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Where did the refurb market come from?

Lean L

Lean L

Diamond Member
I remember the first time I heard of refurb was probably around 2005 when I bought a set of sennheisers refurb'd from newegg.

Back then the concept was rather new and not many vendors had these options. Fast forward to today and just about all online electronic vendors have refurb as an option. Hell it feels like 40% of slickdeals is refurb.

Was the market always there and we are only recently tapping into it? What is creating the supply for refurb'd goods? Some of it is obviously just dented boxes or otherwise perfect products.

How are we getting batches of almost new products back to manufacturers? Is the supply as a result of demand? As in, are manufacturers creating new refurb markets to reach the cheap target market? Or have we become much more eco friendly as consumers? Even if that were the case, I don't see the eco friendly coalition buying new products every few months and recycling their almost new electronics.
 
It probably comes from increased competition online, which means thinner profit margins leading manufacturers and retailers to find ways to "recoup their losses on returned goods", as this New York Times article from 2005 points out. I think that was when consumer acceptance or willingness to try refurb products really started to boom. As long as the item works and the case or exterior has been replaced/cleaned by the manufacturer, a lot of consumers don't mind buying refurb if the item is discounted sufficiently.

And no, it's not a very green movement. Electronics repair shops in the past were more efficient (not economically viable anymore for dirt cheap electronics), but the world of technology is global and fast paced, and right now refurbishing electronics makes sense for these companies. If you are an online store especially, refurbs mean quicker turnaround for returned merchandised. Either send a customer a new item or send them a refurb instead of waiting for manufacturers to repair the returned item itself.
 
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Lean L said:
I remember the first time I heard of refurb was probably around 2005 when I bought a set of sennheisers refurb'd from newegg.

Back then the concept was rather new and not many vendors had these options. Fast forward to today and just about all online electronic vendors have refurb as an option. Hell it feels like 40% of slickdeals is refurb.

Was the market always there and we are only recently tapping into it? What is creating the supply for refurb'd goods? Some of it is obviously just dented boxes or otherwise perfect products.

How are we getting batches of almost new products back to manufacturers? Is the supply as a result of demand? As in, are manufacturers creating new refurb markets to reach the cheap target market? Or have we become much more eco friendly as consumers? Even if that were the case, I don't see the eco friendly coalition buying new products every few months and recycling their almost new electronics.
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I think compared to other items electronics return rate may be quite high! People either don't like it or they damage it or it was already damaged. Anyway, the manufactures know there is probably very little wrong with it anyway and rather to destroy it they will re-sell it as refurb to recoup.

I have a strong suspicion that many small cheap electronics may actually be refurb or using refurb components anyway.
 
It's been around longer than that really. It's not much different than the return clearance section Best Buy used to have.

I've bought so many return/refurb things over the years at great discounts and have never had any problem with them.
 
steppinthrax said:
I think compared to other items electronics return rate may be quite high! People either don't like it or they damage it or it was already damaged. Anyway, the manufactures know there is probably very little wrong with it anyway and rather to destroy it they will re-sell it as refurb to recoup.

I have a strong suspicion that many small cheap electronics may actually be refurb or using refurb components anyway.
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I'm questioning just how much is returned. There would need to be a cheap way to collect all the returns and process them. I imagine that cost along would amount to something significant.

On top of that the would examine it then at the very least clean it up before reselling. If the product is defective, a part will have to be replaced. I would think that the automated process to manufacture a product from scratch would be cheaper than to spend man hours examining a product and then paying someone to rebuild it on an individual basis. Isn't that the definition of economies of scale?
 
When I was 16-17 years old, my second job was doing PC repair in a computer shop....(like 1997). I grew up from a few factory stores that sold electronics from major manufacturers like TVs, CB radios, stereos, etc... I bought some of that stuff locally...but as I realized that I was poor and wanted cool stuff, I found that my buying power was a lot greater when I bought refurbished stuff.

I used to go to egghead.com and get refurbs off the auctions there. Some of my purchases were a Kenwood receiver and surround sound system (home theater in a box) for $169 shipped. ($500+ new at Circuit City) I bought a 27" Princeton Graphics CRT monitor with speakers for $300 shipped...and a Sony External USB CDRW drive (1999)...the others 1997/1998....

Refurbs are just manufacturers selling stuff they'd have to toss otherwise to cut their losses.
 
up until like 2010 i wouldnt touch a refurb with a 10 foot pole... this was after a handful of online orders that never came out well.
 
Refurbs have been around a LOT longer, just most stores don't want a cheaper product of any kind confusing customers or making them ask for price matching so the sales channels were less public, no advertising sometimes.

During the 90's places like Costco with super easy return privileges created a volume of good product returns that the old channels were not setup to handle.
 
Refurbished, AKA rebuilt, re-manufactured, and reconditioned, has been around for a very, VERY long time.
 
if you go to an outlet store it's either going to be excessive stock or returns. used to go quite frequently to the montgomery wards outlet in ft. worth before they crashed and burned.
 
Reminds me back in the early 90's when you could have a 120mb hard drive with 15mb of corrupt sectors and people couldn't wait to buy it at a discount! I fully disclosed the amount of bad sectors marked by chkdsk, people still wanted it at like 60% the cost of new. And I'm like, I'll keep selling them to you. 🙂
 
The concept was not even remotely "new" in 2005. It's also called "B-stock" and consists of much the same thing - returns, demos, blems - anything that could not be sold as new.
 
I think you pretty much answered your own question. The refurb market is now much more advertised BECAUSE of sites like slickdeals, and the maturity of online shopping. The market was there, we just have much better ways of knowing about and buying it now.
 
KeithTalent said:
Been around forever as far as I know.

KT
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This. Heck I bought "B stock" stereo equipment back in the seventies and eighties.

Refurbs can floor models (remember brick and mortar), returns that have been opened by the consumer or sometimes even just overstock (Logitech seems to do this a lot).

It depends on the product whether or not I'll buy a refurb. If it's the type of product that wears out (mouse, display) probably not, if it's the type of product that can be periodically problematic or overclocked, definitely not.
 
Thump553 said:
This. Heck I bought "B stock" stereo equipment back in the seventies and eighties.

Refurbs can floor models (remember brick and mortar), returns that have been opened by the consumer or sometimes even just overstock (Logitech seems to do this a lot).

It depends on the product whether or not I'll buy a refurb. If it's the type of product that wears out (mouse, display) probably not, if it's the type of product that can be periodically problematic or overclocked, definitely not.
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I actually do refurbishing. I buy product, refurb it, then sell it to wholesalers.

Product gets sold in 4 main categories: A, B, C and D stock. A is generally unopened, possibly opened but brand new. B is open box or used and looks and works good. C stock is my specialty where it used, shows signs of use and may have physical damage. D stock is generally FUBAR, parts only.

The nice thing about buying a refurb is it has usually been fully tested at least 3 times. Once when before I buy it, once after I refurb it and once when the wholesalers get it.
 
Lean L said:
I'm questioning just how much is returned. There would need to be a cheap way to collect all the returns and process them. I imagine that cost along would amount to something significant.

On top of that the would examine it then at the very least clean it up before reselling. If the product is defective, a part will have to be replaced. I would think that the automated process to manufacture a product from scratch would be cheaper than to spend man hours examining a product and then paying someone to rebuild it on an individual basis. Isn't that the definition of economies of scale?
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If a product is so defective that it would require a major repair, they scrap it and use the good parts from it to refurbish other products.

And as someone said, there are a LOT of returns for electronic goods. Take Amazon for example -- imagine the number of returns on Kindles just because people didn't want them or like them for whatever reason. All they have to do is clean them up, reset and update them, and they're good to go.

Apple iPad refurbs are even better -- they actually give you a new battery and typically put the electronics in a new case.
 
edro said:
It's been around forever, but it does seem like most of the good deals nowadays are refurbs.
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Yep. I bought a Kindle Paperwhite 2 refurb on sale recently and it was as good as new and was $40 cheaper than a new one. If you have confidence in the reseller, I don't see any reason not to buy a refurb in most cases. I probably would not buy refurb hard drives or SSDs, however.
 
I buy tons of refurb tools. Most come from Home Depots free tool use program where you buy the gear you need for a home project, then return it when the project is done. The manager at the local store told me that the return on airless sprayers is almost 100%.
 
Greenman said:
I buy tons of refurb tools. Most come from Home Depots free tool use program where you buy the gear you need for a home project, then return it when the project is done. The manager at the local store told me that the return on airless sprayers is almost 100%.
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Just so happens that I am in the market for an airless sprayer that I will likely only use for one project. 🙂
I wouldn't do that though... I just wouldn't feel right.
I believe in karma, and I also never return tools because I love them.

Actually, I did get a scope camera once and returned it after the use, but the resolution sucked and I really didn't like it.
 
Pretty much everything that gets returned to a retailer due to buyer's remorse gets sent back to the vendor, checked, and sold as a "refurb" through another outlet - most often the product was never even used. Very often, the buyer simply bought the wrong thing or had no idea how to set it up.
 
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