Up until recently, I was on the fence about the Nintendo Switch.

Apart from the great games, getting a nice little discount on a used unit that’s been refurbished by Nintendo itself helped push me over the edge.

I found Nintendo’s own refurbished standard Switch consoles on eBay for $US265, which makes for a $US35 discount off the $US300 price tag of a brand-new unit.

After taxes, I paid $US281 for the refurbished Switch, versus the $US317 I would have paid after taxes on Amazon. That’s a tidy little $US36 discount. Those in the US know that taxes can vary, so my particular example might not apply to those outside of Connecticut where I bought the Switch.

It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s an extra $US36 to spend on games or a microSD card to expand on the Switch’s paltry 32GB of onboard storage. I could get this $US35 200GB microSD card for tons more games, for example.

All in all, I’m happy I didn’t spend the extra $US36 to buy a new Nintendo Switch, which would have felt like $US36 wasted after knowing how good the refurbished units are – especially since you get Nintendo’s factory one-year warranty with refurbished units, too.

And much like my experience with a used MacBook Pro I bought refurbished from Apple itself, it felt like I got my used Nintendo Switch from Nintendo rather than the previous owner.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, Nintendo seems to have raised the price of a refurbished Switch from $US265 to $US275 on eBay. Still, I’d say it’s worth the discount over buying a brand new model. It really doesn’t seem necessary to buy a brand new model when refurbished units are so good.

Check out the used Nintendo Switch I bought that was refurbished by Nintendo itself:

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The console came in a brown packaging box, which contained a white refurbished Nintendo Switch box.

Inside the box, everything was properly packaged and wrapped in plastic. It looks like the packaging of a brand-new device. On the box, it says the unit was cleaned, tested, and inspected.

It included everything that comes with a new Nintendo Switch, including the Switch console itself, the dock, two controllers, a controller adaptor, an HDMI cable, a USB-C power brick, and the strap accessories for the remote.

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The Switch console itself came in perfect condition.

There were no signs of scratches, blemishes, or that the console had been used at all.

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The controllers also arrived in perfect condition.

There was no indication that anyone had used these controllers before, at all. If they aren’t new, they could easily pass as brand-new.

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The only thing that showed signs of use was the back of the dock.

There were a few light scratches on the back of the dock, inside the recessed area. These don’t bother me at all, as the only time I’d ever see them is when I plug in the cables into the dock.

Otherwise, the dock’s front is completely blemish-free and also looks brand-new.

As for the cables, they appeared new rather than used. It’s not clear if Nintendo replaced the cables with new ones in refurbished Switch units.

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Best of all, the entire system works flawlessly.

I’ve only been using the Nintendo Switch for the last week, and I haven’t run into any problems at all.

There’s always the chance that something could break or stop working properly on my Switch, but Nintendo’s refurbished devices come with the factory one-year warranty should anything happen in that first year, just like a brand-new model.

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