Dos and don’ts when buying used tech gadgets

ByTech Word News

A few months ago, when Apple introduced the new MacBooks, I loaded up the Apple Store website with my credit card ready. My wife’s old laptop was on the fritz and a modern machine would make a nice gift. I found a MacBook Air for $760 – a bargain! — and ordered it with gusto.

Many of us are reeling from the ever-increasing prices of consumer electronics driven by an industry-wide shortage of memory components, so I’ll let you in on a secret.

On March 3, Apple began taking orders for the $1,100 MacBook Air with the latest M5 chip. That day I ordered the previous model, a MacBook Air with an M4 chip. Instead of buying a brand new computer, I went to Refurbished Apple part you get about $240 off the original price.

A few days later, the refurbished laptop arrived in Apple’s original, carefully designed packaging. The laptop’s screen was covered with protective plastic and included typical accessories, a charging cube and a cable.

Coincidentally, around the same time, The New York Times sent me a brand new M4 MacBook Air for work. When I compared it side-by-side with my wife’s laptop, the machines were unrecognizably pristine. I had a hunch the refurbished one was either a pristine return or unsold new inventory.

Refurbished Apple products go through a rigorous refurbishing process to ensure customers receive a product with the level of quality they expect from the brand, according to the company.

Like used cars, used electronics is a booming industry that could grow about $153 billion this yearaccording to a survey by Global Market Insights. And with a global computer memory shortage driving up the cost of items like game consolesmartphones and computers, used electronics can look increasingly attractive to consumers hoping to replace old hardware within their budgets.

I mostly stopped buying brand new electronics a few years ago after realizing the cost savings were so substantial and the downsides trivial. I’ve purchased used hardware including high-end Macs, iPads, and iPhones from various sites, including Amazon and Facebook Marketplace. The experience wasn’t perfect—I ended up with a pair of crappy AirPods once. But I didn’t regret most of my purchases.

There is a smart method to buying used electronics. Here are the lessons I learned.

Two years ago, I finally decided to retire my home computer, a 13-year-old iMac, and was looking for another option. I concluded that Apple’s miniature desktop computer, the Mac Mini, which retails for around $600 to $700, would be the cheapest replacement. A lot of it was posted on Facebook Marketplace by individual sellers for half price, so I decided to try my luck and buy a computer there for the first time.

After messaging a few vendors, I got a good vibe from John, a young hospital worker, who agreed to meet me at a coffee shop in San Francisco. He kindly brought a display, keyboard and mouse to connect to the computer to demonstrate that it worked; it even walked me through the setup process to show that the device was not locked by a password or any corporate management software. I opened some apps and also tried the speakers and the power button.

Everything checked out, and my cheap Mac Mini remains my go-to for this column.

I’ll admit I was less thorough with another product, a pair of refurbished AirPods marked “as new” from Amazon for $80, about $100 less than retail. A month after using the product, I realized that “Find My”, the software feature used to locate the AirPods in case they go missing, was not working properly because the headphones were still linked to the previous owner’s account. Fortunately, Amazon gave me a partial refund.

This experience shows how good business can sometimes lead people to make bad decisions. In retrospect, buying used earplugs – a product that has touched another person’s body – was clearly not a great idea and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

Nathan Proctor, director of US PIRG, a non-profit consumer protection group, added more examples to the list of products to avoid: TV screens that tend to be bulky and fragile, printers that wear out over time, and smartwatches with bands that get ruined by other people’s sweat.

While I felt comfortable buying a cheap computer from Facebook, I preferred to buy more expensive products like tablets and smartphones from bigger brands that offered protection including generous return policies.

When Apple announced the iPhone 17 last September, I decided it was a good opportunity to find a deal on the previous year’s high-end iPhone, the 16 Pro. I found one marked “refurbished – excellent” on Amazon for $800, $300 off the retail price.

A few days later the product arrived in a bland brown cardboard box. Upon inspection, I noticed a slight scratch in the center of the screen that was impossible to ignore.

Annoyed, I clicked the button to chat with an Amazon customer service agent. After I described the problem, Amazon agreed to ship a replacement phone the next day.

I won the lottery with my second iPhone. It was flawless and when I checked the device’s battery history I saw that it had only been charged once, meaning it was probably a barely touched shop. I wouldn’t have had such luck if I had bought this phone online from a random seller who lacked a generous return policy.

Plenty of reputable resale retailers, including Back Market and VIP Outlet, have good return policies, according to US PIRG, which posted used electronics buying guide.

To reduce your chances of getting a lemon, the safest bet is to buy a refurbished product directly from the big brand that makes it, like I bought my wife’s MacBook Air from Apple’s refurbished web store.

To get the most value when buying used, you want the equipment to last. But all technical products have a limited lifespan. Companies stop providing them with software updates over time, components like batteries wear out, and some devices are too difficult or expensive to repair when parts like screens break.

Apple, Samsung and Google generally release phone software updates for up to seven years. So a simple rule of thumb when considering a used product is to look for devices manufactured no more than two years ago. This ensures that the device still has at least five years of support remaining from the company.

When it comes to battery replacement and general device maintenance, France now requires companies to publish their product scores based on ease of disassembly and parts retrieval. (For example, the iPhone 16 Pro has a rating of 8.1 on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the easiest to repair.) Third parties such as iFixit, a website that publishes product repair instructions, also provide products such ratings.

If sifting through those scores sounds like too much work, do just one thing: Before you buy any used laptop or phone, do a quick web search on the cost of a new battery and the replacement process, said Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit.

“That will direct me to one product or another that can take some of the stress out of buying something used,” he said.