Experience with graphics cards from ebay

I was just wondering if anyone would want to share some experiences with 2nd hand graphics cards bought from ebay (or somewhere else).

As for me:

I bought a 7900 GS for my inspiron e1705 about 2 years ago. When it arrived, it was all phisically bent, and had bumps and scratches. I installed it, with some difficulty, and of course didn't work. I was unable to settle the matter with the seller, so I shoved it in a drawer and forgot about it. After about a year I decided to give it another shot. As expected, it didn't work... but then I decided to go on and try to fix it. MacGyver style. So, after careful inspection, i noticed that 3 or 4 pins were bent in the card... So, i got myself a flat screwdriver and some patience, and got them straightened up (sort of). After I installed it, IT WORKED! I couldn't believe my eyes!! I had just resuscitated it!!

And then, after a week, it broke down again.

I took it apart again and tried my magic screwdriver trick, with more confidence. With too much confidence, in fact... because I broke two pins. And... well, that was that for my card. Stuck with the ATI x1400 again.

Well, that was my little story. Now I'm thinking about getting a 7900 GTX, but before I spend 200 bucks I wanted to hear if anyone has had any good (or bad) (especially bad) experiences with second hand or refurbished cards. This guy seems pretty frustrated with a bad card, and I don't want to end up like him.

Thanks! Cheers.

What to do, what to do... I have the money and my finger is dying to click on "buy it now"... But I really don't want any more bitter surprises

Well, the guy is a "top seller", 100% positive feedback and all... And of course accepts paypal.

But here's the problem... See, I live in Costa Rica : S So what I do is have things from online stores shipped to Miami, FL. From there I hire a cheap courier service and have them shipped to my home. But it's almost an extra 2 weeks for the delivery, and that's about just the time for the "warranty" to expire. And it makes returning items all the more difficult.

So for me is a double risk. I already lost a $200 card on the way here. Never got back all the money...

Sorry, just needed to vent out. I know me, so I'll probably order this thing anyway... The only way I won't is if someone yells "DON'T!! DON'T DO IT, MAN!!" and then gives me a good reason why : P

Sure, that would be nice... but I don't have $600+ at the moment : S These cards are quite expensive NIB. I'm looking for a deal around $200 ~ $250 tops.

The problem is that this is still a very popular laptop, despite being 4 years old. But seems that a lot of people originally got it with the ATI x1400 video card (like myself), which is basically crap. It was crap then, and it is doubly so today. So, seems that everyone is looking for these cards to make the upgrade, so the prices are quite high even now.

Yeah, I had seen those... The problem is they are not compatible with my computer I wish they were. The dell laptops of that era used this kind of cards. Probably the same chips, but with another interface.

The laptops that used these cards that I mention were the inspiron 9300 and e1705 (or 9400), the XPS M1710 and the Precision M90 (dunno if I'm missing any). All are 17 inch laptops.

:S Agh.... I already bought it Couldn't resist the temptation.

See, I know that this is an old laptop and all. But to get a decent replacement, I would want to buy a $1600+ lappy, like an XPS or a Toshiba Qosmio (this e1705 cost me $2200 back in mid-2006). And I don't have that kind of money right now, and won't have it for a while. So I figured a good $300 in upgrades would do it for me while I manage to get my finances in order :P (I also bought a *new* T7200, to replace my T2500).

I only hope I get lucky, and this new card won't die on me :S

Oh, and one more reason I decided to upgrade this computer instead of buying a new cheap one, is that I can do so much to it, and have so much fun... The parts are really good, and drivers and stuff are so easy to get for Windows and Linux.

And also, this is one of the few laptops I know of that runs Mac OSX near-100%-perfect! (besides Macs, of course ^___^) While I had the 7900GS I installed the last version of Leopard and it ran awesome. But the ATI sucks with OSX, no hardware acceleration or native resolution.

So the only thought of spending one or two nights dedicated to turn it into a perfect triple-boot machine (7, Ubuntu and OSX) is enough incentive to go ahead and put money into it xD

:O What!!!? You can put that into a e1705?? I thought it was impossible... (so sorry about the triple post... but I had to ask O__O)

Please DO post updates!! All I see from ppl that had put a 8xxx series card in this notebook is that the internal screen doesn't work, or the inverter needs to be replaced, or god knows what else : P (umm... the FX1600, 2600 and 3600M are 8xxx series, right? ^^)

Anyways, good luck!!!