So my eight-year-old screwed up and destroyed, literally, one of our 5Gen iPod. Apple says it’ll be more than $200 to repair it and a new one is $240.
But I’m figuring the damage potential is still pretty high so I’d like to get one off ebay or somesuch. Would there be any issues purchasing one that way with licenses and permissions and such?
No issues, unless there is music on the iPod when you buy it. In that case, just wipe it clean, and you are good to go.
FtGKid2 got me a couple of “non-working” iPods off eBay a couple years ago. (I like to fix things so giving me something not working is great.) Some cleanup, new batteries and they’re in regular use. Both came loaded with lots of songs that actually played and could be saved, etc. (Maybe many were mp3s which aren’t so protected.) But one I cleaned completely and on the other I saved just a few, which ended up wasting space and went to the great bit-bucket in the sky. A general rule of thumb: Other people’s musical tastes aren’t yours.
I ran Apple’s iPod software for a couple weeks but found it to be horribly written bloatware. It had no problems with the iPod. I now use a plugin to Winamp.
[It’s interesting how Mrs FtG resisted going iPod for a while and is now a convert. That reminds me, gotta reset the time on hers.]
A friend bought her ipod from ebay. No problems with it, but it didn’t include the manual and warranty.
Just be careful and pick a very reputable seller, who has successful sold similar items in the past. And pay through normal channels (no Western Union!). iPods are very popular items to sell fraudulently, and fraudsters some times take over established sellers’ accounts to do so. If the seller has a five year history of selling paperbacks for $1 a piece and are now suddenly offering three iPods for sale, I’d keep away.
I did have a minor PITA experience buying an iPod Mini on eBay. I bid on and won a 6G, but the iPod I was sent was a 4G. I initially had a bit of trouble getting the seller to believe it was a 4G (he seemed to think I was incapable of going to the settings menu and checking the capacity). When I finally did, the seller informed me he “no longer had” a 6G. I don’t know if he ever had one and was just trying to pull something over on me or what. No matter. He refunded my money.
The second one I bought came fully loaded with VERY strange (IMHO) music and formatted for PC, but that was simple enough to fix. It did make me wonder if it was hot, though.