I prefer buying refurb laptops on eBay personally. eBay’s buyer protections are top tier, you can return the machine easily if it’s not exactly what was represented in the listing or if there’s any undisclosed damage or loss of function. Essentially you’re getting what the listing showed you or it’s like 5 clicks for a seller paid return label to send it back for a full refund (including any shipping costs both ways.)

Amazon is hit and miss in my experience, they care about their cut of that particular transaction and moving product out of the warehouse ASAP and not so much about whether you’re coming back to make more transactions in the future. Their customer service is atrocious too, you have to fight for a refund a lot of the time.

Edit, more detail in case you really want fleaBay to work for you:

If you’re going to shop eBay regularly go look up their buyer protection policies (so you know what they can and will do for you) and also take a look at the item condition and listing policies that apply to sellers.

Sellers often list items under the wrong condition category (like selling broken things in “Used” condition with an “AS-IS” disclaimer) and try to weasel in “as-is no refunds” or similar wording into the listing description. Well, they can say whatever they want, but unless the item meets the condition specified in eBay’s listing policy you’re still entitled to an easy refund at no cost if that item arrives at your door in less than fully functional condition (and with all cosmetic damage clearly described in the listing before the sale.)

Once you understand how eBay handles policy disputes (they always adhere to policy, and almost always find in favor of the buyer when they don’t) you can hold scummy sellers over a barrel and demand a partial refund when items arrive damaged, or just ship the whole mess back to them at their expense and wash your hands of it.

TL;DR: eBay is a great place to buy, not so much to sell

I wouldn’t trust anything like that from amazon. I got a refurb kindle once and it still had food in the charging port.

I’ve had better luck with ebay, but I’ve been seeing a lot of shit drop shipped from places like Amazon lately. So check the reviews and pick a seller with a lot of reviews.

New egg is probably your best bet. They have lots of refurbs.

I would not buy anything electronic from Amazon used or new. You never know what you are getting (Real thing? Counterfeit? Working? Quality repair parts? Undisclosed customer return? Sold by Amazon or third party? Who knows — they mix stock at the warehouse).

Most manufacturers sell their own refurbs on their own website and they come with a warranty.

Amazon is a marketplace.

If you go to the flea market and buy a laptop that is bad, does that mean everybody selling laptops at the flea market is selling a bad product?

There are solid sellers on Amazon and there are shady scam sellers on Amazon.

My advice for your best chances of buying what you are expecting to buy is to go through an authorized reseller of the laptop you are looking for. I bought my last laptop from Newegg and got what I paid for.

I try to avoid Amazon for my personal shopping, but I’ve bought literally hundreds of renewed/refurbished laptops and Chromebooks on Amazon for work. I have not had a single DOA or switcheroo in over 200 laptops from different sellers except one that has a broken screen, which was ready to return. You are very likely not throwing your money away by buying via Amazon, though that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best place to buy.

It’s really hard to say because there are so many different listings for laptops. Try calculating a spec to price ratio to determine if it’s a good value or not.

I bought all my devices refurbished from ebay.

on my xps 15 I saved $1500 alone. still runs fine almost 10 years later.