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Would you buy a used CPU off of Ebay?

blake0812

Senior member
I'm looking at i5s here and Haswells are going for 10-50$ cheaper than retail prices. Though the usage may be a concern.
 
I buy all my CPU's from Ebay. Their return policy is full proof and you can easily return anything for refund if not satisfied.
 
Just bought a Xeon E5450 to play with and try out the mod to make it work in a socket 775 board. Yes it's old but I'm still excited about trying it. Even without overclocking it, it will breathe new life into an old box.
 
I would not buy a second hand Core i5 Haswell if the price was only $10 lower than retail price (new).
 
I wouldn't buy on eBay if I could get it new for about the same price.

I wouldn't buy a -K CPU on eBay, period. (Buy some burned out CPU from some amateur overclocker? No thanks.)

Following those rules, I've bought CPUs on eBay and have been happy.
 
Ebay/Paypal provides SO MUCH buyer protection that it is hard to go wrong IF the price is right. You will have to decide what a "good" deal is on one though. I too am looking at an i5 (unlocked in the $200 range. I wouldn't consider a used (unlocked) CPU unless it was in the $130 range (33% off). Just a personal opinion ...
 
Yes. I've had only one issue with a used 2500K though (faulty CPU but during installation of the CPU I accidentally dropped my Galaxy S4 right onto the CPU. So I blame myself, and not the seller). Otherwise I look for a seller good feedback.
 
depends...

non K model.. sure... no overclocking available on these cpu's so you know they were handled within spec.

a K model... no.... i dont know which "kid" has had his hands on it, and how hard he has treated the cpu.

Its like buying a used car from a person.
If its a teenager, i will keep away, without giving them a single ounce of doubt.
If its from a older person, it will lean my decision heavy, as i know that person probably wasnt reving it @ red line non stop.
 
LGA CPUs are more damage resistant than ever, the only caveat has been mentioned over and over, which is that an unlocked CPU has a higher chance of being a dud.

I've bought over a dozen CPUs from ebay and haven't received a bad one yet.
 
I've purchased about 8 used CPUs from ebay/amazon over the last few years, zero problems with any of them.

But worth mentioning, sometimes you can find a substantially better deal on a whole used computer than just the processor. I have seen i5 2400 systems selling for like $10 over what people wanted for a bare chip (no heatsink included). Really a no-brainer when you find a deal like that...
 
do you pay the return shipping out of pocket or is it covered under the policy?

Buyer will pay shipping if they just don't want it but if it is defective the seller should pay but out of the over 100 processors I have bought and sold on eBay I have yet to have one defective.
 
Just bought a Xeon E5450 to play with and try out the mod to make it work in a socket 775 board. Yes it's old but I'm still excited about trying it. Even without overclocking it, it will breathe new life into an old box.

Letting you know that I just did that trick with a L5420 was easy and worked great. I did have to mod the bios that that also was easy.

And for the OP I have bought and sold many on ebay and only issue I had was on one the post office failed to scan it in and it got lost for a bit but eventually I got it.
 
Ebay/Paypal provides SO MUCH buyer protection that it is hard to go wrong IF the price is right. You will have to decide what a "good" deal is on one though. I too am looking at an i5 (unlocked in the $200 range. I wouldn't consider a used (unlocked) CPU unless it was in the $130 range (33% off). Just a personal opinion ...
Word. Sellers can't leave negative feedback on buyers, and both eBay and PayPal cave to a buyer's fraudulent claims 99% of the time even with an abundance of proof (pics of item working, pics of item in box, pics of item at the post office, etc.)

The eBay/PayPal fees gangbang only adds insult to injury.
 
Yeah, it's pretty easy to get hosed as a seller there. I very rarely sell stuff at all anymore, especially LGA motherboards.
 
I bought some E3300 CPUs for $10 ea months ago on ebay. I stick to USA sellers. I thought that was a good deal, they are basically an E5200 with less cache memory.
 
I hear what people are saying about not having bad experiences in the past but I would always buy from a store unless the discount was significant.
 
Just make sure the seller has recent and positive feedback from sales (not as a buyer) and you should be fairly successfull.
 
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