Would you trust open box DVD players?

[DonkeyKong]

My local BestBuy has several open box DVD players of various brands - toshiba, panasonic, KLH, samsung, etc. I'm not sure if they all include remotes, but you'd think they would.
Would you trust these? They look to be in decent condition, with some dust on the top of them. Has anyone had any experience w/ open box players? And what should you look for if you do buy them? Best Buy, i believe, has a 30 day guarantee on open box items.
Thanks all.

[RandyM]

With a guarantee, why not? If something were actually wrong with them I would think Best Buy would be returning it to the distributor for credit. Probably a lot of them were people not knowing how to hook them to their TV (routing through their VCR and getting the Macrovision, 10 year old TVs with just 1 input...)

[Thunderball]

Originally posted by RandyM
With a guarantee, why not? If something were actually wrong with them I would think Best Buy would be returning it to the distributor for credit. Probably a lot of them were people not knowing how to hook them to their TV (routing through their VCR and getting the Macrovision, 10 year old TVs with just 1 input...)

exactly. some ARE missing remotes...but they say so on the open box sticker.

[steak]

Well, I purchased an open box Pioneer DV-414 from Best Buy and for the first time ever did not buy the extended warranty. The unit was fully covered by the original warranty for 1 year which turned out to be a great thing. The unit broke 4 times within 14 months. When the unit was just barely out of warranty the last time Pioneer sent me a new unit (actually refurb but who cares....it worked!) Moral of the story, probably worth it to consider the extended warranty with any open box purchases of DVD players from anyone.

My .02.

Later.

[DVD_O_Rama]

I bought my first DVD player back in Dec. of 1998 as an open-box buy (a Toshiba SD-2108) and it's still going strong today. It went from my HT to a bedroom set and on to a relative's house, and it's still runs like a champ.

If it's only been used as an in-store demo, or as was mentioned earlier, via the 'clueless newbie' return, I see no reason to shy away from an open-box deal as long as the price is right.

[darkside]

I'm a major cheepskate. My Onkyo C600 player and my Onkyo 676 receiver are both refurbished. I saved about $700 getting them this way and they both have worked perfectly for over a year. My Sony S300 was the first player I bought and it was open box saving me $100. I have had it for over two years and it still works perfectly. Maybe I have been lucky, but I never buy anything for regular price. I wait for closeouts or refurbs. This includes my Infinity BU120 subwoofer that I picked up for $125 as a closeout brand new.

[dremo]

I got a Panasonic ct-27D30 for $279 before taxes. I asked about the return and they said that I still have the usual 30 days. The manual packaging and remote were still in original plastic wrap.
If you buy an open box item, I would suggest trying to find one that has the remote, manual, and anything else that comes with the player if you purchased it new. If you find one with all the stuff, pick it up and try it out for a month.
I just hope I don't run into any troubles with my TV.


Drew

[DigIt]

Provided it was a customer return, I would buy it. Most of that stuff is okay. If it was clearly a demo unit, I'd be wary of what sort of unseen abuses it suffered while on display.

[Movie_Man]

Originally posted by DigIt
Provided it was a customer return, I would buy it. Most of that stuff is okay. If it was clearly a demo unit, I'd be wary of what sort of unseen abuses it suffered while on display.

Exactly what I was thinking. Demo units may potentially have had hundreds of hours of use already.

[tommy_esq]

I bought my first DVD player from Best Buy last March. It was an open box item, and to date I haven't had any problems with it. If I hadn't succombed to the temptation to purchase the open box player at a substantial discount that day, I would probably still be watching VHS!

[DonkeyKong]

******* UPDATE *******

Okay, here's an update on the available open box players. For those with knowledge, could you please direct me towards the better deals. Thanks. I'd probably rather buy one that is complete w/ the remote controller. The clerk had no idea which ones were store demos or customer returns, except for one.

1) Sony DVP-S360
- Complete package
- Employee claimed he had just broken (i guess inadvertently) the factory seal on the box this morning and had to declare the DVD player "open box." He says he knows that it's brand new and nothing wrong with it. Anyone hear of this happening before?
- Selling for $176.60, down from $199.99

2) Pioneer DV-434
- Complete package
- Says it's Progressive Scan, however from others' experiences, it's not "true progressive".
- Selling for $149.60

3) Toshiba SD-2150
- Unit only
- Selling for $119.60

4) Samsung DVD-611
- Unit Only
- Selling for $119.60

5) Philips DVD-711
- Unit only
- Selling for $99.60

6) Toshiba SD-1700
- Complete package
- Selling for $159.60

7) Toshiba SD-3108 (aren't these fairly old?)
- Unit Only
- Selling for $149.60

Thanks everyone for your input!

[DonkeyKong]

They don't seem to be selling, so I could probably get anyone i wanted.

[theskank]

Don't buy the Samsung 611, mine broke after 3months. Just stoped reading discs.

[DonkeyKong]

^anybody?

[darkside]

If it was me I would grab that Pioneer 434. True progressive or not it has a beautiful picture. It also plays CD-Rs, VCD, and SVCD.

[Jobronie]

Originally posted by DonkeyKong
They don't seem to be selling,

Point that out to the dept. manager.

If the date on the ol' tagger is more than two weeks old, negotiate.

If the reference price on the ol' tagger is higher than the current regular or sale price, negotiate.

If they have have a lot of units to move, negotiate.

You may also wanna check out other BBs in your area, as some seem to have much more open box material than others.

And don't be fooled by the reference price, especially on older models. It's an old trick to show the original price on old stock, as it's not a current indicator since the price of similar technology is almost always coming down. Lechmere's in the Northeast was notorious for this.

Open box items should be much more than 10% off, and that's if it's complete.

One thing I've noticed is the large number of open box JVC dvd players that BB has. Probably not a good sign.

Run away, don't walk, if the item is a demo or floor model. Those things really get trod upon on the shelves....