Since we are living is such a world of electronic miracles today (and for the foreseeable future) the 3 R's of 'Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle' need another update. Include 'Refurbish' and make them 4! While many people are skittish about buying refurbished electronics on the Internet, they are some of the best buys to be had around. There is, naturally, some risk. But if you will be using the item right away you will know pretty quickly whether or not it works and can return it within the 30 to 90 day warranty period that such refurbished items are usually offered with. Many times refurbished items are really just closeouts and have never been shipped or opened. When manufacturers move to new models, as they constantly do in the planned-obsolescent world of consumer electronics, they are stuck with the end-of-runs of the previous models. So they dump them into the reseller market as closeouts. But in order to not compete with their new things, they may opt to call them 'refurbished'. Buying a refurbished item is actually a recent paradigm shift for me. Previously I would avoid 'refurbs' as they are sometimes called. But looking for a wireless router online just now I realized that it was both a good bet I'd be satisfied, and that I would save some planetary resources in the process. Plus the items I saw were generally in the area of about half off the normal price. Occasionally the vendor will offer extended warranty for a nominal sum as well. You generally don't even have to go out of your way to find refurbished items as they will come up right along with new ones when you Google the Internet for products you need.