Dollar Tree display easel as a DIY tablet/phone stand

My HiSense Sero 7 Pro tablet died, so I recently picked a Fire HD 8 (2017) 32 GB from Amazon since they were discounted due to the new 2018 models that are available now. I also gave one to my mom for her birthday to replace her aging Galaxy Tab 2 7.0".

With my old tablet, I had a folio case that also doubled as a stand, which was good for landscape mode only.

I'm not planning on getting a case for the Fire HD 8. It doesn't really seem necessary. I did want a way to have it stand, so I went out to my local Dollar Tree to check out their electronics aisle for any tablet stands. They had none... not even the two I saw YouTube videos for (ones actually sold as a "tablet stand"). So I looked for the next best thing... the display easels in the picture frame aisle.

They come in small, medium, and large sizes - and in gold, silver, or black colors.

I didn't really care about the color, I cared more about the quality of it. So I tested out each one to see which one was the least crooked and picked the two of the small ones that I liked best (one for me, one for my mom).

I left the cardboard on it so that it hopefully wouldn't scratch my Fire HD and also looked for things that I could add to it that would leave the least amount of scratches - I covered it with an old sock for some padding, but despite my efforts, it still left some scratches on the back. Some people might not care about scratches since it's the back of the tablet, but it bothers me. I haven't been able to completely buff them out.

I looked around the house some more and found a drink koozie that I wasn't using and it fit over the easel (with the sock on) perfectly.

Dollar Tree display easel tablet stand

I'm confident that there won't be any new scratches now.

I also went to WalMart today to look for another koozie for my mom's easel and found one on clearance for 25 cents. So for a total of $1.75 for my mom's easel ($1), 1 sock that I don't wear anymore (also from Dollar Tree - pair of socks $1, 1 sock = 50 cents), and 25 cents for the koozie for a tablet stand that won't scratch our tablets. My stand only cost me $1.50 since the koozie I used was free.