When I first heard about the iPod nano recall, my immediate reaction was to hop on eBay and get my hands on an old Nano before they disappear for good. I figured I could get a scratched up one for $20 bucks or so and throw a new back on it for another $5 bucks. New Nano on the cheap. Maybe even score one in the box.

I knew that the value would shoot through the roof because every Tom, Dick and Harry was going to trade in their old, scratched up Nanos for a shiny new one. I bet half of them had dead batteries that no longer held a charge. Who wouldn’t want a new Nano? Apparently I was right. It seems everyone knew about the recall. Even my parents send in their two Nanos. If I knew they were going to give them up, I would have offered them a few bucks for them. There wasn’t a single nano to be had on eBay either! To make matters worse, Apple ran out of the first gen Nanos and started giving away new ones. Yeh, the new Nano with the display! You’d be crazy not to give up your old beater for one of those!

I checked eBay here and there over the next few weeks, and a few seemed to trickle in. A year ago they were a dime a dozen and now there’s only a handful. I knew this was going to happen. Now the prices are going to go through the roof as the value goes up! I better get my hands on one quick. People are already charging close to $200 for a used one. There’s a few unopened retail boxes too that are going for $350 a pop. Are they mad!

I managed to piece together a mint in the box 1st gen black 1G Nano for way cheaper than that.

I found a Nano “in the box” for $76. It’s in mint condition without a scratch on it. I figured that was a really good deal since most seem to be going for about $150 in beat up condition without any accessories or the box.



I received the Nano in the mail, but to my disappointment the outer box sleeve was not part of the deal. It’s just the inner box. A little detail the seller failed to mention. The auction did include pictures, but it wasn’t apparent by looking at them that the outer sleeve wasn’t there.

One other thing that the seller failed to mention was the fact that the back of it is laser engraved with a company logo. I was a little ticked at that. I contacted the seller to complain, but he said that he had received it as a gift and never used it. According to him, he never even knew it was engraved on the back. Whatever.



An easy fix. I picked up a new back for a few bucks and I’ll swap it out. It’ll still be cheaper than the “going rate”. It has a few hair-line scuffs, but nothing major. They’ll buff right out. The picture looks worse than it really is.



As far as the box, I’ve gone this far, I might as well look for a sleeve too. As luck would have it, someone was not only selling the sleeve, but all of the inner packaging too.





Everything is included, right down to the dock adapter and the “Don’t Steal Music” wrapper! I know, pretty steep at $30 bucks, but when all is said and done, it’ll still be cheaper than the “going rate”.



All in all, I spent $116 for a mint 1st gen Nano in the box. As I said before, there’s a few currently on eBay for $350, so I feel like I made out pretty good. Just think how much these will be going for in 5 or 10 years! They’ll probably be like the mint in the box 1st gen 5 Gig iPods that regularly go for $500-$700 bucks!

Just look at that! Looks like new!



Now, about swapping that back cover.......

You can never have enough of those plastic spludgers around. They wear down pretty fast. They’re usually good for one or two repairs and then you have to toss them. They get chewed up pretty fast and then they’re useless.

Taking your spludger, work around the whole iPod case until all eleven tabs have popped. The back cover will then just lift off. It’s really tricky doing this without chewing up the black plastic front; even with a plastic spludger.



Once the back is off, simply pop the new one on. Providing you didn’t break all the tabs, it’ll just click into place.



Goos as new.





Another fine addition to my ever-growing iPod collection. Wow, if you add up the iPods and iOS devices, this brings the count up to 17! Still, it’s not enough. There’s still many older models to be purchased.