Advantages and Disadvantages of Buying Used and Refurbished Items Online
I have managed to live quite well, thank you, on a middle class salary surrounded by many premium items that I bought used online. For the purpose of this article, let’s define used as anything that was opened from its original packaging, including refurbished items. The great thing about buying used things is that unless there is an obvious cosmetic defect, no one will know that you bought used things unless you tell them. This article looks at the pros and cons of buying used things online.
As a general rule of thumb, I will not buy anything used unless: 1. The item is not available as new or 2. It saves me a relatively large amount of money; the exception for me is CDs and books that are hard to find or just save me the trouble of looking for them in a store. I will only buy a used item if the seller has good reviews from a trusted online site or if the seller is a well-known company such as Best Buy, Amazon, or an Amazon partner store. Whenever I can, I try to use PayPal instead of credit cards to pay, as it is an additional source of protection if I have problems with the product or the sale.
I will not buy anything used online unless the condition is described as very good or better; I think most people describe things one level better than they are or if the item is sold with the words “Sold as is”, which means that the buyer cannot return the item once they have received it. Let the buyer beware! To me, this is an obvious sign that the product is a potential “lemon” or lemon or that the seller is someone I don’t want to do business with. I will also not buy anything from a buyer if the price is ridiculously low, as for me it is a sign that the seller something is not right. There are no free lunches, just stop thinking about buying the item and immediately forget about it without losing sleep. Yes, every now and then we read about someone hitting the ground and buying a Picasso or something at a garage sale for $ 25, but I’m pretty sure it won’t be you or me! Definitely do not buy anything used from someone in another country for more than $ 50 or you are just looking for trouble as there is a great chance that the item will be damaged during shipping; have fun getting your money back, or you will just burn out completely. and you don’t really have any recourse against someone outside of the US.
As a general rule of thumb, you wouldn’t buy items with a limited lifespan like DVD players, DVD recorders, anything that actually uses lasers as they wear out, televisions unless the price is so low that you can afford to break it down the next day and throw it away. , for instance. I wouldn’t buy anything either, this is my personal taste and bias, that was used by someone, asleep by someone, partially swallowed by someone like a 1 gallon jar of protein.
What I do buy used, once the above “good conditions” are in place are: 1. Stereo equipment such as high quality CD players (lasers seem to last much longer in them!), Computers, CDs, books, furniture inexpensive lamps, photos and prints, sports equipment, bicycles and scooters, and hard-to-find items. Most of these items can be resold in their original condition or as replacement parts. For computers (laptops), please note that you should require the seller to restore the computer to its original state and remove anything that was added unless you want it to be left on and the seller is responsible for cleaning the computer for virus. , spyware and adware. You wouldn’t spend more than $ 375, including shipping, either, unless you buy it with a warranty of some kind and have the option to extend the warranty.
My record of buying used merchandise following these rules has been excellent. I only received one item that apparently was damaged internally during shipping and I got my money back immediately from the eBay seller who had great feedback. I bought a refurbished $ 1500 for $ 700 laptop with 1 year warranty from a large well known computer retailer and there was a problem with the hard drive and they immediately replaced it with one that I had never had any problems with. In fact, the only time I ever got burned was when I was stupid enough 5 years ago to buy a laptop from someone I didn’t know on Craig’s List who lived out of state. I learned my lesson at the time: don’t buy anything used from someone you don’t know on a website that is not responsible if you get scammed from someone who advertises on it. In fairness to Craig’s List, I think they warn people about getting scammed etc, and I’m just to blame for what happened.
The bottom line is that you can save a lot of money by buying used things online, but you need to know carefully what you are doing before buying anything. Use the tips I have listed as a rough start guide.
