If you were undecided about the Plus versions of the Palm Pre or Pixi, here’s some news that might tip the scales for you: Various retailers are practically giving away these phones, in an effort to bolster sluggish sales.

First, Verizon ditched the mail-in rebates and is offering a BOGO promotion. (Buy one Pre Plus or Pixi Plus, at $150 or $80, respectively) and get another of equal or lesser value for free.

Budget-conscious WebOS fans can do even better with third-party stores: Certain Wirefly affiliates (like PreCentral’s) and Amazon are charging only $39.99 for the Pre Plus and the rock-bottom price of zero for the Pixi Plus. (Well, okay — Amazon’s technically selling it for a penny.)

That should help a little in offsetting that pricey 3G Mobile Hotspot feature, no? At $40 (for 5 GB, with 5 cents per MB overage), users could use all the help they can get. So is anyone buying?

Via: PreCentral

UPDATE: And the prices keep on dropping: Walmart's selling the Pre Plus for $30, and giving away the Pixi Plus for nothing. (Wow, wonder how much longer it will be before retailers start paying customers to take these off their hands...)