Buying an Xbox 360: New or used?

[stjaba]

I'm looking to buy an Xbox 360. I've noticed that on Craigslist that prices range from $80-200, depending on what accessories are available and the size of the hard drive. I went to a pawn shop() and negotiated the price down to $120, but decided not to pull the trigger. I also looked on ebay and found bare bone Xbox 360s for less than $100.

Meanwhile, it looks like the bare bones 4GB Xbox goes for $199. I'm inclined to spend less money, but I've noticed from what I've read online that Xbox 360's tend to have a high failure rate, so I'm worried about buying second hand. On the other hand, if I buy on ebay I can purchase an extended warranty for $10 that would cover malfunctions. Given that I can buy on ebay for less than $100, this seems like the best deal.

Anyone have thoughts?

[The Brain]

None of any import.

[garbon]

Negotiating at a pawn shop, eh?

[DontSayBanana]

Getting a used 360 is pretty dangerous.  Most are the earlier white models, of which there were three hardware revisions.  Only the Falcon (which I lucked out in getting used) is fairly dependable; I'd avoid the eBay route entirely, since seeing it in person would be a lot more dependable than trusting a seller to tell you which hardware revision it is.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/05/how-to-spot-a-falcon-65nm-360-in-the-wild/

[stjaba]

I ended up buying one on craigslist for $90. It looks like it's a falcon model, so I lucked out.

[Barrister]

I remeember an issue with MS essentially banning XBoxes from their online services if they were involved in using hacked games.  Not accounts - the individual XBoxes.  So be sure to test it before taking possession.

Otherwise good deal.

[Razgovory]

I remeember an issue with MS essentially banning XBoxes from their online services if they were involved in using hacked games.  Not accounts - the individual XBoxes.  So be sure to test it before taking possession.

Otherwise good deal.

That sounds like something to be wary about.

[DontSayBanana]

I remeember an issue with MS essentially banning XBoxes from their online services if they were involved in using hacked games.  Not accounts - the individual XBoxes.  So be sure to test it before taking possession.

Otherwise good deal.

Generally, it's the gamertag that gets banned.  The only thing that auto-bans a machine is jtagging, and Falcons are almost impossible to jtag (it only works with early kernels of the Xbox dashboard).