Phones are getting really expensive these days. Exactly. Why spend more than you
have to? eBay sponsored this video so we can take a look at their refurbish
program which has four different levels of refurbish quality. And we're gonna
have to test ourselves to see if we can tell the difference. Is that right? Is
that what we're doing? Yeah it should be fun. So with refurbish you can save up
to 50% on some of the major brands like you'll see here in this video and they
seem pretty confident that we're not gonna be able to really tell the difference. I'm interested to see how these compare to a new phone. Can we tell
the difference? I certainly hope so. I mean I'm really interested to see what it
exactly means for a product to be refurbished. All these refurbish phones do
come with warranties and everything like that even at the various quality levels.
So you should be covered no matter what. Right on. But we so we have four phones
we don't know which is which. So I have the Z Flip 4 5G and the A71 5G from
Samsung. What do you have? I have a iPhone 12 Pro Max and a Google Pixel 6a.
But what is interesting is I'm assuming that also comes with a charging brick.
So all of these came with charging bricks even though I don't think the iPhone 12 Pro Max came with a charging brick. No the Pixel 6a does not come
with a charging brick I believe but I know that this one doesn't and these
ones don't anymore either do they? Alright let's see if we can figure it out. I want to start with this iPhone 12 Pro Max because it didn't come with a screen
protector. Interesting. That's giving me an idea that it's going to be the lower tier. So kind of things we look for is little marks maybe nicks anything like
that but the the back seems pretty nice. I mean from far away it looks pretty in
good condition. I mean there's yeah no screen protector but like the sides are
shiny. I'm inclined to say this is like the top level I mean without knowing
anything about the other conditions of the phones or even what the levels are.
This is tier S tier. Yeah this looks like brand new. Someone was trying to
sell me this phone I would be like oh they had this in the case it's whole life.
Okay videos over. We won. Let's try the Samsung A71 5G. It's an entry level
phone maybe somebody younger had it maybe it's gone through some some rough
times. Right off the bat I can see there are little scratches on the screen so I'm
doubting this is the highest level one. So it could be either excellent or very
good or good. Even then I don't think it's gonna be excellent because that's
gonna be like new and like I said there are visible scratches right off the bat.
Well this phone has a headphone jack. Nice it should be top tier just for that
honestly. It doesn't look like there's any dents or anything do you see anything really? No that's when I'm using my special glasses. I've been waiting to
appeal this the whole time so. Oh. R slash oddly satisfying. You know what like that
was and I peeled it off and the screen is nice and clean no fingerprints. Put that
on Reddit. Oh. Again what I noticed is the screen in the front doesn't look like
there's any damage. Oh. No scratches or anything like that. I don't see any
imperfections what the heck. I really expected to see more damage. Even on
this back glass where the the cameras are like the bar that's what's resting on
yeah the table or you know ground I don't really put phones but there's no
damage on anything. Oh little light scratching on the bottom here. Oh. Extremely
minor. What also I actually noticed with most these phones we're all so far no
scratches at the charging port right around very charging from trying to put
it your your cable in and missing. Phone owners are a lot more coordinated than
they used to be. Yeah I should catch up. Well especially because these are
reversible you know in the olden days flip it over. Okay okay grandpa. All my tech
tips. All right now let's take a look at the Z Flip 4 see if maybe this is the
lowest tier because again there's nothing that's really clear like this is
the lowest tier. But again nothing too crazy on this one. This being a folding
phone the hinge is something that people you know often say is like one of the
first things to fail in these phones. It's like another point of failure that
a non-folding phone doesn't have so. Yeah and this is a soft plastic screen for a
lot of these foldables as well so fingernail things like that can damage it. As somebody who uses a foldable daily those things can start to add up but no
nothing crazy here again and there's no like creak in the hinge. It's hard to
compare because my Oppo uses a different kind of hinge so it's I can't really
compare the two. One thing that I would be looking for in a folding phone as I
said is like the ability of the of the hinge to stay at that you know I would
expect maybe if it's an older one that it would want a snapshot like your Oppo
but this like wow that it's doing really well. When did this phone come out? The
Flip 4 5G? Is that what it is? It would have been like last August, August 2022 and
yeah you can't see any micro cracks in the hinge or like where the screen has
the hinge, no fingernails or anything like that. Screen looks good. Okay I'm
actually a little bit disappointed I really expected to have more damage
like physical damage obvious. I'm thinking that the A71 5G is the good
because the scratches on the front screen are noticeable. They're not bad when
you have the phone screen on like you can't tell. Are there multiple scratches
on this one? Yes there's one and then there's one down here as well versus the
pixel just has it on the back. This one has a little tiny scratch on the back but
like you can't even we had to like use a magnifying glass basically. This one is
the good this one is very good. I feel like I feel like this is the order and
now for the grand reveal. Good refurbished. Good refurbished. The Samsung A71 5G. Nice.
We were right. Yeah put the bing bing bing. Editor put the bing bing bing. So good
means that it has moderate wear and it is backed by a one-year warranty but
otherwise it's fully functional you know despite some like superficial damage.
Yeah it's crazy that's moderate damage like obviously it'll vary per device like if you're buying headphones that might look a little bit different. I guess for
a phone the screen is the most important part so that could be considered moderate. Also that phone costs $250 Canadian on eBay which is 42% off MSRP.
42% off MSRP. 250 Canadian that's a deep discount. You can get like almost half
off if you can tolerate a couple scratches on your screen. Next up we've got the very
good refurbished which is Google Pixel 6 8. Wow we're killing it. It's like we it's
like we deal with phones a lot and know what they're supposed to look like. So
very good means that there's minimal damage it's gonna be backed by that same one-year warranty and then it comes with you know included accessories like we
saw the chargers and everything like that. Yeah if it comes with the accessories those come with it. Like I said for something that is saying it's gonna have
minimal wear that is extremely minimal wear I would never notice that it took
us quite a while. Yeah. So pretty impressive. And you know as someone who
just puts a case on all my phones anyways these are things that are like
basically do not factor into my usage or enjoyment of the phone. So they'll take a look at my
phone especially because like I don't use a phone case and my phone does have
you know some some little scratches on it and I'm loving this phone this would
be like a good. To hit us with the price. So the MSRP for the Pixel 6 8 is just over 600 Canadian and it sells on eBay refurbished for 330 Canadian. Wow. So it's about 50% off it's like another 42% off. Yeah 40 something. Editor you know what to do. This is for the 40 somethings. And the Pixel 6 8 is only a year old. So again I've pre-sealed the deal and when you compare it to
the 7a this phone still performs very very well we put it through Labs testing and the battery life and everything is really good. I mean like so it has been as you're saying it has been a year since the phone launched so it you know it's gonna be you're
probably gonna find it most places for less than MSRP anyways but that's almost 50% that's not the kind of
you're not gonna find that like at the Google store probably. The thing that I love is that they
certify that they're fully functional because it's one thing to be like oh it's a used phone and it looks like it's in good condition it's another thing to have a
entity certify an entity that's what the E stands for an eBay entity pay. It's another thing to have somebody certify that don't worry like it's fully functional it's gonna do what you
wanted to do so. Cool what's next. The excellent refurbished phone is. Apple iPhone phone. Okay we killed it. Dang it. Why are you just sad about that. I wanted to be wrong. Why do you want to be wrong. It's more interesting.
Why. I don't want to be surprised. Boo. Alright so excellent why don't you tell us what an excellent quality phone means. So the excellent tier is basically the same as the very good tier except that this one is in like new condition and this one has allowed to have minimal wear. So this one as we pointed out there is no visible wear on it.
That's messed up. 600 Canadian. 1600 Canadian. For a 12 Pro Max. For a 12 Pro Max. You can buy a computer. And that's the base storage at 120. That's oh. It sells uneven refurbished for 900 Canadian dollars. 900 dollars. Still very expensive for a phone but that's like again close to half off. And for a Pro Max. This looks a little smaller compared to these other large phones but this is the Pro Max which will have a big battery.
And the great thing about refurbished iPhones is that they last a long time. Like you can keep using them. You know as much as I make fun of Apple they do a really great job at like making sure that you can use their phones for years and years and years. Which is something you want to do I think in this day and age.
Can you guys guess which one is a certified refurbished phone out of the four. It's the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4.5. Wow. So certified refurbished. It's pristine. It's like new and it comes with a two year warranty instead of just the one year that these other devices have. What's it cost.
32. $1,300. Okay. Expensive for a phone.
So the eBay refurbished price is about 1100 Canadian.
Okay. Say a couple hundred bucks. A couple hundred bucks off.
But. It's like a new phone. Pristine.
Why are you getting a couple hundred bucks off. Basically just because someone else held it for a while. They took good care of it.
But what's also nice is that you'll get a two year warranty instead of the one year that you usually get with a manufactured warranty.
Okay. Wow. So you get $200 off and an extra year warranty.
And peace of mind. And fulfillment in life.
Buying things will make you happy.
Actually they won't. Which is one of the main reasons why you should buy maybe a refurbished phone over a new phone.
Is that it's like you're not contributing more to the massive plastic and metal that's killing our fish.
Well though your fish are dead and you can't get your money back on that.
On top of these warranties that the phones come with they do come with eBay's money back guarantee free shipping.
Nice. A 30 day return policy.
Oh my gosh. We're in such sync right now. But what quality level do you think you would go to now that you've seen these different tiers.
Well as everyone knows I'm a minimalist. Not really. I'm a fake minimalist.
But I would probably I don't need much in a phone. I would probably go with the good tier the bottom tier.
My main concerns with phones is whether they function and whether they are cheap.
But it's $200. $200 is very nice.
However this thing was what 350? 330 Canadian.
Pixel 6a that's a year old phone. It's got Google's tensor chip which is like a fairly new chip.
And I'd be happy with this one. So for in this specific scenario I would go with very good.
But I might as well I very well might go with just a good if it was a newer phone.
Yeah I think I am somebody who likes the flagships.
I go through phones quite a bit and as like the phone host you know I get the privilege of using a lot of these nicer phones.
You're an anti-minimalist. I am. I'm a maximalist.
So I would probably go for a certified refrigerator phone.
Something that will hold its value for quite a long period of time.
It's a very very new phone. There hasn't been a new flip.
But I do think for people who may be hard on the phones. No offense rather.
Younger people. People maybe with a little bit of a lower budget.
There's nothing wrong with a good level phone.
But in different product tiers I would probably go for a lower tier.
Like maybe headphones. I don't need a highest tier or you know gaming accessories.
If we're talking like headphones or something you know where you're like using it at home.
Like I don't care if it's got scratches or whatever on it. I would totally go with like the good tier.
But if it's something that is going to be more front facing that other people are going to see.
Yeah and with headphones specifically you might be worried.
Well I'm a little bit worried about you know the fact someone else may have warned it.
But knowing that it's been professionally inspected and cleaned.
Then refurbished. That's pretty nice. Well you can splurge sensibly and buy that product you've always wanted.
Using the link down in the description to check out eBay refurbished.
Thank you so much for watching. Make sure to like, comment, subscribe.
And let us know if Ryland and I should make more videos together.
Or more ancient structures. I did it!