eBaying my RS-TX20, should I activate lifetime before listing it?

[Xab]

I recently built a Media Center PC, and I'm liking it much better than my TiVo. I'm going to be selling my RS-TX20 on eBay, but I'm curious if I should invest the $299 in lifetime before it goes away after tomorrow. Do you guys think it would increase what I could get for it enough to be worthwhile? Or should I just sell it as is?

[JustAllie]

I think lifetime would add to the value, but I'd guess it will add more like $250, not $299. Maybe in a couple of months the resale value of lifetime units will jump up. But the main advantage of buying lifetime on a TiVo has always been that you can use it for many months and then get an extra $200-250 in resale value out of it. Previously it has never been a good investment to buy lifetime and immediately resell the unit.

[rainwater]

If you are selling it soon, then there's no point in getting lifetime. You would be lucky to get the full lifetime value back, so I don't see the point. Now, if you were going to keep it for another year or so, then it would be worth it.

[OldTownTreadles]

Best thing to do when you're selling something on ebay is do a "completed items" search. In this case, do a search on your RS-TX20 with and without lifetime. Then you can see how much of a climb the price is with lifetime. My brother tells me that down in San Francisco area people are getting wind of the no lifetime thing now, but just starting to. If people get to thinking they need something they can't have anymore, that might factor into the price, but with that unit, wouldn't they have that Basic Tivo anyhow?

[Xab]

Yes it would have the TiVo basic. Thanks for the advice, I guess I'm going to just list it as is.

Also, even though the lifetime link is going to disappear from tivo.com after today, my understanding is that I could call anytime before 4/15, and activate lifetime, since the unit was purchased before 3/16/06. Is that correct?

[ZeoTiVo]

bear in mind the RS TX20 comes with TiVo Basic - so you can get some bucks around that idea vs buying lifetime and then trying to get some extra bucks for it.