What to look for in used xbox 360?

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I've recently gotten very very sick and will be bedridden for several months. Since I'm a minecraft fan, as well as a "light" gamer I thought I might buy a used Xbox 360 for my room as I have a tv on the wall directly in front of me. I know a new xbox is coming out but I'm not interested.Is 4gb enough? I don't know what the hard drive is for since you use cd's, I'm looking for a bundle that comes with some games. I don't need kinect. Anything else I should look for? Do they all have wifi? I have Netflix and it would be good to be able to use it for that as well. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

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Sorry to hear about your illness.

Personally I'd avoid the 4gb "arcade" units. And I'd avoid used since you are a first time buyer and may get burned. Just go pay full retail for a unit with 120gb or more - perhaps try to find or wait for a sale. Otherwise you may buy a unit that has been hacked and is blocked by Xbox Live which means you won't be able to get Netflix. As for wifi, no they do not come with wifi, that is an add-on -- edit: some units come with wifi but not all. You could buy a wifi adapter used safely from someone. BTW make sure you know that Netflix access will require you to pay for Xbox Live Gold which can be had for $40/yr on sale. (As an aside, this is free with a PS3 and many blu-ray players have it too. I have both plus a Wii so I'm not hugely biased.)

If you won't use your Kinect (many of the bundles come with one now), you should be able to sell it on Craigslist for $75 or so.

Thanks for your reply. I was hoping I could get a used one because it would be cheaper and come with some games. Not sure I could afford a new one and games. I just want something to occupy my mind and play minecraft, heh. Thanks for all the info.

I would only buy a used Xbox 360 from family/relative, a friend, or friend of a friend, someone you trust. I've bought a used one on CL with no issues but a friend bought one that was banned from XBL. If you get one that is banned, you won't be able to use Netflix and the "savings" from buying a used one will vanish.

I buy used Xbox 360 games on CL for $10-15 and if you watch the Hot Deals forum you can get new games for $20-30.


I think most XBox's these days come with wi-fi built in. I got my second Xbox from a Pawn shop (Halo Reach edition, 200GB drive, headset, 2 wireless controllers) for $225 w/ tax. 30 day money back so I checked it out online and it's been great! HD is for installing games from CD (saves wear & tear on CD drive? but you still need the disc in) and downloading content from online. Some game maps can be 1GB. You'll probably be fine with 4GB if you're just playing Minecraft. I think the game is 400MB and skin packs are 100+KB. Netflix should stream it's content so large HD shouldn't be necessary. check local pawn shops, craig's list, even garage sales for cheap games. get well soon!

If you are still thinking of buying off of craig's list, then meet them at a place that has internet so you can verify that it isn't banned before completing the transaction. Be upfront with the seller that you will want to make sure it isn't banned before purchase. You should create a new xbox live account/profile to use for testing the consoles, otherwise you risk getting your real account flagged. What you should do is go through the process of recovering/downloading your test profile onto the console. If it is banned, you will be unable to download your profile. Also, you will want to have a game cd so you can make sure you can copy it to the hard drive. This is to test both the cd drive and the hard drive.

Some models come with wifi, others don't.

lebedev said:   If you are still thinking of buying off of craig's list...

Some models come with wifi, others don't.
This post is EXACTLY why I think she should just pay a little more and get a new one so she knows what she's getting. She is bedridden or soon will be. Chasing things down on CL is a non-starter.

the 4gb has problems streaming also, this is the unit the was in a lot of give-aways around the holidays, it looks like the difference is only $50 @amazon and comes with a couple of games for the difference, not to assume they are worth a crap, but could be good for trade?? @ GameStop.

If you're going to buy a used console, you may want to consider buying from a respectable retailer in case there's any issues with the hardware.

Amazon Warehouse sells used consoles, and the return policy is the same as regular Amazon:

CowBoom is part of Best Buy, and you can buy a Product Protection Plan to protect against the console breaking after the return period (since the console is likely past its manufacturer warranty):

Of course, buying new, you get the 1 year manufacturer warranty, and you can get some games bundled with it:

In regards to the harddrive size, a lot depends on whether you want to buy/play downloaded games, install disc games to the drive, or just play from the disc. For example, Minecraft can either be bought on a disc, or downloaded from Xbox's Live Arcade Store. Both are $20, although both occasionally go on sale.

If you buy it on disc, you could experience some slow load times. If you have enough harddrive space, you can install the game on the harddrive to improve load times, although you'll still need to put the disc in the drive in order to play the game. This is the main problem with disc games, swapping them in and out to play.

For the downloaded version, you just select it to play, no swapping discs necessary. This is great for switching between downloaded games, as you just choose the icon on the menu, and you're playing. The downside is that you can't sell the game when you're done with it, it's on your account forever.

For Netflix access, Microsoft requires an Xbox Live Gold subscription. Normally $60, 12-month subscription cards occasionally go on sale for $35.

If you can be happy with ps3, this deal is great: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1275782/

the PS3 doesn't have Minecraft, although there are rumors that it's coming.

marsilies said:   wfay said:   If you can be happy with ps3, this deal is great: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1275782/
Yes, thus "if you can be happy."

If she mostly plays Minecraft, the PS3 is probably a poor choice today. Not sure why you couldn't just play MC on a laptop and use the PS3 for everything else... or even just use a laptop for all of it (Netflix, etc).


yes please buy from an good source i saw and bought an 360 for $80 used thought it was an good deal and found out it was banned from xbox live so now all i got is an offline box

Thank you everyone for your responses. I ended up purchasing one on eBay. I contacted the seller prior to purchase and he assured me it was not banned. It is the Star Wars collector 320 gig version. The problem now is it had a 14 day warranty, and I was in a wreck the next day. I was badly injured. I ended up in the hospital and then in a rehab unit. I asked my dad to plug it in and turn it on and he said there was no red ring. I'm hoping that means everything is okay. He said the drive opened, but he doesn't know how to do anything else with it. A big risk has turned into an even bigger one. Thank you all very very much for the information. Perhaps someday I can get home to use it. LOL

Don't worry about it. If it turns out to be banned, you can dispute through paypal. There are really only two major concerns, the RROD and banned from Xbox Live. You already know it's not RR'd, so just attempt to connect to xbox live and test it out. It's unlikely someone would sell one on eBay that's banned if they specifically said it isn't.

Thanks much for easing my mind

drodge said:    It's unlikely someone would sell one on eBay that's banned if they specifically said it isn't.

do you believe in santa too?

It will take 2 minutes to do a dispute with Paypal if it's hacked and banned. No, I belive that someone who knows it's banned and has any level of reputation on eBay isn't likely to try to pass something off that is guaranteed to get negative feedback and a Paypal chargeback. Obviously I wouldn't say the same about someone with no feedback.

I hope you will soon recover.



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