I know eBay is great for buying games cheaply and also finding rarities, but would it be safe to buy computer hardware, especially video cards, from eBay?
I personally buy most of my stuff from www.newegg.com. They've always been good to me. User reviews of each item help lety ou know some things you might not know about the products too.
There's always www.pricewatch.com to check out which company has the best prices at a given time.
PC hardware ain't that cheap on ebay. I can usually get better prices by going into a brick and mortor store. The only thing I find cheap on ebay would probably be DDR2 memory.
I've acquired several input devices from eBay(obscure ones like the SpaceOrb 360, expensive but common ones like the CH Pro Pedals USB, and maybe my Steel Battalion set counts too with that huge controller), as well as a couple pieces of legacy equipment for old games(a Voodoo 2 12 MB and a SB AWE64 Gold ISA). Never had a bad deal so far, except for my very first auction, when the seller didn't ship the advertised GCN component cable(the Big N's online store had them on back order at the time; otherwise, I would have acquired the cable there). Would I buy modern PC parts from eBay, though? I'm not really sure on that one, as I'm more likely to just hit Newegg or some other well-known retailer to make sure I don't get screwed over. That's assuming that you're talking about just one particular component, as I would NEVER try to build a full computer out of parts from seperate eBay auctions(the shipping charges will bite you in the ass, plus it's harder to keep track of everything as opposed to getting everything from a place like Newegg).
yeah Ebay's prices are usually around the same as any retail store (or website) so its not much of a bargain place for latest computer hardware.
I dont think you will have problems with stuff you buy on Ebay as long as you read all the product details before buying. I usually buy things new/sealed, even if they are OEM, so it's been a good experience for me as far as hardware goes on Ebay.
But yeah just remember, things can start out really cheap ($10 for 8800GTX factory sealed) but by the time the auction ends, its gona blow up to the regular retail price u can find on Newegg, if not higher.
Back when my Opty 185 was an $850 processor, I managed to get it for only $400from eBay. Never had a problem with it. It's been running at 3.0GHz since day one (default is 2.6GHz, btw).
a video card is a bit iffy, lots of stuff can go wrong with buying computer parts from ebay. I myself would not unless its a great deal. few months ago i purchased a G15 for $40 and it works great...so i guess it all depends. look at the sellers rating make sure there's no negative feedback about broken hardware.
Log in to comment