Buying a 2nd hand Xbox360

[james_d]

So, a recent ebay spree netted me a spare £160, and with the recent news of the GTA4 on the PC, it looks like it'll be lot more economical to just buy a 360 rather than upgrade my ancient Skt-A setup - I was holding out an upgrade till the release of GTA4 to see what was required, but I'll hold out till HL2 EP3 instead now. I played the GTA3 series on a PS2, so actually prefer it on a console anyway.

So, mentioning this to a friend with a 360, he's bored of it and looking to sell, currently got 35(!) games to go with it.

I'm a bit reluctant to buy a 2nd hand one though, it's an early 20gb model he got not too long after launch, and the newer ones are apparently less prone to RROD and a little bit quieter aswell. I've little experience of this though, so wondering any hexite's opinion on this?

If it is worth buying second hand, what's a reasonably price to offer him without taking the piss. He has no idea, neither do I. Either just straight price for the console or something along the lines of £160 and include x number of games - how many would be right?

[spazman]

NEVER buy a 2nd hand Xbox 360, the warranty is the most precious thing you can have with it. I manage a games store, the number of faulty 360's we get in is STAGGERING. Spend a bit more and get a new one, you KNOW it will go wrong at some point.

[Skinleech]

New Arcade consoles are about £130 now, and you could get a 2nd hand 20gb hdd for £30 easily.

Don't go 2nd hand...

[digit]

I agree with the advice given in this thread, unless his console has already been repaired its not worth the risk ... As potentially if it does go wrong you've got no cover unless he'd be willing to send it off in his name etc but thats hassle...

[tigerboyce]

Plus you can wait a little and get a Jasper

[Stewart]

So, a recent ebay spree netted me a spare £160, and with the recent news of the GTA4 on the PC, it looks like it'll be lot more economical to just buy a 360 rather than upgrade my ancient Skt-A setup - I was holding out an upgrade till the release of GTA4 to see what was required, but I'll hold out till HL2 EP3 instead now. I played the GTA3 series on a PS2, so actually prefer it on a console anyway.

So, mentioning this to a friend with a 360, he's bored of it and looking to sell, currently got 35(!) games to go with it.

I'm a bit reluctant to buy a 2nd hand one though, it's an early 20gb model he got not too long after launch, and the newer ones are apparently less prone to RROD and a little bit quieter aswell. I've little experience of this though, so wondering any hexite's opinion on this?

If it is worth buying second hand, what's a reasonably price to offer him without taking the piss. He has no idea, neither do I. Either just straight price for the console or something along the lines of £160 and include x number of games - how many would be right?

Is that 35 full retail games, or are most of them XBLA games?

[james_d]

35 games full retail. Never bought a game 2nd hand, so no idea how much that should be worth.

Well, this pretty much confirms the decision I'd come to really anyway - I know they're a little unreliable, but was wondering if it's just the usual bias in negative reporting. I'd be willing to take the risk if it was cheap enough, but given the failure rate I'd only want to pay about £60 or so for the console, which is probably a lot less than what he has in mind.
Besides, if newer ones are quieter it'll probably be a better option, and doing some research it seems the earlier ones didn't have HDMI output, which will be an issue - the computer's using the VGA port on the TV.

Jasper versions... are these not out already? Anyway of telling without looking at one? I was just going to order one from Amazon as it includes an HDMI cable and a game for £10.

[Stephen C]

I've got 3 Xbox 360's at present and I've had a total of 6.
I don't know why people seem to think the newer versions are quiter because well, from experience they're really not.

My 2 quietest consoles are both launch models with Samsung drives.
My loudest and somewhat annoying is a 1.5 week old Premium with HDMI and Liteon drive.

It's probably completely irrelevant what revision the system is and more or less down to individual consoles.

As for failure rate, I've only had 1 RROD and that was a Falcon Arcade console.
Also had DVD drives fail on me twice.

[Butuz]

Mines a second hand early 20gb model. - hasn't put a foot wrong....well....since the last time it visited MS Service Centre

My mate sends mine back as he bought it new

Butuz

[Haiku32]

NEVER buy a 2nd hand Xbox 360, the warranty is the most precious thing you can have with it. I manage a games store, the number of faulty 360's we get in is STAGGERING. Spend a bit more and get a new one, you KNOW it will go wrong at some point.

Had my xbox since launch and never ever had anything wrong with it. No dvd drive acting up, no red lights...nothing .

[Bunjiweb]

ditto as above.... I would however personally wait for the so called "jasper" batches which should be arriving after xmas...

Ben

[Skinleech]

Jasper versions... are these not out already? Anyway of telling without looking at one? I was just going to order one from Amazon as it includes an HDMI cable and a game for £10.

http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3472

[JimmyBoy]

as for the second hand console, has your mate registered it? and how old is it? because i bought a second hand one, a few years back and until recently it was great but it invitably red ringed but seeign as it had never been registered with ms i had no problems in getting them to repair it its still got just under a year left on its extended warrenty aswell

[watforddude]

I wouldnt say no to getting a second hand one.

i baught mine from cash coverters for 95 pounds with two wireless controllers, 20GB hardrive and call of duty 4. been going fine since i got it. but i dont know if thats becuase i have it next to the window which is always open so it keeps it nice a cool? but it worked for me.

[Rob_B]

New Arcade consoles are about £130 now, and you could get a 2nd hand 20gb hdd for £30 easily.

Don't go 2nd hand...

..or a 20GB from MS for £19.99, or just buy a live starter kit (headset, 3months gold + 60gb HDD for about £50-odd)

I'm happy with mine at the moment, about a year old, no problems but if I was buying now I'd get a new one Why not just buy some cheap games off him? Otherwise for an old console (no HDMI i'd guess) I'd pay no more than say £50 (console only) considering arcades can be had for under £100.

[james_d]

Why not just buy some cheap games off him? Otherwise for an old console (no HDMI i'd guess) I'd pay no more than say £50 (console only) considering arcades can be had for under £100.

Well, I said to him on Saturday I'd only be willing to pay about £50-60 or so given it's 3 years old, no HDMI etc, so wait till he's had a think see what he says. I'll probably grab some games of him anyway.

No hurry now, wouldn't have minded one in time for christmas, but looking at the jasper situation I think I'll wait till new year. I've found this thread to watch so will just wait for some news http://www.avforums.com/forums/xbox-...please-13.html