Browsing ebay for parts I frequently see these terms:

 

 

Seller refurbished.

 

Mint condition.

 

I see these sometimes with mainboards and controller.

 

What exactly do they mean.

 

I can find a translation to Dutch in a dictionary, but sometimes these terms are interpreted a little differently.

 

So please explain.

Mint condition means that although minimally used, would be indistinguishable from new. No blemishes, worn parts, or defects of any kind. Term refers to a coin which is "minted". Mint condition means shiny and new.

 

Seller refurbished means a broken unit was repaired by the seller. This is very different than mint condition, although a seller may say mint if a like new but defective item was repaired by the seller and is now indistinguishable from new. Or an antique car might be refurbished and restored to mint condition. That would imply a very high quality restoration.

 

I would note that mint is in the eye of the beholder and is not a scientific term.

Mint condition means that although minimally used, would be indistinguishable from new. No blemishes, worn parts, or defects of any kind. Term refers to a coin which is "minted". Mint condition means shiny and new.

 

Seller refurbished means a broken unit was repaired by the seller. This is very different than mint condition, although a seller may say mint if a like new but defective item was repaired by the seller and is now indistinguishable from new. Or an antique car might be refurbished and restored to mint condition. That would imply a very high quality restoration.

 

I would note that mint is in the eye of the beholder and is not a scientific term.

 

So it could also mean for instance on a mainboard the fan on a cooler has been cleaned, or the cooler has been replaced? I cant imagine that a chip has been replaced. A socketed BIOS chip yes, or even just updated?

Sometimes what you will see instead of "seller refurbished" is "system pull". That means the part has been removed from a system to be sold separately. Sometimes refurbished is used when the part is pulled from a nonworking system but the part works perfectly fine. In the situation of controller cards, most of the time its the main memory dram or cpu that caused the system to no longer work.

 

Other times seller refurbished is used by NewEgg to mean the  item was sold to a consumer but the consumer returned it for any reason and NewEgg tested the item and it works perfectly fine so they put it up for sale again. Most of the time it is impossible to tell its not brand new. Sometimes they will list what items are missing, such as cables or stickers.

 

Its really an inexact term and depends on who is using it.

 

When you're dealing with individuals auctioning items it really could mean almost anything. When its larger sellers like NewEgg they will define what the terms mean.