One thing that big box retailers and many online sites don’t want you to know about buying high end electronics is how much you can save by buying a refurbished product. Refurbished or reconditioned products have been around for a long time but when the economy was good no one really wanted them. It simply was not worth it to take the risk. Actually though you can lower the risk level considerably if you understand what exactly it is you are buying. The trick to buying a refurbished product is reading the fine print and understanding what the terms mean. Here is what you need to know:

You can usually save between 50% and 70% on refurbished product. That sounds pretty good right? Refurbished can mean several different things and depending on what it means you will have different prices. For example there is: ‘factory refurbished’ or factory-sealed refurbished products, and ‘third-party refurbished’ products. A third party refurbishment generally means the manufacturer has contracted the work to an outside company. For high end electronics you want to choose the products whose repair has been done by the manufacturer.

So what does refurbished actually mean? Refurbished means the product has been repaired but it doesn’t mean the product has actually been purchased and used. It could be the item was returned for various reasons such as the color was wrong or the item was not what the customer expected. It could be that the package opened during shipping and the customer requested a replacement item even though there was no damage. Overstocked items may also fall into this category. Your key to understanding is the warranty. If they offer the same warranty as the brand new product you can feel comfortable making the purchase.

In some cases it does mean the product has been used. A customer may have used the product once or twice during the 30 day return period and then found a problem. The customer returns the unit and the manufacturer makes the repair but the product must now be sold as refurbished. It may also happen that a company will recall a product when a defect has been found in many of the products from a specific production run. Again, the manufacturer fixes the problem and the product is resold as refurbished.

Factory recertification is another term you should know. A manufacturer will recertify an item for the same reasons a product is classified as refurbished. The great thing about factory recertified merchandise is that it actually has more stringent testing than regular products and you get the same warranty as with the regular product. So you get a better product with a lower price. So you can understand why no company wants to publicize this information.

Reconditioned means the product was sold to someone and they used it. The product has now been fixed up and is being sold again. Depending on how long the product was used it might still have a manufacturer warranty but if not usually the company that did the repair work will usually offers a limited warranty.

So refurbished electronics or reconditioned electronic products really do you give you significant savings. What is the catch? Experts say that when you are talking about high end electronic products such as flat panel TVs and computers, you the consumer are not qualified to judge what the effect of usage will be on the life of the product..

So what they recommend is buy only ‘factory-certified’ refurbished products. You still get significant savings but minimize your risk as the products come with a manufacturer’s warranty.

You also have an added “green” bonus buying refurbished as refurbishment is a form of recycling.