eBay’s refurbished tech revolution – a quest to prevent e-waste and save you money

Refurbished isn’t broken. Refurbished isn’t dirty and damaged. Refurbished isn’t secondhand.

In fact, refurbished can often be as good as new. It’s about sustainability and reducing e-waste by rescuing returned, unwanted or traded-in tech. It’s about giving consumers repaired, reconditioned and quality-checked goods that meet, and perhaps exceed, their expectations. And, maybe best of all during these tough economic times, it’s about saving you money.

At least, that’s how Mark Monte-Columbo, Head of Refurbished Technology at eBay UK, wants us to see it. When I spoke to him about the eBay Refurbished program he emphasised these aspects repeatedly. He says he’s driven by a passion for improving the sustainability of technology, and for giving consumers a high-quality product they can trust while also saving them cash.

“eBay is at the forefront – we’re the home of recommerce,” he tells me “We’re the original business in this space – the first product we ever sold was a broken laser pointer pain – and we have the right to play in this space. We know what works, we've got the inventory, we've got the scale, and we've got the consumer trust.

“And so we’ve not just got the right but a responsibility to take more action in this space. You've seen the work we've done in preloved with fashion, and refurbished is following suit and making its own space in the industry.”

Since eBay Refurbished launched in March 2021 as a dedicated marketplace it has expanded into a vast number of product categories including mobile phones, laptops, and vacuums, and brought in more manufacturers including Dyson, Ninja, and Simba.

And it’s proven popular. An eBay study into the impact of its customers buying refurbished assessed that, in 2022, 13,000 tonnes of greenhouse emissions were prevented and over 400 tonnes of waste was saved.

“I think this expansion will continue and I think that's great,” says Monte-Columbo. “I think that's good for the planet. And it's good for people's pockets. I think that what will happen in the next five to 10 years is that more of this inventory will become available. I think manufacturers and retailers will invest more money into the reverse logistics of their businesses in order to bring that inventory back to be sold before going to landfill.

“Some of that will be driven by regulation, which will mean that [sending products to landfill] has to stop. I think some of that will be driven by innovation, where people will come up with new ideas and new ways to bring it to platform or to market. And I think it will be driven by business pressures. The cost of living crisis... who knows when it's going to end. But sellers and businesses are realizing now that there's a lot of value to be recovered by selling refurbished items.”

But selling refurbished goods is not simply a case of tightening a few loose screws, giving the screen a quick wipe, or making sure the battery still charges, and shipping it out in a jiffy bag. The eBay program is set up to go beyond this, with manufacturer-approved programs and quality-vetted sellers that companies must apply to join, to ensure the products buyers receive aren’t any old secondhand goods.

As Monte-Columbo explains, “We work really closely with our sellers to ensure that their standards are best in class, and when you meet the sellers or the manufacturers that are refurbishing these products you realize how high-quality their work is.

“We also have a team in place to closely monitor and support those sellers to ensure that any challenges they may be experiencing – and they will experience challenges – are being managed proactively to ensure that the consumer is protected throughout that process.”

While the onboarding process can be difficult for some sellers and manufacturers, Monte-Columbo has found that feedback has been positive on the whole, and most companies are keen to do something that adds value to their business and is a positive for consumers.

“[Manufacturers] want to make sure that there are more guardrails in place so that the whole industry can improve and lift itself up,” he adds “The more engaged sellers tend to be the ones that offer a really high level of service, that have the program in place in the background, and that are improving and repairing products brilliantly.

"Some that aren't have a few more hoops to jump through, and I think we have to accept that's fine, because we've got a standard which we need to hit within the whole refurbished industry in order to improve.”

Alongside this process of vetting and proactively monitoring sellers, eBay has a number of what Monte-Columbo calls “trust signals” to make it clear to buyers what condition each refurbished product is in, and give them confidence that what they receive will satisfy their needs and expectations.

“We are conditioned, growing up as consumers, to buy new products, he explains “Every store we go into sells new, and we rightly or wrongly trust it. Trust is a huge thing, right? In life, trust is hard-won and easily lost. And I think, as a refurbished industry, we have to work really hard to gain consumer trust because new products are easily accessible. But I think that consistently delivering great buyer experiences will drive a more consistent experience.”

There are multiple ways eBay goes about this. These include a minimum 12-month guarantee from the seller to cover defects, and a 30-day money-back guarantee through eBay should you receive a product that isn’t up to standards. It also extends to the grading system for products sold through the platform, which eBay classifies as Certified Refurbished, Excellent, Very Good, and Good.

“For every category we launch into we do extensive research with consumers and with sellers to make sure that what the buyer expects is what the seller can meet as a requirement,” says Monte-Columbo “Ensuring that we have a grading criteria that meets consumer expectations is key.”

To give a quick overview: Certified Refurbished is run or approved in some form by a specific manufacturer like Dyson, Sonos, or Ninja. These items are almost always in pristine condition and shipped in a branded box, and are the closest you’d get to brand-new items. Excellent, Very Good, and Good are used by other sellers, and generally refer to the appearance of the product, not the functionality. Such products might have scratches, dents, scuffs or any other cosmetic imperfections, but they’ll be in good working order.

“Let’s take the mobile phone industry,” explains Monte-Columbo. “Sometimes these products are returned within days. They may have been opened, they may need to be checked, they may have been opened and scratched and can't be sold as brand-new. But that phone needs to go somewhere afterwards, and most of those phones are still fully functional.

“So, they will go back into the industry through a well-known trading model that exists, and there are also brilliant experts in the industry who would then repair that product. The only difference across our grading from Good, Very Good, Excellent and Certified Refurbished is genuinely the cosmetics. Every product we sell is 100% functional.”

Those assurances, and clear descriptions of what to expect, are important. I know, because I’ve been hesitant and dismissive of refurbished goods because of the expectation that they could be low-quality, that they could be damaged, or in some other respect inferior.

But one hugely positive experience with a refurbished games console – it honestly could have been brand-new with the way it was packaged, presented and functioned – changed my mind for good. Now my home has a refurbished vacuum, and even a refurbished mattress, which have been purchased from various retailer and manufacturer programs.

Mark understands that this is a process some customers need to go through in order to get it. “Once you’ve bought it once and you've had a good experience, you're likely to come back again. Because why wouldn't you? You realize it's fully functional, you realize it meets the requirements for what you purchased and that there's no compromise on quality,” he says.

“I think if we can normalize that, then that will save a lot of inventory from going to landfill and it will save a lot of customers a lot of money. It's good for the planet and good for people's pockets.”

Sure, new tech is exciting. We love it. It’s what we spend the majority of our time writing about here at TechRadar, and what you spend most of your time reading about. But if we can play even some small part in helping reduce e-waste and still get access to the tech that excites us, then why shouldn’t we?

“I think we're all making more sustainable conscious decisions in our lives, whether that's trying to get an electric car or drinking out of a reusable coffee cup,” agrees Monte-Columbo. "What the eBay refurbished program does is enable consumers to make that decision easier, because we give them more trust and consistency in the messaging. We give them a bigger range and we give them great value.

"Customers can make a conscious decision to purchase something that will improve the planet – or make less of an impact on the planet – whilst saving them money at the same time.”

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be trying out several products sourced from Refurbished on eBay to see how the service stacks up. I think it’s safe to say that we all hope the program meets the high standards that Mark has for it, because why should a fully functional iPhone 13 or a slightly dinged five-year-old Dyson vacuum be abandoned? If it can still snap a selfie or suck up dust just as well as a product that was released yesterday, then why wouldn't we want one that could be as much as 50% cheaper?