Buying a refurbed PS3..

[TechBoyJK]

My roommate is thinking about getting a pS3 with his tax return. In a bid to save money, he was going to try and buy a used one, but I'm think refurbed would be the way to go if he doesnt want to buy new.

Thoughts?

http://www.ebgames.com/ps3/consoles/...urbished/72446

 

[purbeast0]

i'd never buy a used/refurb console, but that's just me. $50 more for a brand new item is more than worth the guarantees knowing it's the newest model with no issues at all in it's prior ownership.

 

[DaveSimmons]

You save $50 but give up:
- 80 GB of disk space, the Slim is 160 GB
- Power use, the Slim uses less
- Genuine brand-new Dual Shock 3 vs. ??? ("style may vary", Nyko?)
- 1 year warranty vs. ??? (none listed)

Out-of-warranty repairs cost $150 so you really want the full year warranty.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Yuck, I'd rather spend $299 at Amazon to get a brand new slim AND get a $50 GC amazon on top.

EB games charges tax and possibly shipping, so you're looking at another $20-30 extra.

So...what looks better:

$280 for a refurb

- or -

$299 + $50 amazon GC for newest model brand new.

 

[zerocool84]

Yea like everyone has said, $50 is barely any savings. If it was $100 I'd think about it but it's only $50.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Yuck, I'd rather spend $299 at Amazon to get a brand new slim AND get a $50 GC amazon on top.

EB games charges tax and possibly shipping, so you're looking at another $20-30 extra.

So...what looks better:

$280 for a refurb

- or -

$299 + $50 amazon GC for newest model brand new.

Thanks for the amazon idea.. That sounds smarter.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Where do you get the $50 amazon gift card?

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

The only reason to buy a used PS3 would be if you had a need for PS2 backwards compatibility.

 

[TechBoyJK]

The only reason to buy a used PS3 would be if you had a need for PS2 backwards compatibility.

Well this is a good reason then.. because he has a bunch of PS2 games and his ps2 is dead.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Where do you get the $50 amazon gift card?

Hmm....well it looks like the deal may not be on amazon right now. I thought it was.

I remember seeing this deal a few times this year already, so maybe it'll come back soon.

 

[Schfifty Five]

This was the deal I saw last monday:

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2731389

 

[boshuter]

My old fat ps3 was dying a few weeks ago and I went looking for a replacement. Gamestop had the 120gig slim refurb for $279, or new 160gig for $300..... no brainer for me, I've got the 160gig

 

[fbrdphreak]

The Amazon deal with $50 credit is dead. You need to wait a few weeks to see if another one pops up. You can subscribe for a price alert here: http://www.logicbuy.com/deals/ps3-slim-160gb-console/25495.aspx

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Well this is a good reason then.. because he has a bunch of PS2 games and his ps2 is dead.

I live in Atlanta and there is usually a few 60gb PS3's listed every week on Craigslist. I would buy new if at all possible though. Consoles these days are subject to all kinds of use abuse, especially by modder who will mess it up then get it working again only for it to die a month or three down the road.

 

[I4AT]

Why buy refurb when you can get an as-is YLOD PS3 for parts on Ebay? Don't worry, there's buyer protection!

 

[fbrdphreak]

Why buy refurb when you can get an as-is YLOD PS3 for parts on Ebay? Don't worry, there's buyer protection!

LOLZ

 

[darkewaffle]

I'm going with a used PS3. However it's not something I'd buy off ebay/CL/the like, I messaged a few people on here and some other forums I'm active on to find one, since I wasn't going to have any luck finding a new 60GB PS3 of course. If I didn't have a lot of PS2 games still around I'd definitely have just gone with a new deal, but I know I got one from a good trader who takes care of his equipment, so I'm not too worried. Worst comes to worst, I have to fix it someday.

 

[chalmers]

I'm going with a used PS3. However it's not something I'd buy off ebay/CL/the like, I messaged a few people on here and some other forums I'm active on to find one, since I wasn't going to have any luck finding a new 60GB PS3 of course. If I didn't have a lot of PS2 games still around I'd definitely have just gone with a new deal, but I know I got one from a good trader who takes care of his equipment, so I'm not too worried. Worst comes to worst, I have to fix it someday.

You can get used slim PS2's on CL for like $40. I'd rather get that and a new PS3, but that's just my opinion.

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

You can get used slim PS2's on CL for like $40. I'd rather get that and a new PS3, but that's just my opinion.

One additional factor to consider is that even though the PS2 software is compatible on PS3 models that support it, some of the more specialized hardware (e.g. DDR, Guitar Hero) might not be, even if you have the appropriate USB to PS2 port adapter. In addition, you need an adapter if you're trying to transfer saved games from PS2 memory cards to the PS3 hard drive.

 

[darkewaffle]

You can get used slim PS2's on CL for like $40. I'd rather get that and a new PS3, but that's just my opinion.

Oh I've got a fat PS2 and a slim PS2 around here already, but they just don't look too hot on my modern TV and I'm trying to limit the amount of cabinet space I need haha. The PS3 is mostly for the upscaling and native high degree of compatibility in a single unit. I'd considered going the emulation route for PS2 but I'm not sure my HTPC is quite up to the task and I'm just as happy to keep things simple. Plus I got what I consider a pretty nice deal. I wish there were PS3s with the slim's footprint and power requirement and the hardware backwards compatibility, but I'll make do.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Note that component cables for the real PS2 look almost as good as the PS3's upscaling, at least on my 50" 1080p Samsung DLP.

 

[chalmers]

Oh I've got a fat PS2 and a slim PS2 around here already, but they just don't look too hot on my modern TV and I'm trying to limit the amount of cabinet space I need haha. The PS3 is mostly for the upscaling and native high degree of compatibility in a single unit. I'd considered going the emulation route for PS2 but I'm not sure my HTPC is quite up to the task and I'm just as happy to keep things simple. Plus I got what I consider a pretty nice deal. I wish there were PS3s with the slim's footprint and power requirement and the hardware backwards compatibility, but I'll make do.

Oh ok, yeah that makes sense. I wish there were PS3's like that too...I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

 

[darom]

Personally, I'd stay away from used refurb'ed PS3. I bought a used PS3 from eBay with a 30-day warranty, backward compat. model. It died with YLOD on the 34th day. Of course, my attempt to exchange it was unsuccessful. When I opened up the unit, I saw that the ebay outlet already had tried to fix it by reheating the circuit board.

I did the same 'fix' to it which lasted 2 weeks. Then it died again with the same YLOD. At this point, I said f**k it and bought a brand new one from Amazon with my Amex card to get an extra year of warranty. I learnt an expensive lesson.

 

[Malak]

I'm going with a used PS3. However it's not something I'd buy off ebay/CL/the like, I messaged a few people on here and some other forums I'm active on to find one, since I wasn't going to have any luck finding a new 60GB PS3 of course. If I didn't have a lot of PS2 games still around I'd definitely have just gone with a new deal, but I know I got one from a good trader who takes care of his equipment, so I'm not too worried. Worst comes to worst, I have to fix it someday.

I put up a CL ad for my fat PS3 and got zero responses. I have a coworker thinking of doing a trade with me, slim for fat. I don't use the backwards compatibility, but the only reason I want to get the slim is because of a PS Move stand that only works with the slim.

 

[regpfj]

Microcenter has refurb'ed 40gb PS3s for 199 plus tax. I bought one and it seems fine to me. Maybe it uses 100W more than a brand new slim, but it will still take 3.2 years playing 40 hours a week @ $0.15 / kw hr to burn the difference.