ebay question

[alpinusa]

hi, i am posting this question here because i think you guys may know something about this. I have been looking at many custom systems on ebay and they say that the system is brand new. Is there anyway of actually knowing when they put together the system and if the components are actually new. (Other than goin on good faith). i dont know much about computers but maybe when the first time the computer is booted up there might be a date or something that says ok this is when it was first turned on. Am i even using the correct terminology lol... please any help would be greatly appreciated( i dont want to get ripped off)

thank you

 

[mpjesse]

There's really no way to know for sure without asking the seller for the specific components in the system. Focus on the seller's feedback history and look for any negatives or neutrals that state something like "system is outdated or has used components or crappy components."

You can find some really, really great deals on eBay. But with that comes as many if not more bad ones.

My advice is to be weary- but don't necessarily assume the seller is trying to rip you off. I've bought plenty of good stuff cheap on eBay. I bought 2x XFX 7800GTX Factory OC'd on eBay for <$500 each. Both were retail boxed and unused. At the time, those cards were going for about $580 on newegg, ewiz, and others. So there's plenty of great deals to be had!

-mpjesse

 

[Caboose-1]

When ebay started it was small, and much unknown and basically ran completely off good faith and trust. Now its much more secure, I would have to say. Haven't bought anything off ebay for quite sometime though. As Mr. Mp said, many good deals to be had on ebay but look at the seller's feedback to get a better idea if the seller is purely legitimate or a fake. I think that the seller feedback is a good feature.

 

[cisco]

There are some good deals on ebay as mpjesse has wrote about and some bad deals. I personally wouldn't buy a system off ebay unless you know how to work on computers or know someone who does. Simply because I will not more than likely have any type of tech support. I have seen some great deal on Newegg on ABS computers. AMD 3200+ Athlon 64 for 450.00 since you don't know much about computers at least you would have newegg and ABS for help if there was a problem. Most of the things I have bought on EBAY have been fine. But I know when I buy on Ebay if it don't work it will be like pulling teeth to get a refund. The chances are if it is a person who sells a lot of computers it will probably be new but there is really no way to tell.

 

[alpinusa]

hmm... but isnt it true the first time u boot up a computer it has a date of somesort. for example here

it says amibios than builddate....

is that date always accurate or could it be made up

 

[Caboose-1]

That shit is tricked out. Im not a bios person but i would assume you could change that date somehow?