Prepping a HD-TiVo for sale

[jhoak]

I'm getting ready to move back in to my house. I'll be dropping Comcast (it's awful at the house) and going back to DirecTV. Once I'm moved back in and the DTV is up and running my HD-TiVo will be hitting eBay.

I currently use a HD-TiVo with the internal drive upgraded to 500GB. No cablecards have ever been installed. No external drive has ever been attached.

My question is: Is it better price wise to leave the 500GB installed or reinstall the original 160GB drive? The original drive has been stored intact since I did the upgrade. It's a few software revisions behind though.

Any thoughts?

[socrplyr]

Replace the original 160 intact, i believe (someone correct me if i am wrong) that with the harddrive upgraded the new user cannot use the eSATA port, which might be confusing. Thus the machine will be basically factory default, and you really can't get any complaints from the buyer. I would also suggest that you get the software updated for them just to be nice (pop the drive in and let it connect a few times until it is updated to 9.3).
Just to be sure, you aren't still in some kind of contract with the device (signed up for a year of service etc?) are you? This is nontransferable and so it is best if you can cancel the service before you sell it. Unless of course it is a Lifetime and that is transferable.

Personally I don't like eBay (take way too much money), but that is up to you.

Josh

[lessd]

I'm getting ready to move back in to my house. I'll be dropping Comcast (it's awful at the house) and going back to DirecTV. Once I'm moved back in and the DTV is up and running my HD-TiVo will be hitting eBay.

I currently use a HD-TiVo with the internal drive upgraded to 500GB. No cablecards have ever been installed. No external drive has ever been attached.

My question is: Is it better price wise to leave the 500GB installed or reinstall the original 160GB drive? The original drive has been stored intact since I did the upgrade. It's a few software revisions behind though.

Any thoughts?

Study past E-Bay sales of HD-TiVos, and current listings as things (prices) change all the time on E-Bay.

[mr.unnatural]

In my experience, upgraded units will always sell better than stock ones. In your case, I would offer the stock unit with an option to upgrade to the 500GB drive for a fixed cost over and above the final selling price for the stock unit. You could also include the original 160GB drive in the deal.

Personally I don't like eBay (take way too much money), but that is up to you.

Josh
I'm not sure where that came from but you obviously don't know how to bid on ebay. The key is in knowing what an item is worth and how much you're willing to spend on it. If the bidding gets too high then you have to be willing to walk away from it. Some people get caught up in a bidding frenzy and end up paying more than retail for used items, which is not what I call smart shopping. In certain cases where the item may be out of production and hard to find then I can see the justification in paying more. OTOH, if something is readily available then you're probably better off buying a new item from an online vendor and bypass ebay altogether. There are lots of things I won't buy on ebay for this very reason. Ebay is a great place to shop if you know what you're doing.

[brettatk]

Replace the original 160 intact, i believe (someone correct me if i am wrong) that with the harddrive upgraded the new user cannot use the eSATA port, which might be confusing.

That is not true, you can add a eSATA drive to unit with an upgraded drive you just cannot use a plug and play device like the MyDvr Expander. As mentioned leaving the 500GB drive will fetch you a higher price.

[djwilso]

I'm not sure where that came from but you obviously don't know how to bid on ebay. The key is in knowing what an item is worth and how much you're willing to spend on it. If the bidding gets too high then you have to be willing to walk away from it. Some people get caught up in a bidding frenzy and end up paying more than retail for used items, which is not what I call smart shopping. In certain cases where the item may be out of production and hard to find then I can see the justification in paying more. OTOH, if something is readily available then you're probably better off buying a new item from an online vendor and bypass ebay altogether. There are lots of things I won't buy on ebay for this very reason. Ebay is a great place to shop if you know what you're doing.I believe he was talking about selling items on eBay, not bidding. eBay does take money when you sell items.