Those who were planning to get in on Barnes & Noble's special “best price ever” Father's Day promotion have a bit of good news at hand: Barnes & Noble announced earlier today that it will be extending those prices, leaving the Nook line at some of its most attractive discounts ever. But is there a dark cloud behind this silver lining?

With the new “best price ever” in place, the Nook HD sells at $129 for the eight gigabyte version and $149 for the 16 gigabyte model, while the Nook HD+ sells at $149 for a 16 gigabyte model and $179 for a 32 gigabyte variety.

The decision to retain the “best price ever” pricing—based on reports from Nook Media president Jamie Iannone—was a result of the “fantastic success” enjoyed by the Father's Day promotion on Nook HD and Nook+ HD titles. Further, the company announced plans to bring the Nook HD and Nook HD+ a little extra help in the content department thanks to the addition of Google (News - Alert) Play on the devices, opening up a world of apps and content.

It's called “limited-time” pricing, but since there appears as yet to be no ending date associated with this, it's already led some to wonder just how “limited” this limited-time promotion actually is. In fact, there are those who are wondering if the huge price drops associated with the Nook HD and Nook HD+ lines are simply bad news waiting to happen.

For instance, it's something of a basic law of economics that, when something is in short supply, its price is high. When something is in oversupply, its price is low, as the item has little value because there are so many of the item in question on hand. So for the Nook lineup to see these kinds of price drops, at least to some economists, suggests that there are a whole lot of Nooks out there on hand that need to be taken out of Barnes & Noble's various warehouses and whatnot and instead put into the hands of people willing to trade cash for said devices. Considering that, by comparison, the Amazon Kindle Fire is running at $159 with advertising and $174 without, and the Nexus 7 is starting at $199, it's clear Barnes & Noble is running a fire sale.

Some are looking to the next earnings report from Barnes & Noble, due out June 25, to really make the biggest impact on just what the future of the Nook looks like, but with some reports already suggesting that the Nook tablet line may wind up phased out by the end of the 2014 fiscal year—about a year from now—and it really does make a case for Barnes & Noble just out to clear shelves.

It's an interesting question no matter what side it's viewed from: just what is Barnes & Noble trying to do here? Is it trying to get devices into hands to promote its own line of entertainment infrastructure? Is it trying to dump devices so as to be ready for the day when Nook merely is an app, and not a tablet? Is it worth buying in at these prices? There are more than enough questions here, and hopefully, the answers will be on hand before too much longer.