Special Bargaining Situation: Electronics

Getting a good deal on electronics can be tricky because sellers invariably value them too high.  You have no idea how frequently I see VCR's for $20+; it's like the seller thinks "Oh, it has a circuit board!  It must be expensive."  

Sadly, you frequently have to employ aggressive bargaining when purchasing electronics.  Contrary to popular belief, that NES you've had in your garage for the last two decades is not worth $13000; it's not even worth $10.

Rather than have a massive wall of text, I'm just going to provide you with a list of techniques proven to work with electronics since you've seen most (if not all) of these techniques before.

• Ask if the item works.  If the seller claims it does, ask to test it out or ask when it was last used.  Be sure to not just check if the item powers on; check other functionality (open and close the DVD tray, check if it sends video to a tv) as well.
• Ask the seller if he or she knows he or she is selling.  I've found that many parents end up selling their kid's stuff without knowing what it is, which explains people asking $40 for a bare Sega Genesis.  I used this technique to buy a Sega CDX (a failed console that plays Sega Genesis and Sega CD games) priced at $20 for $0.50.  At the time I did not realize it sells for $125+ on eBay.
• Ask the seller if he or she has all the accessories.  That calculator is worthless and pretty much impossible to use without the manual, after all.  I'm being sarcastic, of course.
• Scratches or dents?  A perfect bargaining point.

As far as pricing goes, I suggest you be cheap, even by my standards.  Electronics never work as well as the seller claims and for this reason I suggest you do not buy electronics as investments.  For example, I bought a Nintendo 64 console in the past -- assured it worked perfectly -- as an investment only to take it home to find that the console barely worked, the video cable was shot, and the games worked just OK.  It was too poor to sell on Craigslist so I ended up selling it as-is at my own garage sale, keeping the games for myself.  I still made a profit but it was close to nothing.  It's important you understand you're taking a risk when buying electronics.

That warning aside, you can sometimes find good deals on electronics at garage sales.  I did, after all, buy a new Kindle for $13.  I did, however, buy a Sony ereader as well and despite the seller's assurances that it works flawlessly, it frequently locks up and needs a hard reset.

I guess the point of this post is to really make it clear that you need to be sure you're not overspending on electronics because you will frequently get burned.  I would never spend more than $2 or $3 on an item from this category unless I was sure it worked or that I could resell a part of it (ie, a game) for a profit.