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.
