The Do’s and Don’ts of Buying Used Tech Devices

A number of months in the past, when Apple unveiled new MacBooks, I loaded the Apple Store web site with my bank card prepared. My spouse’s historic laptop computer was on the fritz, and a contemporary machine would make a pleasant present. I discovered a MacEbook Air for $760 — a discount! — and ordered it with gusto.

Plenty of us are reeling from ever-rising costs of client electronics pushed by industrywide shortages of reminiscence elements, so I’ll allow you to in on a secret.

On March 3, Apple began taking orders for the $1,100 MacEbook Air with its newest M5 chip. That day, I ordered the earlier mannequin, the MacEbook Air with the M4 chip. Instead of shopping for a brand-new pc, I went to Apple’s refurbished section to get about $240 off the unique worth.

A number of days later, the refurbished laptop computer arrived in Apple’s signature, meticulously designed packaging. The laptop computer’s display screen was lined in protecting plastic, and the everyday equipment, a charging brick and a cable, had been included.

Coincidentally, across the similar time, The New York Times had shipped me a brand-new M4 MacEbook Air for work. When I in contrast it aspect by aspect with my spouse’s laptop computer, the machines had been indistinguishably pristine. I had a hunch that the refurbished one was both an untouched return or unsold new stock.

Apple’s refurbished merchandise, in accordance with the corporate, bear a rigorous refurbishment course of to make sure that prospects obtain a product with the extent of high quality they anticipate from the model.

Similar to used vehicles, secondhand electronics are a booming business that would develop to about $153 billion this year, in accordance with analysis by the agency Global Market Insights. And with a worldwide pc reminiscence scarcity driving up prices of things like game consoles, smartphones and computer systems, used electronics could look more and more enticing to shoppers hoping to exchange outdated {hardware} inside their budgets.

I principally stopped shopping for brand-new electronics a couple of years in the past after realizing that the fee financial savings had been so substantial and that the downsides had been trivial. I’ve bought used {hardware} together with Macs, iPads and a high-end iPhone from a number of websites, together with Amazon and Facebook Marketplace. The expertise hasn’t been good — I as soon as ended up with a pair of shoddy AirPods. But with most of my purchases, I had no regrets.

There’s a wise technique to purchasing secondhand electronics. Here are the teachings I’ve discovered.

Thoroughly Inspect the Purchase

Two years in the past, I lastly determined to retire my residence pc, a 13-year-old iMac, and searched for an additional choice. I concluded that Apple’s miniature desktop machine, the Mac Mini, which retailed for about $600 to $700, can be the most cost effective substitute. Plenty had been posted by particular person sellers on Facebook Marketplace for half the worth, so I made a decision to attempt my luck shopping for a pc there for the primary time.

After messaging a couple of sellers, I received good vibes from John, a younger hospital employee, who agreed to fulfill me at a restaurant in San Francisco. He kindly introduced a show, a keyboard and a mouse to attach with the pc to show that it labored; he even walked me by means of the setup course of to indicate that the machine was not locked down by a password or any company administration software program. I opened some apps and likewise examined the audio system and energy button.

Everything checked out, and my low cost Mac Mini stays my workhorse for this column.

Avoid Buying Certain Products Used

I confess I used to be much less thorough with a unique product, a pair of refurbished AirPods labeled “like new” by Amazon for $80, about $100 lower than the retail worth. Months after utilizing the product, I spotted that “Find My,” a software program characteristic used to find the AirPods within the occasion that they went lacking, was not working correctly as a result of the earbuds had been nonetheless linked to the earlier proprietor’s account. Fortunately, Amazon gave me a partial refund.

This expertise illustrates how deal can typically lead individuals to make unhealthy choices. In hindsight, shopping for used earbuds — a product that has touched one other particular person’s physique — was clearly not an important thought, and I wouldn’t advocate it to anybody.

Nathan Proctor, a director of U.S. PIRG, a client advocacy nonprofit, added different examples to the listing of merchandise to keep away from: tv screens that are typically cumbersome and fragile, printers that put on down over time and sensible watches with bands that deteriorate from different individuals’s sweat.

Choose a Seller Carefully

While I felt comfy shopping for a low-cost pc on Facebook, I most well-liked shopping for higher-priced merchandise like tablets and smartphones from greater manufacturers, which provided protections together with beneficiant return insurance policies.

When Apple introduced the iPhone 17 final September, I made a decision it was alternative to discover a deal on the earlier 12 months’s high-end iPhone, the 16 Pro. I discovered one on Amazon labeled “refurbished — excellent” for $800, a $300 low cost from the retail worth.

A number of days later, the product arrived in an unremarkable brown cardboard field. While inspecting it, I observed a lightweight scratch down the middle of the display screen that was unattainable to disregard.

Annoyed, I clicked a button to talk with an Amazon customer support agent. After I described the issue, Amazon agreed to ship a substitute of the identical cellphone the subsequent day.

With the second iPhone, I received the lottery. It was flawless, and from checking the machine’s battery historical past, I might see that it had been recharged solely as soon as, which means it was in all probability a barely touched retailer return. I wouldn’t have been so fortunate if I had bought this cellphone on-line from a random vendor who lacked a beneficiant return coverage.

Plenty of respected resellers of refurbished items, together with Back Market and VIP Outlet, have good return insurance policies, in accordance with U.S. PIRG, which printed a guide to buying used electronics.

To scale back the chances of getting a lemon, the most secure wager is to purchase a refurbished product immediately from the massive model that manufactures it, like the best way I purchased my spouse’s MacEbook Air from Apple’s net retailer for refurbished items.

Check for Longevity

To get probably the most worth when shopping for used, you need the machine to final. But all tech merchandise have a finite life. Companies finally cease giving them software program updates, elements similar to batteries put on out and a few units are too troublesome or costly to restore when components similar to screens break.

Apple, Samsung and Google typically difficulty software program updates for telephones for as much as seven years. So a easy rule of thumb when contemplating a used product is to search for units made not more than two years in the past. That ensures the machine nonetheless has at the very least 5 remaining years of help from the corporate.

As for changing batteries and basic machine upkeep, France now requires corporations to publish scores for his or her merchandise based mostly on the convenience of disassembly and getting components. (The iPhone 16 Pro, for instance, has a score of 8.1, on a scale from one to 10, with 10 being the simplest to restore.) Third events like iFixit, a website that publishes directions on repairing merchandise, additionally give merchandise such ratings.

If perusing these scores feels like an excessive amount of work, do only one factor: Before you purchase any used laptop computer or cellphone, do a fast net search on the price of a brand new battery and the method of changing it, stated Kyle Wiens, the chief government of iFixit.

“That steers me toward one product or another, which can reduce some of the stress with buying something used,” he stated.