Refurbished GPS

Buying a refurbished GPS is obviously the right idea. We have shown why that is so in posts about how a refurbished GPS saves money and buying refurbished is a good idea. Now we want to show where a person might buy one of these devices.

The most obvious place for people to look will be the internet. There are certainly many different possibilities out there for those looking to buy online, and one of them is Amazon. They literally have tons and tons of products to offer, including many factory refurbished products in their electronics section. If you are looking to find what Amazon might have to offer then feel free to check out this store dedicated to refurb’ed GPS (store). Amazon is a very large company and has grown in trust in the online market for years and years, so if you are new to buying products online you can trust Amazon.

Another popular option is eBay. This online auction retailer is also home to regular merchants who sell their wares on the website for a fixed price. If you want to buy a used device or you want to find a retailer offering a lower price than you could find on another site or in a store then eBay might be the source for you.

Buy.com is another online retailer that has some clout in the online purchasing world. However, a quick search of their site for “refurbished GPS” returns very few actual results. Not only do you get a GPS or two, but you also get mp3 players, computers, external hard drives, and digital cameras. Nobody wants to have to sift through 25 thumbnails to try and find the device you are looking for. Just because of this I would stick to the Amazon store I mentioned above.

After these online retailers you still have all the local retailers that your community offers. Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry’s, Radio Shack, and even Staples offer some type of electronic navigation units. Of these choices though, it will be difficult to find one that carries a refurbished item. This is especially true of Radio Shack. Since these stores are locally owned but buy into the Radio Shack franchise they have less access to the factory manufacturers and don’t have the scale necessary to make deals with the producers. They probably only stock new GPS units.

Best Buy, Circuit City, and Staples, though large national chains, probably won’t have a refurbished GPS either. They are generally trying to get products into the hands of the consumers that will generate them the most profit from the fewest number of sales, and refurbished items simply don’t do that. So they focus on new products that are significantly more expensive than their online counterparts.

Probably the best place to buy refurbished electronics is Fry’s. They often have deals on these types of items regularly, and since they are an electronics warehouse they are able to make deals with manufactures to get them regularly. They have refurbished desktops, mp3 players, xbox 360s, cell phones, and more. You might have to look around a while to find a weekend when they have what you want and to search get there pretty early to actually get the item, but these deals can be seriously worth it.

When it comes down to if, you need to be comfortable with the place you purchase your item and just how much you spend. Take your time, it will probably work to your advantage. After all, the cost of technology is generally on the downward trend.

Finding the appropriate retailer for your refurbished GPS device is important. Many times we can find refurbished items in the stores where we normally make our electronic purchases, but this is not always the case. Additionally, traveling to the store to possibly find the product you are looking for can take time that you are unwilling to spend in that way. For many, making the trip is inconvenient and the risk of not finding the product you are are trying to find makes these types of excursions rare. Luckily, there are some different options for individuals like this.

The first would be to call ahead and check to see if the store has any refurbished GPS in stock. This is not a good option. Finding the numbers for the store you are trying to get to can be a big hassle, especially if the first few stores do not have the item you are looking for. Phone books can be a hassle. Alternatively, you could check the stores contact information on the internet. This is faster than using the phone book to find your GPS distributer, but it really isn’t much different than the second option: check on Amazon.

Amazon is a great way find products for prices that are comparable or even cheaper than going out to traditional stores. Also, since GPS units are traditionally expensive, you will most likely be eligible for the free shipping option that is available on many Amazon products. This beats having to get in your car and burn gas (which means burning money), a savings that not only affects your pocket book but also could contribute to less green house emissions.

What follows is a smattering of the refurbished GPS devices as available on Amazon. If you can’t find what you are looking for, you can always follow this link (Amazon: refurbished GPS) and search yourself.

Garmin

• Garmin StreetPilot c330 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Factory-Refurbished)
• Garmin StreetPilot c340-R Vehicle GPS Device - REFURBISHED
• Garmin Nuvi 660 Personal GPS Navigation with 4.3″ Widescreen Bluetooth (Refurbished)

TomTom

• TomTom GO 510 4-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Factory Refurbished)
• TomTom One Third Edition Auto Navigation System (Refurbished)
• TomTom ONE Portable GPS Automobile Navigator (Refurbished)

Magellan

• Magellan Maestro 3100 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator, Refurbished
• Magellan Maestro 3200 Auto Navigation System Refurbished
• Magellan RoadMate 6000T Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator and MP3 Player (Refurbished)

The reason you are looking for a refurbished GPS is because you are in the market to save some of your hard earned money. You know that your dollars just don’t go as far as they used to and you don’t want the rising cos of gas, food, and housing to eat into your ability to buy an unnecessary gadget or two. By going the refurbished route you are choosing to forgo the comfort of buying a ‘new’ device and instead choosing the wiser, more cost effective route.

We have already gone into detail concerning why buying a refurbished GPS is good, but in that discussion we did not go into detail concerning the financial benefits. Here is an example of the financial impact a refurbished GPS can have over the lifetime of a twenty-five year old.

Before we get into it, let’s make a few basic assumptions for out thought experiment. Right now on Amazon.com there is a TomTom One Third Edition Vehicle Navigation GPS with a regular price of $195.95. The refurbished versions of TomTom One Third Edition Vehicle Navigation GPS (Refurbished) is also being sold on Amazon.com for $149.99 regularly. That represents a savings of 23.45%. This will be the baseline savings we will use to calculate all future GPS purchases.

Another assumption we will be making is that a new GPS unit will be bought every 3 years. The price of each new purchase will increase 3% to simulate inflation and to mimic the price of the same grade device purchased throughout the years. Though the cost of technology is decreasing in relative terms, the latest and greatest is usually accompanied by stable or increasing prices.

In the first year of purchase the individual saves $45.96 which they invest in their high yield savings account. For the sake of the experiment let us suppose this account returns 3.75% annually and the return of the account is taxed at 5%. Over the first year the value of the money saved is $47.60. After two years it is $49.29. And after three it is $51.05. The money has grown a total of $5.09 over the first buying cycle.

At the end of the third year a new refurbished GPS is bought at $163.90 (new price for a new device after inflation adjustment is $214.12 without the 23.45% discount of refurbishment). The savings of $50.22 are added to the $51.05 already in the account, brining the new total to $101.27. The fourth year grows the pot to $104.88, the fifth to $108.61, and the sixth to $112.48. Already the savings from buying the refurbished GPS device is significant.

If we continue this pattern over the course of 10 buying cycles the total amount of money saved on the purchase price of the GPS units will be $704.42. With the power of compounding interest minus taxes this will have grown to $1221.81 - a 72.71% growth. When adjusted for inflation this has the purchasing power to buy an additional 3 refurbished GPS devices. Our twenty-five year old individual (now fifty-five) will have a new device every three years until the age of sixty-four.

The scenario gets even better if the money saved were to be invested in stocks that returned 9% a year. If this were the case, the value of the money saved would be $704.42 (the same as before) but now the interest would have compounded to $2224.09, pushing the total to $2931.51 - a very significant difference. The overall gain would be 314.39%! This money would last indefinitely, supplying a similar caliber GPS debice for the twenty-five year old’s children’s children’s children.

Or, this twenty-five year old could, at age 55, turn this into a 177.79 yearly contribution (interest at 7% a year minus a 3% inflation hedge) and provide anti-viral drugs to 177 individuals in a Malawi village struck by the AIDS pandemic in the first year alone. Just imagine, 177 lives impacted every year forever because you decided to buy a refurbished product to save some money.

This article was included in The Carnival of Personal Finance: American Flag Edition over at Mighty Bargain Hunter

The most important benefit of buying a refurbished GPS is its price. Often times, a refurbished item is offered at a significant discount due to some previously fixed internal defect or an aesthetic flaw. This item is therefore essentially the same as a new item with two major differences: a history of problems and a cheaper price.

Neither of these differences is a good reason to not buy a refurbished GPS device. Let us examine both of them in order, starting with the objection that says that a device with a history of problems will continue to have problems. This is a notion that appears to have a lot of evidence in real life situations. Once our cars begin to have problems, it is often the case that the car appears to always be having some problem or another. The tires go flat; then the radiator leaks; then a belt breaks, then new brakes are needed. All of these problems really are not related to each other, but we attribute the problem to the car being somehow deficient.

In reality, there is very little corelation between any of these problems. Instead, the reason that the unit is malfunctioning is because of the wear and tear that use and poor maintenance has created on your vehicle. The human mind, however, places the blame on the device rather than on the person operating and maintaining it.

With a refurbished GPS, the device has been found deficient in the early stages of its use and has been rectified by the manufacturer. Maybe a certain component had something wrong with it or there was user error in putting together the device. These are often problems that only require a small fix in order to get the unit up to production standards. Once these fixes have been made, the device should be working as it normally does just as if it were new. If there is a problem at some future point with the device then it much more likely that the problem will be a result of user error than it will be a manufacturing malfunction. Therefore you can assume that any problem you face with your refurbished device would have been the exact same problem you would have run into with a item that you bought as new.

Up to now we have only examined the mechanical reasons for refurbishment, but if the GPS device is being sold under the refurbished label only because it has a small cosmetic defect most of the perceived problems associated with buying a refurbished item should quickly be dissolved. Not buying it because its looks are not perfect is simply paying to be vain. The functionality of the refurbished GPS is exactly the same as a new one, but instead of paying full price for the exact same function you get to buy it at a significantly reduced price. Not to take advantage of this deal is simply vanity.

For both reasons why items are refurbished, either because the item had a mechanical defect or cosmetic defect, there is simply no reason to not buy a refurbished item. The main reason for this is the excellent price reduction you receive because of the perception that these items will somehow be worse than ‘new’ items has already been debunked .

If you traffic the world of consumer electronics, you have probably heard the tag ‘refurbished’ attached to some product. This is particularly common in the arena of MP3 players, but it is also a label attached to many different types of devices. Everything from GPS units to cell phones to XBox 360s can be sold under the adjective ‘refurbished.’ But what does this little word mean?

According to Wikipedia, refurbishment is

the process of major maintenance or minor repair of an item, either aesthetically or mechanically.

Simply put, a refurbished item is a fixed item.

The reason behind the fix is somewhat of a more complex story. With some electronics, such as computers, the title can denote that the item did not pass the company that manufactured the item’s quality standards. The problem in the product is found at some point before the item gets to market and is subsequently fixed. As a result, the company is legally bound not to sell the product as ‘new’ since it under went modifications post-production. The item is labeled as ‘refurbished’ and offered at a significant discount.

These quality standards do not necessarily have to be functional in nature either. A chip in the unit, a small scratch along the screen, or a minor dent some cosmetic reasons why a GPS or any other production could be classified as refurbished. Even though the cosmetic appearance of the unit is flawed, it is still fully functional and did not require any replacement of parts.

Another instance where products can be labeled in this way is way is when they are opened and return by the user because it was defective. Often times complex electronic devices (like MP3 players and GPS) have relatively high return rates, giving the store and manufacturer an incentive to patch up the unit in order to turn around and sell it to another consumer. This way both the buyer and seller can benefit from refurbishment.

The benefits of buying a refurbished GPS (or any electronic device for that matter) is significant. You can get a significant price reduction while getting the exact same functionality of its ‘new’ counterpart. Many refurbished devices also have a warranty with the store or manufacturer which can cover you in the event that the device has additional malfunctioning parts.

This is by far the biggest risk behind purchasing a refurbished item - that a history of defect is indicative of future problems. While this could be true, I do not think that a refurbished item is any more likely to have additional defects in it than the ‘new’ counterpart. As a result I find that the significant savings that you can achieve buy purchasing a refurbished GPS item is well worth it when considering the cost versus risk factors.

Thank you for visiting Refurbished GPS. GPS technology is quickly making its way into households all over the globe. Companies are in a rush to create the latest and greatest products that will catapult them into the leadership position of this budding market. As a result, new products are constantly hitting the market - pushing the envelope of GPS technology and increasing its proliferation into every aspect of society. But just because there is always a new gadget coming out does not mean that all the old GPS units out there are no good. Many of them have a lot of life left in them if treated properly and given some extra kick.

Here at Refurbished GPS our mission is to provide you with information that will make your purchase of a refurbished system easier and more enjoyable. If there is anything we can provide you with, please do not hesitate to let us know.