---
title: 'I Bought From "Tech For Less"'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=NQxRrGMjTeU'
video_id: 'NQxRrGMjTeU'
date: 2026-08-06
duration_sec: 1275
---

# I Bought From "Tech For Less"

> Source: [I Bought From "Tech For Less"](https://youtube.com/watch?v=NQxRrGMjTeU)

## Summary

In this video, Austin Evans and his team buy a variety of used and open-box tech items from the retailer Tech For Less, including business laptops, a server, a Kindle Scribe, headphones, a baby monitor, an Xbox 360, and a Zebra scanner. They test each item, compare prices to retail, and share their verdict on whether buying refurbished tech is worth it.

### Key Points

- **Initial Finds** [00:41] — They spotted several Dells, a $9 SSD, a PlayStation for $519, and an Xbox 360 for $50, setting the stage for a mixed haul.
- **Business Laptops Are a Steal** [02:30] — A 2022 Dell Latitude with a Core i7-1185G7, originally costing almost $2,000, was bought for $253 in used-acceptable condition. These are built to a higher standard than typical $800 consumer laptops.
- **Surprisingly Good Speakers** [04:19] — The Latitude's speakers are among the best they've heard, comparable to a MacBook Pro, adding to the value proposition.
- **Server Bargain** [05:30] — They purchased a dented HP server with Xeon processors and 224GB of RAM for only $600. The RAM alone would have cost thousands, making it an incredible deal.
- **Open Box Kindle Scribe** [09:29] — A Kindle Scribe with premium pen was bought for $120 off MSRP, landing in the $160–200 range. The front-lit display and note-taking features worked well.
- **Headphones Value** [13:11] — Sony headphones with noise cancellation were purchased for $105 versus $130 MSRP. Passive isolation is strong, though active NC is subtle.
- **Baby Monitor Disappointment** [13:24] — An open-box baby monitor for $63 felt dated (like 2015 Samsung) and had range issues, making it one of the weaker purchases.
- **Xbox 360 Complete Set** [17:12] — A used Xbox 360 with Kinect, headset, and games was bought for under $80–100. Despite a finicky disc drive, the completeness made it a good deal.
- **Zebra Scanner Miss** [20:37] — A Point of Sale Zebra scanner was the worst item, with unclear functionality and no password, leading to a mixed conclusion.
- **Overall Impression** [20:51] — Tech For Less shows good attention to detail and better quality than expected, but the selection is limited and not every item is a winner.

### Conclusion

Overall, Tech For Less offers some excellent deals on business-grade hardware and open-box items, but the selection is limited and not every purchase is a winner. For savvy buyers, refurbished enterprise gear can deliver massive savings.

## Transcript

doesn't it? but really? Some places show both positive and negative reviews
prefer to show mostly negative comments. (Alex laughing) and when I opened the box and started it up,
- [Alex] Revenge? - John is not happy. And I hate the animations on the site. What is a Naclud S15 for $382?
Got a lot of just Dells. Just Dells. A $9 SSD? (light music)
I love myself a PlayStation for $519. - No Switches, okay. They have an Xbox 360 for $50.
So they have the open box, the C710s, I love this. This is not good!
- [Alex] Mm. Mm. Like, I'm honestly trying. with Tech For Less and see
Now, gotta be honest. about what we were able to find at Tech For Less. there actually was some pretty good stuff.
(light music continues) from Tech For Less, right? - [Austin] This is in open package condition?
used and acceptable condition. - Is Alienware still cool? - [Alex] Ooh. Hello, how do you do, fellow children? It's me.
Don't answer that question. - [Alex] We paid $37. eBay or whatever,
- [Austin] People actually buy these? (Alex laughing) - I'll take it! You know what? That's fine.
Actually, no, no, this was a business model, wasn't it? So the Latitudes are more of the professional, but it does say it was manufactured in 2022,
- [Alex] The base model for this costs almost two grand. Normally, these are bought by like IT departments I mean, you can feel the metal on the palm rest.
It's bright, it looks to be fairly high resolution. - [Alex] I mean, this was in used-acceptable condition, so.
A little scuffed, but the same kind of scuffed when their manager laid them off or something. - Please tell me.
- [Adriana] You look like Harry Potter in his wizard robe. It's Wingardium Leviosa! So this is in fact a Core i7-1185G7,
it has a digital shutter. that's opening and closing for the actual shutter. I think there's a pretty good argument for buying used,
ThinkPads and Latitudes and ProBooks to a higher standard than an average $800 laptop and see how it sounds.
- [Austin] Dude, that's 50% volume? Oh, my God! These are some of the best laptop speakers This is, like, up there with like a MacBook Pro or something.
Not the world's most powerful thing. but build quality is great, which looks a little bit- Nevermind.
- Alex, this thing was at least $2,000. - [Alex] $253. why you want to go out and buy a brand-new laptop,
and something like an M1 or an M2 MacBook At the same kind of money, this is actually the right move. They said this was in fair condition, right?
Like, this is actually like in very good shape. that we're off to a pretty good start. So this is one of the items
This is a HP server. They had a mention that it was, like, that I was actually okay with the fact
So the next morning they called me And I actually talked to a real person This thing is dented. Are you okay with that?"
The hardware itself weighs so much. They have a brand new bezel here! This is like some over-engineered like cable management arm?
- Can someone move that Uline thing? I can hold an entire server. - [Austin] It has got Xeons of some variety.
- [Alex] It should have been originally released in 2014. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!
22, 23, 24. These are 16 gig DIMMs. - [Adriana] And where is the dent?
whatever these are, These are probably not going to be accessible. These fans might look small.
with no drives, it was probably like $20 to $30,000. like that alone would've been expensive.
Alex, just in RAM, (Alex laughing) What if I told you that I only paid like 600 bucks
Right? - [Alex] We beat the system this way. Literally, the RAM works. Let me actually make sure that this thing functions,
What? - [Austin] Him? Pierre's a sassy (beep).
- [Matt] Shh. It's okay, baby. These are all old SSDs - I didn't.
- [Austin] What did you do to the server? How much RAM is in this system? - So we have a total of 224 gigs of RAM in here now.
and that had 96 gigs of RAM in it. - [Matt] Yes. - [Austin] Which sees the full (Matt laughing)
- Now, if we want to open up Finder. - [Matt] They're all guys named Pierre. - [Matt] I needed to make sure I could transfer something.
to slice this very loud conversation and I look forward to seeing what Pierre does in the future. Tech for Less also has open box tech.
This is a Kindle Scribe with the premium pen. for you to like take notes and whatnot. - [Alex] They retail brand new right now
- [Austin] Well, it's big. It's about roughly the thickness of a USB-C port. - [Alex] For like the Gen 1, stuff like that?
so like 160 up to, like, 200. So that's kind of right in the ballpark. We basically did save 120 bucks
presuming it ever turns on, in good shape. and I had to actually restart it twice to get it to fully set up, So this has a front-lit display,
I actually want to see how good this is. Oh, yeah, that's actually bright. - [Adriana] Poo-poo.
why you would buy one of these is the fact that you have the- So I write it and then lock it in.
Yeah, so the pen, it doesn't draw at all without the pen. - It's definitely helping to kind of like smooth out Like that looks actually like I know how to write.
You can hang it right in the art gallery Technically, we got this for $120 off of MSRP, which kind of skews the value a little bit
on Amazon anymore new, right? - [Austin] We're on Gen 3? - [Alex] Yeah. and it is, most importantly, exactly what we asked for.
Their iconic names. have been brought out by Sony. - PlayStation, BRAVIA, Walkman.
to that pantheon of greats for you? - [Alex] Excuse me? I actually do daily drive
which are my favorite, like, But they're really expensive. These things are like 350 bucks. Now, they do come in this cool, clear blue colorway,
I mean, they have noise cancellation, - [Austin] Oh, and the whole case is transparent? even though it's a little bit of a different shape,
Yeah, definitely not super clean. They've got, like, fingerprints on them and stuff, so. - [Alex] Oh, God. Why did you smell those?
which all are thankfully here in the box, I mean, the passive seal is wild. When I try noise cancellation, I actually hardly hear a difference.
so much by themselves passively. do they, like, passively isolate so much for you? (bright music)
but normally the EQ really does help Bright actually is- To my ears sounds way better. You can't judge these compared to, you know,
We paid a little over $100 for these - [Alex] We paid $105. - [Alex] $130 MSRP.
Ooh! These came fine, and...I expected more. Is that a baby monitor I see?
- I'm familiar with baby monitors. I bought several baby monitors, and tried to charge me a subscription
- [Adriana] Dude, this is now a pitch meeting and that video just got greenlit. baby monitor screen. Yeah, because Tech for Less has no options.
It's like a little clip. This very much feels like Samsung from like 2015. - [Alex] This product was released sometime in 2017.
But to be fair, I will say, get one with a dedicated screen. Oh.
Are we in a horror movie? This is straight up a horror movie. I mean, it's a baby monitor,
So now we just have to decide who's the baby of the office? - Wah. - [Austin] (singing) Go to sleep.
- (singing) Go to sleep, little baby. - I don't know. That's what we're finding out!
- [Alex] Okay. - [Austin] Oh, he's out of range already. like one-and-a-half rooms away. I got you, but you're down to one bar.
- I don't like that you can see me, - [Adriana] Oh, my God. (Austin laughing)
- Wah! - [Adriana] Can you believe we're getting paid right now? - Look at him. Look how happy he is in there.
Oh, I forgot to unlock it. This whole having kids thing is a lot of work. - Man, nothing is installed on this.
- [Ken] I can't even play "Cyberpunk 2077." - [Alex] So this baby monitor- - [Austin] Yeah! but we bought it open box for $63.
He's like a room-and-a-half away. this is probably not gonna work. because if you want an ancient baby monitor,
(Ken burps) Did he just burp? - [Alex] Do you change babies just because they burp? has actually padded things pretty well.
I thought it was an Xbox 360 Kinect bundle. but this listing has been taken down. - [Alex] We bought a used Xbox 360 with Kinect.
- [Austin] I mean, at this point, What does this normally run if you want to get a pretty much complete Xbox 360 setup?
Oh, God, what is that? 80-ish? the fact that this is pretty complete and we've even got the headset. I feel like we're getting a real sense here
I mean, all the scuffs I see on here Let me get this thing actually, like, but I think we might have done all right here.
I mean, this seems like a functioning Xbox. Okay, everyone, stop talking. (bright music)
I am officially a Kinectamal. No, maybe? Okay, whatever. And if it does-
That's the sound it makes when the disc drive doesn't want to open. I swear with these older Xbox 360s,
they, like, lose their chutzpah. They lose their ability to stick their discs out. It's doing still a calibration thing.
Let's do 20,000 leaks. No, bad. No. No, no, no! Ah!
if a little bit tired on the disc drive, but I'm impressed with the level of completeness. Alex, you were saying earlier
probably in the like $80 to $100 range Well, I'm pretty sure that we paid less than that. - [Austin] I think it's a pretty good deal.
the 250 gig 360 S, because I think that's basically the same price I'm legitimately impressed with Tech for Less.
And admittedly, the selection of items isn't great, but... about how Tech For Less - [Alex] Oh, my God.
Point of Sale, system. - [Austin] Some version of this. My understanding is like a barcode, QR code scanner.
It doesn't look like it's been like abused for years and years. This one was open box, right? What's the password?
- [Austin] I bet there's a way - [Adriana] Maybe we just break it, break it? what did we pay for our Zebra?
- Which really leaves us with a bit of a mixed conclusion This is by far our worst item. they actually have good attention to detail,
Certainly a lot better than I was expecting "Don't listen to all the mean Yelp reviews," subscribe to the Austin Evans channel
It is in fact my job, to present to you tech for, less. (bright music)