Don't buy new gadgets.
New gadgets are expensive and unpredictable. A device that works great on its first day on a display shelf can fall apart after just a few months in your bag. It'll also sell for the highest price you'd ever have to pay for it.
Do the smart thing: Wait several months, check out long-term reviews of its durability and quality, then buy it used from an early adopter who's grown bored enough to sell it online.
The reality is very few products are actually worth what you pay for them in-store at the height of their releases. And any new toy you buy will look used within a week of its unboxing anyway. Unless you're swimming in cash, last year's (or month's) hot item is usually the better option to avoid breaking the bank.
Aging flagship devices are also usually better options than their up-to-date low-tier cousins. And if you make a habit of buying used after the sheen of newness wears off, you'll be able to outfit your lifestyle with much more high-quality tech than if you periodically blow a week's wages on the shiniest new thing.
Nearly every major tech purchase I've made in the last several years has come used from eBay, Amazon, or another similar site. And those that I have bought new I've largely regretted.
Both cameras I use in my photo work, Nikons D700 and D800, came lightly used from highly-rated third-party sellers. The D700 sold for $2,000 new when I bought it in 2012. I picked it up refurbished for $1,200. Once I'd made enough in gigs to justify a second shooter in 2013, I got a then-$3,000 D800 in excellent condition for $1,600.
Similarly, I've picked up nearly all my non-photo toys at fractions of their usual values. By being willing to forgo having the latest and hottest gadgets in their original packaging I've been able to explore products like the excellent $400 original Parrot Zik only a year late for $90. I used these headphones religiously for two more years before they literally fell apart on my head. If I'd felt compelled to waste money and time saving up for the Zik 2.0, I'd have probably ended up going without. When the time finally came to replace the Zik last month, a day or two of casual searching on eBay during my commute led me to a pair of $300 Bose QuietComfort 25s for less than a third of the price.
My point here isn't to lord over you some astonishing powers of thriftiness or huge energy I've invested in this project of acquiring cut-rate tech. This is all fairly low-effort, high-reward work; I'm not spending hours bidding on anything, just briefly hunting for excellent Buy-It-Now prices.
I hope to encourage you to avoid the major spend on techno-fetish objects. Sit with your wants and needs long enough and you'll waste less cheddar on the ones that will really change your life. (You'll likely also discover there are entrancing items whose appeal quickly recedes when you sit with the decision.)
Here are my recommendations for buying tech used:
- Keep a short list of things you really need, and another list of things you want.
- Set a maximum dollar amount you can justify spending on each one.
- Check eBay, Amazon, and other similar sites for used and refurbished prices that fall within that range.
- Make sure any seller you buy from has an excellent (at least 97%) rating and a long history of sales.
One sort of item you should be cautious about when buying used is anything with a battery you can't replace. Lithium-ion batteries degrade over time, and a used gadget with a fixed lithium-ion battery presents the risk of a short shelf-life, which is exactly the kind of inefficient purchase we're trying to avoid.
(Most smartphones unforunately fall into this category. Luckily the best affordable smartphone is the $220 16 gb Moto G3.)
With that major exception in mind, it's unquestionable that the best values in tech lie in the devices someone else already owns.
