Safe to buy used hardware?

[Skiz]

Do you guys think it's safe to buy used hardware? I need to upgrade my video card and was thinking of getting a used Radeon 9800 Pro off of eBay. Is that video card a little to old to buy? Should I be looking at something more advanced, newer, or better? Any opinions?

[Mr. Elmo]

it depends on where you buy it from

[Skiz]

Like I said above, eBay. An individual.

[freak]

research the individual and you shouldn't have any problems...

[clocker]

I have purchased several parts from forum Classifieds (including my 9800Pro) and everything has worked just fine.
Never dealt with eBay, though.

[lynx]

Stay away from anything that says "untested".

It sometimes means they have tested it but couldn't get it to work properly (maybe simply through lack of trying). There may be nothing wrong with it, but that's a risk you would be taking.