eBay Garmins for sale

 

This is very curious and I wonder what your thoughts are. There's an eBay seller whose seller name starts with likenew... offering many used Garmin devices for sale. Right now, there appear to be 51 Garmin GPS auctions offered, some auctions with multiple units listed. The seller has feedback of over 7000 and has been on eBay since 2012.

What's odd is that one auction is for a DriveLuxe 50, with three units available, complete with suction cup mount, GPS, Garmin power cable and what appears to be a generic cable but without the magmount.

Another auction stating more than 10 units available is for a DriveLuxe 51, again with Garmin power cable, suction cup mount, generic cable, but no magmount.

I did contact the seller asking about the magmounts and the prompt reply was that the magmount is not included but that one can be purchased from Garmin.

Just to check and see what Garmin wants for a magmount for each the DriveLuxe 50 and 51, neither device on Garmin's USA site shows the magmount as an available accessory for sale. Now that's even stranger than the two eBay listings.

Does anyone have a theory as to what's going on?

I did check Garmin's USA web page for the even older nuvi 3597 and as expected, the magmount is available as a standalone purchase for $35.

A possible reason?

We have at least a couple threads here at the Factory mentioning DriveLuxe devices unexpectedly shutting down or having random reboots. I've seen random reboots on my DriveLuxe 51 and can confirm what the threads' OPs have reported. The DriveLuxe's powered magmount is a mount unique to the DriveLuxe line. I'm assuming the 50 and 51 use the same powered magmount, but I have no 50 to check and see if my 51's mount works with the 50.

Is it possible that the DriveLuxe 50 and 51 magmounts are the problem, possibly due to an intermittent failure of one or more of its five internal wires or solder connections and Garmin sold their excess inventory to wholesalers minus the magmount? It could be occurring during shaking or high temperatures.

I've never tried it, but the DriveLuxe 51 can be powered up and operated, and even connect to the smartphone app through Bluetooth, with a standard micro B plug inserted into the bottom of the 51 and the other end of the cable plugged into a vehicle USB power socket. The GPS may ask if you want to switch it to data transfer mode each time, but saying no lets it work as a GPS. If so, it could operate fine in a vehicle if you could find a creative way to mount it to the vehicle to be seen when driving.

Ebay is the channel to

Ebay is the channel to liquidate lots of trash these days. Where else are you going to reach a global customer base.

Need a cheap laptop? They're there... Some labeled as refurbs are practically brand new except for the retail boxes.

Likely Refurbs

I bought a lot of 10 Driveluxe 51's on eBay a couple of years ago. All were refurbs with no mag mounts. This was back when the units were hard to find.

Around the same time, I also bought a lot of five 51's on a closeout sale at Best Buy. These were new units and came with the mag mount.

I suspect, but can't verify, that Garmin released a number of 51 refurbs in lots without the mag mounts for some reason. Cost maybe? Your theory may be correct about a defect in the mount.

These mag mounts are getting hard to find but are still available on Amazon for $20
https://www.amazon.com/Garmin-010-12394-00-DriveLuxe-Vehicle...

Or GPS City for $17
https://www.gpscity.com/garmin-vehicle-suction-cup-mount-for...

What are you doing with 15

What are you doing with 15 of these 51's? Spares?

Resold

zx1100e1 wrote:

What are you doing with 15 of these 51's? Spares?

I kept two and resold the rest. A few years ago, these units were rather rare and fetched a good price. Garmin pulled the 51 from production less than a year after it's release rumored to be because of a manufacturers defect. Maybe the magnetic mount?

I was going to hold on to them for awhile thinking they would increase in value due to their scarcity. It's a good thing I didn't because Garmin released a flood of refurbs shortly afterward which caused the price to drop.

Another eBay seller offered me a fair price so I sold him the lot. I made a few bucks but, in the end, it was hardly worth my time.

These Garmin units are

These Garmin units are refurbished. When customers return a faulty Garmin within the warranty period, Garmin or the warranty providers sell them in a lot to others. Most eBay sellers provide generic back brackets, suction cups, and car chargers. Because Garmin or the warranty provider only sell the GPS units, they do not include the accessories. If you closely look at the screws of the GPS units, you will see that these were opened. There are marks on the screws of removal.

--
Sanjay Majumder

@bdhsfz6 Glad you made some

@bdhsfz6

Glad you made some $$$ off of this.

Indeed the magnetic mount was/is one of the key selling points for me for the DL50. Other being the nicer display and portrait mode.

Garmin is no different than any other tech co; 1 step forward, 2 steps back with newer products.

My bank did the same thing. The updated the front end on their web portal. Compared to the old it looks 'modern', but the differences end there. Lots of functionality is missing which was present before. In fact, on one account which sees high debit card use the notifications are so bad I opened an account elsewhere.

I'll keep the other accounts as the bank is within walking distance and we have history for 20+ years. Service is great too. My guess is they hired some youngin' who convinced these crazy changes were needed.