Buying Refurbished/used Graphics Cards?

[TTtheTremendous]

At what price reduction would you say it'd be worth it to buy a used video card (ex. a discount of $25, $50, $100)?

How many months of use from the previous owner would you say is too much?

Any tips, warnings, experiences you'd like to share?

Also where exactly would you look to buy refurbished (am i just not looking hard enough? )

 

[wa1]

I just want to share my experience here with used card. As you may see at the bottom of my signature rig, I've got HD5830 for free from my brother's friend. He said that the fan isn't working, so he buy a new one and he gave his hd5830 to me.

Curious about this card, I tried to run it inside my system and everything is fine except the fan, so I open the card, de-attach the original fan and use a normal case-fan on it and viola... Everything is good, just like new, playing many games and doesn't face any issue. Quite an upgrade from my HD4850.

So, I would say, if you want to get used card or furbished one, make sure it still works. If the seller give you a warranty then it's a good point for you as a buyer.
You can ask here to this forum, many members here are gamer or even hardcore gamer, they often upgrade their card with the latest one. So you can get advantage to buy a card from one of them.

 

[Gam3r01]

Similar thread here: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2827803/refurbished-gpus-ebay.html

Personally, I recommend buying new. You get a full warranty, full support, you know the condition the card will be in, and you know how it was treated (by you). With used, you never know how a card was treated, how poorly it was OCed or kept cool, or just flat out abused.
This is especially true with the 7xxx series and first gen R9 series cards, as many used cards are from the mining era and are completely destroyed.