Even if you do your best to avoid it, it’s hard to escape the noise of retailers offering implausible-seeming Black Friday discounts on desirable technology. What they won’t be so keen to highlight is the huge environmental cost that comes from feeding the capitalist beast year on year, given what an obvious sales vibe-killer it would be.
While the best approach for the planet is to opt out completely and observe the alternate holiday of Buy Nothing Day instead, such an approach can prove self-defeating to your finances in the long term. If you shop smart on Black Friday and avoid the lure of impulse buys, it’s a good time to stock up on the things you need, at lower prices than at the rest of the year.
In other words, if your phone, laptop or TV is on its figurative last legs, Black Friday is a sensible time to seek a replacement. But if you’re hoping to limit your ecological impact, it’s definitely worth considering refurbished options.
“As a consumer, you save directly 30-40% versus new, and you also have this feeling of doing the right thing,” says Peter Windischhofer, co-founder and CEO of Refurbed. “Because you buy a product that already exists, you don’t have to produce a new one.”
James Rigg, CEO of Trojan Electronics, agrees: “Very often, it’s the better choice: reliable performance, lower prices and a fraction of the environmental cost.
“Buy from someone reputable, look for transparency, and prioritise warranty and repairability over a too-good-to-be-true discount, and you can come out of Black Friday with great devices and a lighter footprint.”
Five tips when buying refurbished
Read the description
Refurbished can mean different things. See what condition is promised, paying special attention to battery health.
Check the warranty and returns policy
You want to know that you’re in good hands should anything go wrong.
Research the seller’s reputation
Look at customer reviews and internet feedback. If on eBay, look for sellers in the company’s Refurbished programme.
Research your chosen device
The older the device, the bigger the discount – but this is a false economy if you have to replace it sooner. With phones and laptops, especially, make sure they’re getting updates and will be able to cope with years of use.
Don’t cheap out
A low price is only a bargain if it actually delivers. Prioritise customer service and a transparent refurbishment process over saving a few pounds.
Refurbished vs pre-owned
It’s important at this point to define terms. People sometimes use the phrases “preowned”, “secondhand” and “refurbished” interchangeably, which may have given the latter a bad rap.
“They really are quite, quite different,” says Katy Medlock, Back Market’s UK general manager. “Secondhand could be peer to peer: you’re not buying it with a warranty, it hasn’t been through a quality check, you’re not buying it with all the mod cons.”
That separates refurbished marketplaces such as Back Market, MusicMagpie, Refurbed and others from sites where you buy directly from a member of the public, such as Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. “Our mission is all about trying to make the process of buying refurbished electronics as good as buying something new,” Medlock says, highlighting the ability Back Market offers to split payments, its 30-day money-back promise, 12-month warranty and next-day delivery as ways of seeking parity with retailers shipping new stock.
By contrast, buying preowned or secondhand on the private market is a gamble, even if you sidestep the risk of being scammed.
“I’ve heard so many horror stories from peer-to-peer when it comes to electronics,” says Windischhofer. “I love using those platforms for low-value products; I use a lot of Vinted for clothing, and it’s great. But for electronics, my advice would be to go through a professional where you get a warranty and an invoice, and where, in case this product breaks after five days, they have great customer service to really help you out.”
Items sold privately may also have unseen defects or botched repairs using cheap, third-party parts. “There’s a very different performance from the cheapest phone screen that can be put on a phone and the correct screen,” says Murdock. “Products get traded in at times with a $20 screen on an iPhone or Samsung [device] that really should have a wholesale cost of $150. They’re almost illegible.”
In other words, peer-to-peer buys are a gamble. If you insist on taking that risk, it’s best to buy in person and to take the opportunity to check both the screen and camera alongside signs of cosmetic wear and tear. If buying an iPhone or Android device, check the battery’s health in the phone’s settings and make sure it’s at least 80%.
If buying peer-to-peer on eBay, rather than through a certified refurbished seller, Williams encourages shoppers to look through the feedback and study photos and the product description. “Is this a reliable seller? Have they sold a lot of things in the past? What’s their feedback score? These are all things that are helpful to know that they’ve had good transactions with buyers in the past.”
Crunching the numbers
What does that ecological improvement look like in real terms? Let’s take smartphones – the bestselling refurbished category.
According to research from Back Market, buying a refurbished model rather than a new one will save 178g of e-waste and 77,000 litres of water, while preventing 77kg of carbon emissions and 244kg of raw materials from being mined.
Trojan Electronics, meanwhile, estimates that a refurbished smartphone uses 91.3% fewer raw materials and 86.4% less water while putting 91.6% less carbon emissions into the atmosphere compared with buying a new device.
Plenty of variables make the exact figures impossible to pin down. But while there’s still an impact from refurbished buys – especially if a new battery or screen is installed as part of the refurbishing process – there’s no denying that the harm is lessened.
“Every time you buy a smartphone, it’s about a 58kg CO2 offset if you don’t buy a new one [and instead] buy one that’s been refurbished,” says James Murdock, co-founder of Alchemy, a company that refurbishes old technology for resale. “That includes the operation to actually refurbish it, and the existence of our business. It’s even more if you’re buying a laptop.”
It’s not just phones, either. “Now, people are turning to all different types of electronics, everything from refurbished air fryers through to hair accessories from TVs, coffee machines, ice-cream makers and games consoles,” says Eve Williams, general manager at eBay UK. Unlike its traditional peer-to-peer sales business, eBay has a method by which it certifies refurbished-reselling businesses.
“There’s nothing to lose [from buying refurbished],” she says, pointing out that if you get the same 12-month guarantee as you would if buying new, you’re getting the same product at a cheaper price. “You’re getting something that otherwise would have ended up in landfill. We have this amazing seller called Preloved Tech. Matt and Andrea, who run it, started their business by working in schools, going in and seeing the times that schools were throwing out laptops and iPads because they didn’t know what to do with them. There are no rules around what some businesses should do to get rid of or recycle technology.
“They’re taking a lot of that tech and are able to give money and funding back to the schools, while also then being able to refurbish these items to sell on, and extend the life of them.”
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What to look for
“The best advice I can give for buying refurbished is to go via established retailers such as Back Market, Giffgaff and Vodafone, and if you’re buying through eBay then try to get a device that’s listed as ‘certified refurbished’,” says technology journalist Thomas Deehan. “You can also find different perks available depending on where you buy. For instance, Giffgaff provides a two-year warranty on ‘like new’ phones, while Back Market often gives you the option to have an entirely new battery fitted into your device of choice.”
In general, the more information a retailer provides about their refurbishing process, the better. “A proper refurbisher will tell you exactly what’s been checked, what’s been replaced, and how the product is graded,” says Rigg. “If you see vague descriptions like ‘used’ or ‘open box’ with no explanation, that’s your cue to walk away.”
Jon Miller, chief commercial officer at MusicMagpie, agrees. “As a rule of thumb, it’s far wiser to be careful when buying refurbished tech. Try to check the warranty length and what exactly that covers. Similarly, check the fine print and ensure ‘refurbished’ means the tech has been properly restored and tested, not just used.”
Is there any preowned technology you should avoid? “If you had asked me that question 10 years ago, I would have said: ‘Yes, because technology is so fast and, you know, the new iPhone is so much better than the last one,’” says Windischhofer. “But now? I don’t think there’s any product that I would buy new. I would always buy the generation before that.”
Alchemy, similarly, practices what it preaches. “We’ve got hundreds of MacBooks, iPhones and other products in the company. We have about 350 employees, and no one, including me, has ever had a new one,” says Murdock.
There are limits, however, to how old a device you should get, and it varies by category. A PlayStation 4 will continue to play all disc-based games made for it indefinitely, but something internet-reliant may end up losing functionality with time. Older OLED TVs, too, are considered more prone to burn-in than their modern counterparts.
Equally, buying a five-year-old refurbished phone will be cheaper than buying last year’s model, but if you end up needing to replace it sooner – for example, if it’s an Android that’s stopped receiving security updates – then it’s a false economy.
“It might be tempting to get an old MacBook Air from 2015, but it won’t receive regular updates like M-series MacBooks will,” says Deehan. “I think there’s a good balance to strike where you sometimes buy things new and other times go down the refurbished route. It’s about saving money where it makes sense so that you have the freedom to spend a bit more on a device that you’ll make the most of.”
Finally, don’t forget the age-old adage of “buy cheap, buy twice”. Or, as Rigg puts it: “A gadget that fails quickly and can’t be repaired is only cheap for about five minutes.”
“Don’t be tempted by the cheapest offshore, interesting-looking eBay seller that looks like it’s been there for five minutes,” says Murdock. “Buy from a legitimate-looking local partner that’s offering a warranty, as they would with any other kind of new product, and is willing to stand behind that.”
For more, read our guide on what to look for in a refurbished phone
What about your old tech?
So you’ve bought a refurbished phone, laptop or tablet and now have one that’s surplus to requirements. What should you do?
Recycling is an option, but one that should be considered a last resort, according to Medlock, especially as there are limits on capacity. “With the amount of new electronics that are produced every year … there’s no way that … the amount sold in the UK could ever be recycled.”
Many sites will offer a trade-in when you buy the replacement, which will increase the likelihood of a device getting a second lease of life in the refurbished ecosystem.
Alternatively, you could take it to CeX or try your luck on the peer-to-peer market through Gumtree, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist or eBay. If you go down this route, do be sure to wipe all your personal data first and give it a good spruce-up.
“This should go without saying, but prior to being listed or sold, your tech should be given a good clean to make it look the best that it can,” says Deehan. “Some retailers will dock the value of your device based on its cosmetic appearance, so make sure to do your part in keeping it all lint- and fingerprint-free.”
Donating is also an option. I recently donated an old laptop to Screen Share, which repurposes computers and phones for refugees to help tackle digital exclusion, and a quick search online will uncover many other worthwhile places to donate.
Whatever you choose, Medlock suggests putting some thought into the end of life for today’s Black Friday tech buys. “If people are upgrading, the pathway is obviously to buy refurbished … and encouraging people at that point to buy better.
“There is a cost saving there, so people can use that saving to buy devices that last longer, are built to last and built to be repaired.”
For more read how to shop smart this Black Friday
Alan Martin has more than a decade’s experience of writing about and reviewing consumer technology. He once had to strip off to retrieve a battery-depleted drone from a freezing cold south London lake, showing his deranged devotion to the career. Nearby swans were left confused
