A $59 router for only a buck?

Just got my FON router after 18 agonising days of waiting, or should I say a FON-firmware reflashed WRT-54GS (the most expensive flavour of the WRT-54G series). First thing I did was to register my $1 router (FON subsidised the difference; the $1 even included FedEx shipping!).



This router, which would normally retail for 55 times as much, was found by yours truly to be around $65 on Ebay. Goodness me. Why don't people do a little hunting before going to ebay (Amazon.com, NewEgg.com, TigerDirect.com). This is what puzzles me about Ebay.

Oh well. I have already been a bad boy by reflashing FON's firmware on this machine with a more powerful one, DD-WRT, thereby rendering FON's subsidising my router useless (their goal is to create a planet with free hotspots). Oh well. Maybe I'll flash Linksys's original firmware and cash it in on Ebay ($50 profit after shipping and handling and Ebay and PayPal's cut of the share). Muihaha.



UPDATE: Fon is now shipping routers for $5 but you have to add shipping charges of $8 if you are in the continental US. Europeans have to fork out more but it still is a rather good deal. Should be interesting to see if Ebay gets flooded with WRT-54Gs ...