Those $199 Amazon blow out Nexus 6's...refurbed?

[Rich215]

I just got one of those phones via ebay from a phone flipper. Happy to have got it at $237 for sure as most were resold on the bay for an average of $265 to $285.

With that said, the box was sealed and upon breaking the two seals and and then pulling out the phone with the factory type plastic screen gurard on it.....there were finger prints and some sort of card board dust....and worst of all...some minor scratches or imprints from something hard touching the surface. It looked like the plastic screen cover was not reapplied though.

So I wiped it off and then some of those little scratch/indent marks still remained. Though very light and looking as though they did not break or go through that plastic protector at all. I kept it on till I got my glass protector just today. So finally having the chance to inspect the bare screen for the first time.....pulling off the plastic cover piece.......I then see no scratches at all ......but watery smear marks like someone had cleaned the screen with a wet wipe and then quickly applied this factory screen protector piece. Everything else seemed mint and off the assembly line so to speak.

So, just wondering if all these $199 blow out deals were in reality manufacture refurbs? Seems pretty plausible to me.

What have you all experienced that got one of these phones on that deal?

 

[SpookDroid]

Unless specifically mentioned, they should be new units. Huge legal hassle if they don't. Also, manufacturers must place a REFURBISHED tag on their devices if they are. That being said, 'new unit' doesn't mean untouched. Even in the original assembly line these go through tons of hands, and if QA got sloppy, you can find 'new' phones with smears (wipeable, most of the time) and minor scuffing around metal edges. The cardboard dust is actually fairly common, especially if they use recycled cardboard for their packaging.

 

[2waterfowl]

Mine was brand new (no finger prints or smudges) when I broke into the sealed box sent from Amazon.

 

[YAYTech]

I got a 64gb N6 from Amazon on their Black Friday sale, and it was absolutely brand new, not refurbed. They're clearing inventory - the Google Play store just dropped the N6. If they had been from 3rd party sellers on Amazon, I'd wonder, but they were straight from Amazon, so they would've made it clear if they were refurb units. From ebay... who knows.

 

[CVisk]

I know there is probably no way around it, but I was pretty disappointed in how the Black Friday deal worked out. I was waiting for such a deal, and missed out on this as they sold out rather fast. Instead of more people that wanted to save a bundle and get this for the $199 to actually use it, you have people buying them up in order to resell them for profit. This pretty much makes Black Friday deals pointless for the average person. The people that benefited most from that deal are the resellers. Tons of them showed up on Swappa for as much as $299.

 

[Rich215]

Yea CVisk...I was in your same situation trying to get that deal but I was too late. They should of put a 2 phone max per order on such deals so the poacher flippers don't bastardize the point of the sale.

As for my unit I have, i just could not take good enough pics to take of the marks on the plastic screen cover. And with the odd finger prints so boldly sticking out....I just had never seen anything like that from a phone or other type manufacturers that were in that kind of shape in a sealed box. Thats the only reason I questioned it.

Otherwise this phone runs fine and no other oddities or problems seen. I really like this phone and hope I can tweak the thing more without rooting it.

 

[Ed Briggs]

I know there is probably no way around it, but I was pretty disappointed in how the Black Friday deal worked out. I was waiting for such a deal, and missed out on this as they sold out rather fast. Instead of more people that wanted to save a bundle and get this for the $199 to actually use it, you have people buying them up in order to resell them for profit. This pretty much makes Black Friday deals pointless for the average person. The people that benefited most from that deal are the resellers. Tons of them showed up on Swappa for as much as $299.

Yup. You should see all of the Moto E's that sold for $9.99 at Best Buy Black Friday now showing up on eBay for at least $40. People bought as many as they could. It's the way of the world we live in.

 

[YAYTech]

While the resellers do kind of ruin it, I was surprised to see the N6 available at the discounted price for at least a couple hours, so it's not like they vanished instantly. But when the deal starts at midnight Pacific time, they're gone before a lot of people know they're available. I was fortunate to notice it as an upcoming deal, and then happened to be awake when the deal went live.