5 Things to Check Before Buying Any Open Box Electronics

By OpenBoxit Team · 2026-04-09

Open box electronics are one of the best ways to save money on tech. But not every open box listing is a winner. Some are genuinely great deals. Others are mediocre discounts dressed up to look impressive. And a few are outright scams.

Here are five things to check before you buy anything.

1. The Return Policy

This is the most important thing. A good return policy is your safety net. If the product has a hidden defect or does not meet your expectations, you need to be able to send it back.

Best Buy: Same return window as new products (usually 15 days, 60 days for TotalTech members).

eBay Certified Refurbished: 30-day money-back guarantee plus 1-2 year warranty.

Amazon Renewed: 90-day replacement or refund guarantee.

Woot: 30-day return policy on most items.

If a seller offers no returns on an open box item, think twice. There is usually a reason they do not want it back.

2. The Condition Grade

Not all open box items are in the same condition. Most major retailers grade their open box inventory:

• Excellent / Like New: No visible signs of use. Functionally perfect. This is what you want.
• Good / Satisfactory: Minor cosmetic wear (small scratches, scuffs). Works perfectly. Usually the best value.
• Fair / Acceptable: Noticeable cosmetic wear. Functions properly but shows signs of use. Biggest discounts but most compromise.

For electronics you will look at daily (monitors, laptops), go with Excellent or Good. For components inside a case (GPUs, motherboards, PSUs), cosmetic condition barely matters.

3. The Seller's Reputation

This matters most on marketplace platforms like eBay. A seller with 10,000+ positive feedback and a 99%+ rating is not going to risk their reputation over one bad sale. A seller with 3 feedback and a brand new account selling a $2,000 GPU at 50% off is almost certainly a scam.

On OpenBoxit, we filter out eBay sellers with fewer than 20 feedback and less than 95% positive ratings. But if you are shopping on your own, always check.

For major retailers (Best Buy, Woot, Amazon), seller reputation is not a concern. They stand behind their products.

4. What is Included

Open box items sometimes ship without original accessories. A monitor might be missing its stand. A GPU might not include the power adapter. A laptop might not have the charger.

Before buying, check the listing details for what is included. Missing accessories are usually cheap to replace, but factor that cost into your savings calculation. A $50 discount on a monitor that needs a $40 replacement stand is not much of a deal.

5. The Actual Savings

This is where many people get tricked. Some retailers inflate the "original price" to make a modest discount look impressive. A product listed at "50% off $400" sounds amazing until you realize the product was never actually $400. It retails for $250 everywhere.

Before buying any open box deal:

• Search the product name and check the current new price on 2-3 other sites
• Look at price history on sites like CamelCamelCamel (for Amazon) or PCPartPicker (for components)
• Calculate your actual savings against the real street price, not the inflated list price

On OpenBoxit, we verify savings against actual retail prices before publishing any deal. That is the whole point of what we do.

The Quick Checklist

If a deal passes all five checks, buy with confidence. If it fails on return policy or seller reputation, skip it no matter how good the price looks.

Browse verified open box deals on OpenBoxit. Every listing has already been checked.