I just bought a Galaxy Tab 4 10.1" tablet for my wife. First thing I did after my research dictated the item to purchase was to google "refurb galaxy tab4 10.1" The best price, way less than for a new one even at the best discounts, came from a respected and authorized refurb eBay store with 100% feedback and zillions of sales. My wife had her "new" tablet in four days and it looked absolutely new. I believe that lots of these items that are sold as refurbs are, in fact, new and left-over stock when the newer models come out.
I own and operate a custom furniture building shop. Most of my shop machinery was bought as refurb, or gently used, and I have NEVER had an issue that resulted from an item not having been new. I would FAR rather buy top-of-the-line refurb or used tools than new brand-X ones.
Last month I bought my granddaughter a "new" refurb Canon Vixia camcorder. Saved over $100 and again, it looked for all the world like new. Most of the time, refurbs sold by their manufacturer carry excellent warranties, too. But hey, in my many years of doing this, I have yet to need a warranty on anything. Go figure.
When I need a new tech toy, I always go for last year's model. You can still get the refurbs and who needs the newest (untested) model anyway? My Galaxy S4 phone? A refurb, and the S5, now available, has no improvements that make it more desirable to me, so I'll keep my S4. We have five computers in our home and office. Not one was bought new, and we have never had a problem with any of them. Dell, for one, has an excellent refurb store and they sell their equipment with excellent warranties.
Cars. NEVER buy a new car. My son buys new cars. He just bought a new Prius and the first month's depreciation plus the sales tax and license is more than I paid for the wonderful Mazda MPV that I bought with 19K miles on it when it was three years old. I'm still driving it, and at 72K miles, it has proven 100% reliable.
Appliances. We seem to move every few years and it is always more practical to replace things like washers and dryers instead of moving them. When we arrived at our newest home here in NorCal 4 years ago, we went online and found a few shops that sold, you guessed it, refurbished appliances. A few days later we were using our like-new Kenmore washer and dryer, with a 90-day warranty, and they cost us $425 for the pair, delivered and installed. That was 4 years ago. They still look like and work like new.
Yes, it would have been far more trendy to pay $2000 for a pair of computer-controlled laundry wizards that look more like the console of the Starship Enterprise than washers and dryers, and then in three years when the computer stuff started going out and the warranty has expired, we could just go buy new ones again. But we realize that for every dollar we spend, we have to earn about $1.70, so those $2000 machines would have meant earning a whopping $3400!
No thanks. I'll continue to buy used, recycled and refurbished. With even a bit of care and research (check online reviews), you can buy gently-used stuff and it will serve you well. It's worked for me and I've been doing it for some 65 years now.