Tivo's Value ?

[ScoobyDooZ]

Hi I have a Tivo and could not do without it. I also have 2 spares that are in Very good condition.

I had a TIVO go wrong on me once and got a bit paranoid and started buying them up whenever I saw a mint one for sale.

I have decided that I am going to sell on as my current Tivo has been fine for ages now and dont really need 2 spares.

Any idea what it is worth, and would I be best ebaying it or selling on a forum somewhere ?

[terryeden]

I got a virgin TiVo with a lifetime subscription for £215 on eBay. That was earlier this year. If it's got a new HDD, power supply, cachecard etc it will add more value.

[OrangeDrink]

Hi I have a Tivo and could not do without it. I also have 2 spares that are in Very good condition.

I had a TIVO go wrong on me once and got a bit paranoid and started buying them up whenever I saw a mint one for sale.

I have decided that I am going to sell on as my current Tivo has been fine for ages now and dont really need 2 spares.

Any idea what it is worth, and would I be best ebaying it or selling on a forum somewhere ?

I've been looking recently, for bog standard ones with no lifetime sub they seem to go from between UKP50-100 with most of the ones I've been watching dropping around UKP65. If you're prepared to ship Worldwide you might get a few extra bids. Speaking as a Brit in Kiwiland the Thomson has a few fans down here even though the Philips Series 1 from the states is a lot cheaper to buy the Thomson wins hands down on looks. I'd definitely be prepared to pay up to UKP100 for one that someone would ship Worldwide.... even though that's probably be another UKP75 on top! :)

[Pete77]

If you're prepared to ship Worldwide you might get a few extra bids. Speaking as a Brit in Kiwiland the Thomson has a few fans down here even though the Philips Series 1 from the states is a lot cheaper to buy the Thomson wins hands down on looks. I'd definitely be prepared to pay up to UKP100 for one that someone would ship Worldwide.... even though that's probably be another UKP75 on top! :)

Is the Tivo S1 the only model you Kiwi guys can hack to get a meaningful Tivo service down there? Is it not possible on the more modern and higher featured S2 and S3 units? Also do you use Scarts in NZ rather than the US style cable connectors.

Shipping to NZ oughtn't to be that much if it was sent Surface but that means waiting..........

I reckon unmodified Tivo S1's now go for around 70GBP. Unmodified Lifetime sub machines for around or just under 200GBP and heavily improved machines with large hard drives, Cachecard and 512MB of RAM for around 300GBP. The last are actually the best buy in terms of what it would cost you to buy the Lifetime Sub and the Cachecard and RAM.

As ever the market wrongly imagines the cheapest product for sale is adequate for its needs.

[OrangeDrink]

hey Pete! Yes it seems like it's only Series 1 Tivos that can be made to work down here at the moment. It's a pretty small community, especially in New Zealand, hell I'm not even a part of it yet! I couldn't honestly tell you if it's possible to get a S2 or S3 up and running here, I had thought you couldn't get them going in the UK either? One guy down here Iknow has a Series 1 DirecTivo, not sure if he's gotten that one off the ground yet.

Generally speaking not much down here has SCART sockets in it, some things do but say DVD Players and Recorders? It's pretty rare to find ones with SCART sockets. The Sky Decoders over here do though because they seem to be just shipped over from Europe. Being closer to SE Asia I guess New Zealand mainly gets stuff that was designed for the Asian market rather than the European ones. So from my MySky (Sky+ in all but name) box I have a SCART lead going to Component In on my Receiver. The SD Sky+ boxes over here will output a COmponent signal over the RGB pins in their SCARTs. I understand that's not the case in the UK still? Just RGB?

Having said that my Plasma's got 1 full and 1 half SCART socket on it...

[Pete77]

It's a pretty small community, especially in New Zealand, hell I'm not even a part of it yet! I couldn't honestly tell you if it's possible to get a S2 or S3 up and running here, I had thought you couldn't get them going in the UK either?

Hi OrangeDrink,

How's the weather down there? You must be coming into mid summer by now rather than windy and stormy winter like us Brits back home.

My understanding is that if the UK didn't enjoy an official Tivo service there are possibly ways at least the S2 machines could possibly be got going on a self help EPG provision basis but as things stand no one here would subscribe to or support such a thing (a) because we can't discuss the details of such a thing on this site and (b) more importantly because not buying the legal Tivo program guide data service either as a monthly subscription or a lifetime one could threaten the continuation of the fine and upstanding commitment Tivo Inc have shown to supporting their existing UK customers with EPG data service, despite no longer selling new Tivo boxes in the country.

It may be that the S2 and S3 Tivo boxes had far more controls over using external data for all I know so as to avoid any danger of anyone depriving Tivo of their legal income stream by illegally obtaining Tivo data from non valid sources.

As a Brit in NZ you must be quite excited about the possible future availability of BBC and other UK television programs via IPTV, although I'm not sure whether the rights situation will allow them to let you guys download them even on a paid for official basis?

Regarding the UK Tivos your ideal buy is really a Tivo box without a Lifetime Sub but that does have a Cachecard and 512Mb of RAM and an Upgraded Hard Drive. More of those boxes are subbed but if they weren't I should think they would go for quite a good price as most people buying a box of that high spec are seriously committed to Tivo so want the Lifetime subscription service.

Surely you could send questions before bidding asking if people were willing to ship to NZ if you paid the extra shipping cost and you could even tell them what the cheapest shipping options to NZ are for an item of this weight and size if you check this out. People have got to pack the machine up anyway so I don't see why they would mind sending it to NZ so long as the extra carriage is covered. Any customs hassles would arise at your end as recipient and not at the sender's end. Anyhow a 5 year old Tivo in a country with no Tivo service arguably has no value at all from a custom's perspective, regardless of what you may have paid for one.

[Pugwash]

I just sold a spare TiVo on eBay and it went for around 65 quid with two 120GB drives installed. Frankly it's a shame it didn't go for more, but honestly I reckon by this time next year it may be worth even less. Ideally I should have just put the 40GB drive back in and used the 120's for other things.
On a related note, the TurboNet card I pulled and sold separately went for about 35 quid.
Madness!

[Pete77]

I just sold a spare TiVo on eBay and it went for around 65 quid with two 120GB drives installed. Frankly it's a shame it didn't go for more, but honestly I reckon by this time next year it may be worth even less. Ideally I should have just put the 40GB drive back in and used the 120's for other things.
On a related note, the TurboNet card I pulled and sold separately went for about 35 quid.

The problem is there are now very few people who want an unsubbed Tivo when Lifetime subbed Tivos only cost £100 to £120 more compared to the cost of a new Lifetime Sub of £199. I reckon an unsubbed machine with Cachecard and RAM would go for a shockingly low price and anyone selling one should definitely sell the Cachecard and RAM separately.

TurboNet cards still get a good price as a new Cachecard costs over 70 quid delivered and lower priced Turbonet cards are still widely in demand from owners of Lifetime subbed machines who want to upgrade.