Seagate opens an eBay store to sell refurbished hard drives — 22TB drives for $311

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Affordable re-certified hard drives with up to two years of warranty

A pile of hard drives.
A pile of hard drives. (Image credit: FeudMoth/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

To reduce e-waste and expand its sustainability program, Seagate has now opened an official storefront on eBay to sell its re-certified hard drives. The storage drive manufacturer receives used hard drives through its Hard Drive Circularity Program, which evaluates them to determine whether they fit for re-certification. It will also undergo rigorous data sanitation, adhering to industry standards. Seagates assures its refurbished drives to be 'top quality.'

Seagate said that this would help to reduce waste as it reduces shredding. This becomes important as the rare earth materials used in mechanical hard drives cannot be re-used, making hard drive shredding a non-sustainable practice. Naturally, this would apply to drives that can be re-sold after stringent checks. However, it benefits Seagate by providing factory-level refurbishment and peace of mind and establishing trust over other second-hand hard drive sellers. While many might not be keen on buying used hard drives online, having an official re-certification from storage makers like Seagate gives the much-needed assurance many interested buyers need.

At the time of writing, the storefront had 99.1% positive feedback, with 784 hard drives sold. Based on some buyer's reviews, these hard drives look brand new and have zero power-on hours. Though the packaging is provided by its third-party vendors, nobody seems to have any complaints about its packaging and speed of delivery. So far, the only trade-off is that Seagate offers at least a one-year warranty on these refurbished drives, though some re-certified drives are listed with up to two years of warranty. However, given Seagate's earlier statement about the price increase with its mechanical hard drives, having such a refurbished hard drive storefront officially certified by the manufacturer becomes more valuable for end-users.

(Image credit: Seagate Store via eBay)

The pricing looks very attractive depending on the model compared to brand-new pricing. This is incredible value given that these hard drives have undergone Seagate's recertification process, something third-party sellers cannot do. 

A new helium-filled Seagate Exos X22 22TB typically retails for $610.99, but it's available through the eBay storefront for $311.99. For instance, Seagate sells a recertified Barracuda Pro 12TB for $185, while the same drive carries a $276 price tag on Amazon.

Seagate's eBay refurbished store is exclusive to the U.S. market. The company might eventually expand such storefronts to other countries if feasible in their respective countries. For some users, this is an excellent opportunity as they can buy refurbished drives from the manufacturer that have been processed and recertified.

In that case, Seagate has earned a good source of revenue, which allows it to reduce hard drive shredding and enable users to get reliable refurbished hard drives. Seagate's move may encourage other storage manufacturers to explore such ventures.

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh
Roshan Ashraf Shaikh
Contributing Writer

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh has been in the Indian PC hardware community since the early 2000s and has been building PCs, contributing to many Indian tech forums, & blogs. He operated Hardware BBQ for 11 years and wrote news for eTeknix & TweakTown before joining Tom's Hardware team. Besides tech, he is interested in fighting games, movies, anime, and mechanical watches.

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19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Amdlova
    Seagate do this for years. Can't trust new. Refurb I will pass
    Reply
  • kookykrazee
    Server Parts does this already? lol
    Reply
  • Dr3ams
    I've been using 2 refurbished 1TB HDs from Seagate for over 5 years. Haven't had any problems with them. Next year I will be upgrading all three of my 3.5" hard drives to SSDs. Hopefully the price on 2TB SSDs will be a little more reasonable then.
    Reply
  • DSzymborski
    Normally, I'd pass easily, but since these are the Exos drives, it's more interesting.
    Reply
  • derekullo
    Give us some refurbished 16 terabyte SSDs !
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    Location: United States
    Member since: Mar 31, 2017
    Seller: seagate_store

    They started selling drives on eBay 7 years ago, this is not new news.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    This sort of thing is the only way I'd really consider getting a refurbished drive at this point in time.

    The storefront itself isn't new, but the important part here is:
    Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ: STX), a leading innovator of mass-capacity data storage, announced its sustainability collaboration with e-commerce site eBay. The agreement establishes Seagate’s official storefront on eBay as a direct channel for consumers to access factory-recertified hard drives as part of the Seagate Circularity Program.
    This is to minimize the amount of HDDs that end up shredded when they could be used further instead which is probably why the drives they're advertising are predominantly enterprise.
    Reply
  • vanerous
    Amdlova said:
    Seagate do this for years. Can't trust new. Refurb I will pass
    Because as we all well know, WD has never done anything wrong or shady and should be fully trusted to the ends of the earth.

    (this comment is sarcasm)
    Reply
  • JRStern
    I'm an old guy boggled by the numbers, when I was a lad we had to carry those 22 kilobytes of punched cards uphill in the ice and snow and nobody sold factory reconditioned punched cards, ...
    Reply
  • HideOut
    kookykrazee said:
    Server Parts does this already? lol
    "LOL" read its SEAGATE with a SEAGATE warrenty. NOT a 3rd party provider.
    Reply