Testing Obsolete Tech from Back Market and What It Reveals About Refurbished Devices

: Back Market is probably the best used tech site we've seen. They have consistently high quality, and a whole new category of obsolete equipment has emerged. The idea is that they have "ugly" computers with stickers and other traces, but there's a bunch of other stuff on the site too. One of the innovations is that they have partnered with Google to offer Chrome OS Flex for devices that are no longer supported. So they have retro, " ugly" devices and tech on Chrome OS. Wait, I'm describing the same thing now. Yes. Got it. Oho. OK. So, the " ugly" MacBook Pro. This is a 2021 model, i.e. on the M1 chip. M1, 8 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of storage for

$439. This is the 13-inch version. Oh, you can get a 14-inch for 650. That's actually.Oh, that's a pretty good deal. Oh. For $650, man, that's not bad. It is also in good condition, with light traces of stickers. I really want to try this one. They also have a category for legacy devices. These devices will receive security updates from Apple until 2028. Technically, they are considered obsolete, although they work 100%. They have old "obsolete" MacBook Air and Pro. In general, a lot of everything is on Intel. And you know what we can do? Why don't we buy one of these older, " obsolete" MacBooks, and even if they still get security updates, I don't care. I'll probably buy their little Chrome OS flash drive and install it myself.

So, we have " ugly". We have " outdated". Let's finish this trio with a retro device. There's Wii, there's DS, PlayStation, Game Boy. There's a good choice here. I want to try one of the DS ones because they scratch really quickly. So, this is a professionally restored white DS Lite. You get 30 days to return and 1 year warranty. There are light signs of use, but it should be fully functional. Well, friends, we have a nice selection of " ugly", restored, retro and obsolete technology to check how bad an idea this is. A huge thank you to the sponsor of today's video, Desktronic. I'm a real fan of standing desks. When I want to really work, I stand.

So it was only logical to try their Home Pro Desk. So how does it work as a table? Desktronic countertops are resistant to scratches and spills. It is designed to hold up to 350 pounds (about 160 kg). This is much more than I expected. Look at this adjustment range. And if for some reason something doesn't work, there is a warranty of up to 15 years. So, it's a good table, but what about everything else? Charging on the table panel is very convenient. I don't have to keep a bunch of different chargers that create a mess because the built-in USB ports keep things organized. And importantly, the motors are fast and quiet, which means you

won't disturb anyone when raising or lowering the table. Be sure to check out Home Pro via the link in the description, and thanks again Desktronic for making our lives a little more ergonomic. So, my "ugly" friends, let's take a closer look at what Back Market sent us today. Sorry? We are all "ugly" now. So, this must be our " ugly" MacBook. Pretty decent packaging. Wait, is he really that ugly? Oh, I barely noticed that. It all depends on how you look at the light. If you look straight on, everything is fine, but if you look at it from a certain angle, you can see the shadows from the stickers: here, here, here, and here. Although it's nothing. This is normal. That is, this is exactly what they advertised.

The most important question: let's try turning it on and see if it even works properly. So, we.Oh. A. Okay, it seems like it's a work laptop and it wasn't reset because it was in sleep mode. A. Interesting. "Bad agent terminated unexpectedly. There's a command shell open here. I think that's probably normal. They were just cleaning it up and didn't clean up after themselves." I'm going to reset it to factory settings. I'll clean it completely to make sure there's nothing left on it. But the first impression is this: although the iron is in good condition, it is definitely not very clean. This keyboard definitely needs a good cleaning. Um, the touchpad, and even that little notch where you

lift it. This all seems a little dirtier than I would like. So I'm happy to report that after a fresh reinstall of the OS on our MacBook Pro, it became a fully working device, which we once compared against the then-current PS4. Very loud speakers. Listen, dude, this laptop is about 5 years old. And while $2,000 was a lot of money when it came out, I would say it was one of the most balanced Macs they ever released, simply because it did so many things so well. And the performance, even on the base chip, was more than enough for anything you could do on it. And especially now, having 16 gigabytes of RAM is really cool.

Okay, how much did we pay for our " ugly" MacBook Pro from Back Market? We paid $650. What costs approximately how much? About a quarter of the price of a brand new 14- inch MacBook Pro. And I'll tell you, it's 90% as good. How much can I get a 14-inch MacBook with M1 Pro for, say, on eBay? I look, I see that 600 is like the starting limit, and then the price increases depending on how much RAM you need and all that. The price can go up to 800-900, so, buying on Back Market, you pay a little more than for an item from eBay, but it's somewhere around, you know, plus or minus a little. I would rather take an ugly MacBook in good condition than a beautiful MacBook

covered in stickers, covered in scuffs, scratches, and the like. Like, you can close this. I think Back Market did a good job here. Um, so this should be a little excursion into the past. This is a Canon PowerShot that we got not from the " ugly" Back Market, but from the retro Back Market. Oh. Oh, wait a minute. It even comes in a little case. Steeply. It's so 2000s style. Just, you know. It's really short. I guess I should just put it down.That's fine. Ideally.

This is how it was worn in the 2000s. So, this is our Canon PowerShot G9. It's more massive than I thought. Now those of you who are older might say, "Austin, who cares?" And to that I will reply: "I completely agree with you." But kids now just love their old digital cameras. Well, not that it's crap, but it's definitely more about aesthetics. We definitely need an SD card, but before I start, this is a really cool thing, by the way. I didn't know we had everything we needed. We have an external charger. We have a small AV cable for it. Okay, let's get to work. Oh, wow. Look at this lens that's coming out. Wait, wait, we need to get closer. What is this?

You've got yourself a little ISO selection disk. You just bet on the car. There are also real settings, including a video mode that I'm sure will be "very " high quality. Can we just do this? I think it's worth a try. Good. Hello, congratulations, friends, on shooting with the Canon PowerShot G9. 480p may not look great, and I have no idea if there's autofocus here. Actually, let me check. Is he focusing on me? Or not? Wasn't he recording all this time? What the.Actually, the sound isn't that terrible. Time to enter the era of Photography 101.

Let's take a closer look. Therefore. We took a lot of photos with the PowerShot G9, and they're actually pretty good. This is a really fun camera for entertainment. But of course, the point is, this isn't a cheap camera, right? Because I know we paid a lot for it even on Back Market, right? Not to mention that it cost a lot of money when it was new. We paid $200 on Back Market for this thing, and honestly, that's it. This is an acceptable price. You can find a few on eBay for this price, but for really high-quality copies or in good condition.

They go closer to $250. So it's actually a pretty good deal. Am I the target user for the Canon PowerShot G9? Maybe not. But I must say, it's a decent camera. Most importantly: if you also miss 2009, I'm with you, brother. When I say " retro console," what comes to mind? And if you're calling something from the 2000s, you're on the wrong channel. Go watch Cocomelon. What? Retro consoles are from the 1980s, and to be generous, the 1990s. Well, you know, a few years ago. So, this is our nicely packaged Sega Genesis. I believe it's a model 2, considering it's not huge.

What is the condition of this retro Genesis when I open it? Uh, acceptable condition. Which is quite understandable. I mean, this thing came out 15 years ago. 15? Ugh. Yes, that's when she came out. 15? Well, yes. "Acceptable" is putting it mildly. The plastic isn't sticky or anything. It looks like it's a little scratched. Do we have a game by any chance? Of course. The only and unique Genesis game that has ever existed. Let's go. On the first try. Okay, what's up?

Um, this.What is it? I'm happy to report that there's nothing to. The only thing that can upset us is the amount we paid for it. But I don't think it was expensive, right? For the Genesis 2 model? Yes, we paid $90. It may be a little more expensive than other Genesis models you can buy on eBay or elsewhere, but considering the warranty and everything else, $90 is n't that bad, right? Next we have something I've been wanting to do for a long time, I saw Ken make a few videos about it. So, it must be the iPod classic. OK. Oh, wait. What am I doing? I have to unpack mine. Hello and welcome to my unboxing. It's an iPod classic, and oh my God, what is that, a brand new 30- pin USB cable, still sealed in the box? Oh, and

headphones? Wait, let me zoom in on this quickly. Oh my god, just look at this. The most important thing we have, while I unpack it with one hand, is the iPod classic in its case. It's even in a case. Look at this. control wheel. Oh brother, look at this little wheel. I really miss this wheel. Do you know what version it is or what year it is? Yes. This is the iPod classic 7, which was first released in 2009. Um, listen, the screen. The problem is that it seems to be badly scratched, but I can't figure out if it's the case and I really want to take it off. Everyone turn away. Yes,

no one wants to see, no one wants to see the grimaces I'm making right now, trying to uncover this mess. Let's take a look. O. Oh, yes, most of the scratches are only on the case itself. I mean, if you look at the back panel, listen, I want to be fair. If you've never had one of those old-school iPods, you look at it and say, "Oh my god, it's awful." But oh, that's just my reflection. But they also scratched very easily. Seriously, you could use it for a month and it would look exactly like this.

Let's actually do this. Let's sync it with the MacBook. Let's put on some music and I can feel 2009 again. Well, I have exactly one song on my iPod, and it's, of course. Is it the number one single on Billboard or just the number one single? I don't know. This is the number one song this year. Can I confess? I've never heard a raunchy version of this song before. They say the word "ass" very often there. How much did we pay for our iPod classic from Back Market Retro? We paid $250. Are you trying to tell me that the iPod I bought in 2009 costs the same today?

I'm telling you, yes. You may know that I love little things from Nintendo. What? Little things from Nintendo. The easier, the better. L I T E. Name the lightweight Nintendo console. Er, Game Boy Light. Great, I love it. Do you know how to spell G H T? Switch Lite, high quality and fantastic. What about the DS Lite? So it looks in pretty good condition. That is, it is a little yellowed, but not critical. Even the sticker and everything else are pretty clean. You can see that the L and R buttons may have turned a little yellow. Uh, the real test will be Oh, inside he's just fantastic. Wow, it's really very clean. I hope he's good. Yes?

Yes, it is in good condition. Okay, great. And it even has a little charge, it's fantastic. Oh no, the screens are yellow like a lemon. Oh yeah, so from a certain angle it's almost acceptable, but it's yellow, yellow, yellow. Uh, I think that's probably on the verge of being acceptable. I'm a level 29 fan, bro, what's wrong with you? Does Pichu hate you or something? Okay, help me figure this out. I hesitate. From a technical point of view, it is actually in very good condition. I mean, the fact that there's an actual Game Boy Advance slot that usually goes away. I would have preferred a white stylus

instead of a black one, but that's okay. I'm not going to complain about that. It didn't say that it was in, you know, perfect condition. Just in a good way. And again, it's Back Market, so we have a guarantee, so I can go to them if I'm unhappy with something. But the yellowness on the screens bothers me, but considering how clean the rest of the console is, it's acceptable to me. The real question is the price. How much did we pay for a DS Lite in good condition from Back Market Retro? We paid $90. That seems a bit too much. Like, you can buy a fully restored DS with a new body for 140. Yeah, I think we overpaid for this one. I'm not angry, but I'm not thrilled either. So, we looked at the " ugly". We looked at retro,

but did we look at outdated? Well, technically, a lot of it was outdated, but this is a truly outdated MacBook. So Back Market is promoting these outdated MacBooks with a little twist, because they'll sell you that too. You can use this USB key to run Chrome OS on a Mac or PC that no longer receives Windows or macOS updates. But let's do this. Let's see what we have and decide whether it's worth using Back Market's collaboration with Chrome OS and installing it, or maybe it's worth going another route. So, this is the 13-inch MacBook 2019. Now, if I remember correctly, ah! Alex, can you quickly open this lot? Of course I can. So, when I bought this MacBook, I was a little confused by the configuration because they made it look like it was a MacBook Pro with

four ports. I will say this, Oh, damn, really. The photo clearly shows four USB-C and the Touch Bar, but. Yeah, so, um, what's the condition of this outdated MacBook? Well, he should be in satisfactory condition. I wouldn't say he's in good shape. He is in good shape. The keyboard, and everything else, is pretty clean. Here macOS Sonoma seems to be the latest version it will pull. And now, um, here's the real test. How is the battery? Oh my, 560 charging cycles. Hmm, that's not very good. So, let me take a closer look at this guy. And let's install Chrome OS to see how

usable this laptop is in 2026. Case of obsolescence, break the seal. Hey, you know what? We broke the seal and only received a broken MacBook. Alex, do you want to explain to our esteemed viewers why all this fuss about Chrome OS turned out to be complete nonsense? It didn't work. That's it. Thank you very much for watching. Be sure to subscribe to the channel. Click on that little bell.

Yes. So, I So, I tried using the bootable flash drive that they gave us. Yes. It just wasn't working. We didn't format it, but there's clearly something wrong with this flash drive Yes, that's why I had to make a bootable Chrome OS disk myself. So, you were able to successfully create a real USB that we installed on this MacBook, but I can't help but notice that nothing works on the MacBook. But if we connect everything, I can actually watch YouTube. You 'll see, it's a fully functional device, just with zero.Oh, the sound doesn't work either. A. Of course, he got in the way. I thought it would work. So how much did we pay for our outdated MacBook, which was definitely a bad idea?

312 dollars. And we had to pay for a flash drive with Chrome OS? $11 for a non-working flash drive. Aha. I.I think maybe it would be a good idea to not keep it at 15 pixels on your site for the MacBook, which is clearly not supported. And if you look at the official support page, almost nothing is supported. I think a fairly discerning, tech- savvy viewer would buy this laptop and install a version of Linux on it that isn't Chrome OS, right? There are a lot of options there. Linux Mint is a very simple option that usually works quite well. What do you think about Back Market? Let us know in the comments below. Be sure to subscribe to the channel and ring that bell. Excuse me, friends, I'm going back to 2009.

Can't you see what I'm doing? What is this, an LMFAO video? Party rock! Wait, no, it's already 2012.