- We are over one year into the new console life cycle,
and people are spending over a thousand dollars
on scalped PS5s and Series X's.
Please!
Everyone knows the real move
is to buy a last generation console.
Hear me out here.
Not only are people dumping
their old PS4s and Xbox One's,
but on top of that,
you have an absolutely enormous library of amazing games
over the last few years for dirt cheap.
On top of that, things like the Xbox One
has actually gotten better, not worse,
over the last few years.
In addition to a ton of backwards compatibility,
you've also got access to Game Pass,
which is gonna give you tons of games
across your One, your Series X, your PC,
and you've even got XCloud streaming,
which has recently come to the Xbox One.
So it seems obvious, right?
Let's just head over to GameStop
and pull up the Xbox One.
(car brakes screech)
Oh,
$390.
For a used
Xbox One X.
I can't think of any reason
why these GameStop consoles are so expensive.
Why am I spending $290 on an Xbox One S
which used to cost me $300 brand new?
What are you doing?
This all started recently when we were working on a video
on the Xbox Series S,
and why at $300 and actually being in stock,
it is surprisingly good.
But while we were doing the research for that video,
I was looking around at some of the prices on used consoles,
specifically on the Xbox side,
and I could not believe what I was seeing.
Specifically looking at GameStop,
the prices on used Xbox Ones, One S's and One X's,
is astronomical.
And to make things even worse,
GameStops, they have the Series S in stock
for like a $100 dollars less than the used One X.
A quick trip to eBay confirmed my suspicions.
GameStop is charging way over what these consoles are worth.
The Xbox One is typically on sale
for less than $200 on eBay.
The One S about $220,
and the One X, anywhere from $280 to $300.
All of which is about $50 to $100 cheaper than GameStop.
Which leads me to exactly one conclusion.
I need to find out for myself.
Normally boxes don't look this (beep) up,
until Ken's already thrown them on the table.
- All right.
(package thuds)
(Austin laughs)
- [Ken] Really?
- I swear I did not do that.
Look, look, look.
- [Ken] Wait, they didn't even fill the...
(Austin laughs)
- Look, look at this!
- [Ken] How about,
fill your boxes with air next time.
(box shuffles)
- So this is a certified pre-owned Xbox One S.
It is cleaned, tested and guaranteed.
- [Ken] COVID-free.
(knife scores)
- Wait. It's one of those newer gray controllers.
Oh!
- [Ken] Wait, what!
- Oh, whoa. Okay!
This is in decent shape.
It's actually fairly clean.
Sticks are a little chewed up, especially that right stick,
but that's fine.
All right. This is in pretty good shape.
The top is pretty much immaculate.
Maybe a little couple of scratches here by the USB port,
which is fair enough.
Oh, you know, it doesn't have the rubber feet.
That's a little weird.
No wonder it's scratched,
because whoever lost the rubber feet,
it means that it just does this on a table.
This, at first glance, looks to be,
I would say above average quality.
Like, better than you're gonna find
in most sort of used retailers.
How much was this? This was 290, right.
- [Jared] So that was 290
- Yes. - But,
GameStop now has it on sale for their website
at the low, low price of 225.99.
- I ordered this three days ago. Are you serious?
- [Jared] Sounds like you ordered
at the wrong time.
(they laugh)
What about the other one?
- Yeah, there is, actually there should be two more.
There's one more.
- [Ken] Oh.
- [Jared] Wait, did they not send us one?
- Did one of them fall out the box?
(they laugh)
- So this is also a premium, refurbished,
certified Xbox One.
Should be, in fact, I think it says right here,
data wiped, cleaned, quality tested, 30-day guarantee.
I wonder if that 30-day guarantee means
I get my $50 back on the Xbox One?
So immediately this controller is in worse shape.
Look at the right stick there. It's like gummed up.
Like all the matte finish is, kind of, worn off.
And a lot of like hand juice
that's been, sort of, eating into the plastic.
- [Ken] Oh - - [Austin] Oh.
- [Ken] and it's the matte.
- [Austin] The matte one!
- [Ken] Okay. Okay, okay.
- All right.
This was manufactured in 2015.
So this is two years into the Xbox One's life cycle.
Ports are actually, you know what,
the ports look like they've basically never been touched.
Like these are all completely minty.
- [Ken] The people that had these
didn't use them, so.
- You're not wrong.
I think I am mostly happy with the condition
of these consoles.
I need to find our Xbox One X though.
(packaging swoops)
No, not in there.
Okay. Well.
I'll be right back when we find an Xbox One X.
(film beep)
Jarrod, is the camera actually on?
- Ah, yeah, it looks good.
- Okay, perfect.
I swear if we open this up
and there's just like empty air packets,
I'm just gonna be over it.
So over it.
Oh my God. It's actually almost worse.
It's just a little bit of paper.
(they laugh)
Well, that's just lovely.
Okay. All right.
Oh my God.
(box rattles)
(they laugh)
The difference between the other two,
these Xbox's, and this Xbox One X,
is that these were GameStop refurbished.
This is just pre-owned or used,
which I assume shouldn't make a big difference.
- [Jared] Yeah.
- Oh! Well, that's not what I expected.
Comes with a camo controller.
- [Jared] Oh, what the...
- I mean, it's dirty as hell on the back.
That's actually really good though.
Oh my.
There's no padding.
Literally, it's an Xbox, in a box,
in another box, shipped.
[Jared] I wonder how many extra scratches
it got on its way here.
- You know what. I'll tell ya.
Yes. (he laughs)
(mouth blows)
(hand wipes)
I would say, condition of this top is bad.
- [Jared] It's pretty rough.
- It's fine enough, like,
I mean, obviously the Xbox should theoretically work.
It has been seriously scratched at the top.
There's also a dent on the side,
probably from shipping if I'm being honest.
This one also doesn't have the little rubber feet.
Does GameStop just remove the rubber feet?
I like the One X, but like $390.
They're selling these things!
This was the only one they had in stock.
The label said that it had been reformatted.
What, two weeks before filming and shipped out here.
So like, they must have got this thing
and immediately flashed it, and shipped it right back out.
People are buying consoles.
It almost doesn't matter what the console is.
If it is vaguely modern, if it can play games,
people are spending the money.
And I can't believe it,
but like people are spending $390 on an Xbox One X,
which used to cost $400, like three years ago.
Now, as a GameStop refurbished console,
clearly this should be of incredibly high quality
on the inside, right?
Well there's only one way to find out.
With my handy-dandy iFixit out here.
So I think I'm just gonna just
budge it and pull it apart.
Aha! How hard could it be?
Okay. So got that part up, and you know what,
we don't need the Xbox warranty sticker anymore.
I'm pretty sure that's void in 2014.
(console clanks)
Hey! Hey, let's' go!
All right. So, this is actually in totally fine shape.
- [Jared] I mean, it's got some dirt.
- They've definitely taken apart though,
look, they put a 1TB sticker on the optical disc drive,
even though this is clearly a 500GB hard drive.
I'm actually gonna say, good job GameStop.
This actually looks like a refurbished console.
I mean, still obscenely expensive,
but legitimately pretty happy with that.
Also shout out to the Xbox One, the OG.
Look how much wasted space there is.
Like, my whole hand fits inside here.
- [Jared] Why couldn't you put the power supply
in there Microsoft, huh?
- Yeah! The power supply right here.
Let's crack open the Xbox One S
and see what's inside of that.
Hey, that thud sounded good.
(console clanks)
Hey look.
Good noises. I hear good noises.
You can't keep your secrets from me for long,
Xbox Series One S, X (indistinct).
So, inside our Xbox One S is,
a completely clean looking set of internals.
Look at that.
This reminds me, this little Master Chief Easter egg.
So we did a video on the Xbox One S when it first came out.
And I think we were the first ones to spot
the little Master Chief inside.
And I remember that went viral,
but everyone just took screenshots from our video
and didn't credit us, and I was a little sad about it.
This looks good though.
So this Xbox One S, the serial shows it was built in 2017,
and yet this is a 2019 hard drive.
You know what, we're two for two with GameStop.
They're actually properly refurbishing these.
Why don't we open up the Xbox One X
and see if they have really refurbished
or done anything with that one.
'Cause based on the condition,
I'm gonna guess, they haven't.
(screwdriver clicks)
A lot of screws.
Plentiful amount of screws.
I don't know what it is, with forearm workouts for me lately,
now I'm just like...
- [Jared] What, er.
Is it something you've been doing a lot?
- Very frequently on camera lately.
- [Jared] Oh, on camera!
- Yep.
- [Jared] I hope you're getting paid
for that at least.
- We'll see.
(Jared laughs)
It's a burgeoning career.
Everything I'm seeing here makes me really think
that GameStop has never opened this, which makes sense.
There's a lot of dust on the other side
of what I assume is the power supply.
So this thing, I mean, I will just tell you is dusty.
Like, I mean, there's dust caked on the inside.
This is probably the condition you would expect to get
from something like eBay.
Armed with $60 in my pocket,
my next step was of course,
to head over to our friendly local GameStop,
to not buy more Xbox's,
but to buy some used Xbox One games.
And surprise, surprise, for $60,
I actually was able to pick up quite a bit.
And so with our $60 of games from GameStop,
I think we actually did pretty good.
When you look at the One X
compared to something like a Series S,
this is really one of the main advantages.
You just buy a disc or keep one of your old discs,
throw it in and you'll be good to go.
Something you'll notice straight away,
is that the Xbox One has actually gotten pretty much
all of the updates,
or at least a lot of the updates,
from the Series S and Series X.
So for example, this interface,
looks pretty much identical
to what you get on those newer Xbox's.
Now you don't have the fast loading times, right?
And Red Dead is a great example of a game
that while it looks great here, running in 4K,
it takes forever to load
on the original Xbox and Xbox One X.
So, if you're talking about spending about $300
on a One X or a Series S,
what you'll find is that the One X
generally gives you better image quality, right?
Most games are gonna be running, if not at 4K,
at pretty close to 4K settings.
The flip side of that though,
is that you're not getting those higher frame rate modes,
that the Series S usually comes with.
So a lot of games that can run at 60,
at like 1080p on the Series S,
are running at 4K 30 here.
It's gonna be a trade-off, right.
Do you care about that more pristine image quality,
or do you care about the better feature set,
faster loading times and whatnot?
Another thing though, that you should consider,
is the longevity of this console, right?
The One X actually, I think,
holds up surprisingly well today,
even with games like Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5,
but you also have to consider that
how long is that really gonna last, right?
More and more games, like Microsoft Flight Simulator,
are coming out that are going to be exclusive
to those newer consoles.
In fact, Digital Foundry did an excellent video
the other day,
where they talked about how a lot of games
do look good on the One X,
but there are ultimately some sort of issues
that you're going to run into, especially long-term.
This will work fine for a while,
but it's not gonna work forever.
Now, if you think about this from the perspective of,
should you go out and buy an Xbox from GameStop?
No. You shouldn't.
Not even one of the refurbished ones.
They're just too expensive.
But thinking about maybe buying a used Xbox One X,
I don't think it's a crazy idea.
And I think actually one of the best ideas of all,
is if you already have an Xbox One X, hold onto it.
There's no reason really to upgrade to a newer system
at the moment.
But I think the One X is best.
What's up? - Hi.
- Have you come to revel in the glory of the Xbox One X?
(card slaps on counter)
- Is that, a six month code of Game Pass?
- Yeah. You don't, you don't need these.
(bin slams)
(Jared laughs)