouchPad Go is described as a prototype. It has 32GB Flash, Wifi, CDMA, but the rest of the specs aren’t listed. It comes with the normal box contents as well as bragging rights (for being the craziest gadget owner on Earth).
I’m still not completely convinced it’s real, but clearly someone is. The auction only started today, and the bid is already up to $1,500. I’m betting that either the top bid is held by someone at HP or by one of the major tech blogs. I would not be surprised to see this auction hit $10k on the last day as Gizmodo, Engadget, and The Verge get into a bidding war. And I do hope one of them wins the auction; I’d lie to see the review.
As for me, the bid is already way beyond what I can afford. I plan to sit back and watch this auction play out. I don’t think we’ll see a second TouchPad Go on Ebay anytime soon.
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I think it’s legit. Let’s see if HP shuts down the auction on the grounds it’s stolen or otherwise unauthorized property.
Unreleased HP TouchPad Go Shows Up on eBay | TechnoBuffalo // Dec 5, 2011 at 8:06 am
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[...] Auktion bei eBay entfernt worden, angeblich wegen einer Trademark/Copyright-Verfehlung. Wie ihr auf The Digital Reader nachlesen könnt, möchte der Händler das seltene Teil – einen Prototypen des TouchPad Go [...]
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[...] night I posted on an Ebay auction for one of the unreleased TouchPad Go tablets. That auction ended up getting pulled (by HP, I [...]
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[...] were even a couple Ebay auctions (here, here) for the Go in the beginning of December. One was bid up to 1,500 before HP killed the [...]