Great Deals on Refurbished PalmsOct 26 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Buying a refurbished device gives you more Palm for your money.
If you are looking to buy a Palm but can't justify the cost of a new device with all of the features you want, a refurbished Palm may be just the thing for you. These days you can buy a new 2MB device for less than $100 and a new 8MB device for less than $150. Most people can afford to buy a low end Palm at current retail prices. But these devices generally won't have expansion or color or that really loud speaker you really want. Buying a refurbished device can make the money you can spend go a lot further. There are several ways to acquire a refurbished Palm but I am only going to discuss two of them: buying from GetHighTech.com and buying from a device manufacturer. GetHighTech.com GetHighTech.com sells parts including screens and memory boards, replacement cases, and accessories as well as refurbished Palm OS devices. In general it's a great place to go for interesting Palm stuff. GetHighTech used to sell refurbished devices directly on their site for set prices but they now sell on eBay. When you follow the link for refurbished units you now get sent to an eBay listing page with all open auctions. The GetHighTech page mentions refurbished Palm and Handspring devices but I have seen TRGPros as well. Buying Palms on eBay is always something of a crapshoot but if you buy from GetHighTech you have the extra security of knowing experts have refurbished the devices. Device Manufacturers Palm Palm has periodically offered Palm-branded refurbished devices on its website. The selection and pricing vary greatly. All of these devices come with a cradle (I assume devices that are originally packaged with a hotsync cable come with a cable but I haven't personally seen one available) as well as the original documentation and CD. The devices also come with a 90 day warranty (as opposed to the one year warranty on new devices). Selection and pricing vary. I've seen Palm III selling for $82, Palm IIIe for $77, Palm IIIxe selling for $125, Palm IIIc for $209, and Palm Vx for $209 just to name a few. Devices seem to get rotated in and out of the store depending on supply. Some of these deals are better than others but they are all discounted from the retail price. Palm's refurbished device store can be found at: https://store.palm.com/refurbished/refurbished.asp?parent=1012 HandEra HandEra recently started selling refurbished TRGPros for $99. These devices also come with cradles, CDs, and documentation and with a 90 day warranty. They also outfit each device with a new screen. You can find HandEra's refurbished TRGPro page at: http://www.handera.com/products/features_trgpro_ref.asp Other Manufacturers To the best of my knowledge HandSpring, Sony, and IBM have never sold refurbished devices. It Depends on Your Comfort Level If you are comfortable with a device that has been used before, buying a refurbished Palm can greatly decrease the cost of a device. It's also a safer way to buy than just randomly buying a used Palm on eBay or from some other source since you know the device comes from a reputable source and (generally) with a warranty.  |
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