Top 10 Things You Should Buy Used-Part 2

5.  Musical Equipment

Things like amps, guitars, and recording equipment can run into the hundreds and even thousands brand-new.  A decent microphone alone can go for several hundred.  Any musician trying to live within his means, which is any musician struggling and rarely succeeding, still has to find some way to produce music.  On EBay, Craigslist, and used retailers like Daddy’s Junkie Music (not to mention garage sales), you are sure to find viable and completely decent merchandise to make you at least a practicing musician.

If you need a microphone slightly better than one built-in to your laptop, a functioning used mic can go as low as twenty bucks and afford you decent fidelity.  And you can find a practice amp for your guitar with a fifty dollar bill, which is better than paying top dollar, especially if you are a starting musician.  As for sound quality, that’s something that comes from within and whatever music you expose yourself to.  A good musician can make the best of what he’s got lying around.

4.  Textbooks

There’s a good racket in the school book industry.  As long as you shop at your campus bookstore, your guaranteed to spend several hundred dollars on a semester’s worth of classes, only to find them utterly worthless when you attempt to sell them back at the semester’s end whereupon a new edition has been released.  Better to void that scam entirely and go to Amazon.com.  You can get the exact same book (same edition even) secondhand (okay, maybe third-hand) for a third of the price, to where you can even afford to keep the book on your bookshelf for future reference.  Any college or graduate student knee-deep in tuition and housing costs knows that any means to spare a little extra cash is just another kidney they don’t have to sell on the black market.

3.  Computers

Want a MacBook, but lack the luxury of disposable income?  Then get it used or refurbished.  A brand new MacBook can run you a thousand dollars easy.  A slightly used one can go for 700, and it doesn’t even have to run you the risk of crashing upon test drive.  Factory refurbished, safer through the company itself, is virtually risk free as the computer is reassembled from used parts and rigorously tested as if brand new.  What you are missing out on, for that extra 300 or 400 dollars, is the cellophane, but you can get that at the grocery store for three bucks, if truly necessary.

2.  Video Game Consoles

If you want the latest of the late, immediately upon release, the price is likely going to be anywhere from seven to a thousand dollars.  Even the comparatively-cheap Nintendo Wii ran close to $300 at launch time.  If you can wait a year or two until the hype dies down, you can stand to save two hundred dollars easily.  However, few are patient enough when so many of your friends are already teasing you with mind-blowing Blu-Ray quality graphics.

This is where second-hand comes in.  Right off the bat, a pre-owned or refurbished video game system is a good hundred dollars cheaper than one brand new, and is just as good (plus the warranty plan is usually better).  So the risk is minimal to none.  Your local Gamestop makes the new and exciting very accessible; other places, such as on EBay, run the risk of technology failure as many private individuals are just trying to make some spare cash on old gaming systems, don’t offer warranties, and don’t require any stringent testing procedures prior to resale.

1.  Cars

Not everyone can waltz into their local dealership with a briefcase full of cash (well, not anymore) and take their pick of the litter. The youngest drivers on the road are the ones with the smallest budgets and rely almost entirely on the classifieds (or more accurately these days, Craigslist) to find a shiny, new Rezcar or something that can get them to class/work without catching on fire in the process.  Standards are often extremely low in this regard; as such, a thousand dollars is usually enough to get something.  Even a solid $500 can get you on the road (though, for how long is the real question). If you buy a used car that is just off a lease or is only one year old, you can save yourself up to $5000.00 simply because the vehicle has been driven off the lot. Once a new vehicle is sold the vehicle depreciates by thousands of dollars. And bonus - a used vehicle and only a year old still has that new car scent. If you know nothing about vehicles do not buy one by yourself, make sure you take someone who is knowledgeable about vehicles who can ask all the right questions.