I have a whole bunch of consoles (mostly 360's and ps3's) which I want to sell off. Is it best to sell as individual parts or as complete units?
If you can describe the faults in such a way that the layman would think "Hey, that sounds like an easy fix!" you might get more for a complete console. Even if it isn't fixable after all - but you'll have to discuss that with your conscience. OTOH, keep in mind that selling parts means individual descriptions, more packages to send out and more people to deal with (and more potential problems with them), all of which mean more work.
Whatever you do, avoid terms such as "easy fix". These days it carries as much weight as the word "rare".
On ebay at least this can be dangerous. Buyers have been known to win disputes on "easy fix" when they describe it as not actually being an easy fix.
Things have to be as described, even if faulty. Best to put its faulty and no information about the fault, unless you are certain of the problem. Else, as said above - people can win a dispute.
Can't say I've ever seen eBay do anything about items that were declared as broken from the start. And I've been on the receiving end of some major crap a couple of times... Like a PS2 where "stopped reading discs" meant "dirty as hell, in parts, and missing feet, screws, laser assy, and power switch". Zero fucks given on eBay's side. Anyways, don't ever put stuff like "easily fixed!" in the description - let the buyer come to his/her own conclusion instead.
Items have to be as described, its a major part of ebays policies. If you list it as faulty, needs a new fuse and it turns out it was set on fire - listed as "faulty" or not, its misadvertised and there are quite strict laws about that.
If you have a way to test each parts and know they are good and even better, can garentee them, there might be an interesting market for the parts. I would check completed auctions for said parts to have an idea. I have sold TV and Computer parts successfully in the past, harvested out of junk. When selling whole consoles, If you know its an easy fix, it might be a selling point to specify it. Otherwise I would just give a brief description of the external symptoms like RROD or 'wont read discs', wont power on etc... If you know its pretty much 'beyond repairs', you can fake not knowing anything about the console and sell it as is and get away with it, as someone specified earlier, you will have to discuss it with your conscience . But the person buying it should be ready to lose the gamble sometimes when buying 'parts' consoles. I buy 'as is' or 'broken' consoles all the time and they are easy fix most of the time and I guess its the same for other buyers so some of them might be spoiled. If you only sell unrepairable stuff, be ready to have some unhappy ones on the other end and some might try to get back to you somehow.
Thanks for all the tips peeps! I appreciate it. To put it this way, Say if I had a launch 60gb ps3. With only a bad laser, would I get more selling as repaired (Put in a new laser) or stripping a now working system and selling the parts?
Now is a bad time to be selling 360s and ps3s, they are cheap as people are upgrading. I keep seeing ps3s working on facebook trading groups for like 60 quid
PS3s are good to part out because the blu-ray drive is worth a quite a bit (If the drive is still working).
