Buying a used GPU - any tips and tricks to avoid getting scammed?

In this (2-year-plus long) season of scalper bloated GPU resale market, I’ve been considering going second-hand to buy a new card. What are the things to watch out for when buying a GPU second-hand? My biggest concern is getting a retired crypto mining card which has a short lifespan left in it. There are probably other things to be wary of as well. I do know that there are lots of scammers out there!

Context: I currently have a RTX 2060 SUPER, which is a fantastic card, but I would really like to get an AMD card so I can take full advantage of Wayland. I’d like to sell mine and get a roughly equivalent AMD card.

Thoughts?

I’d have thought it’s impossible to know the true life of a card, it could have had owners prior to the owner selling it. If this is truly a worry then new may be the only option.

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I think @dasgeek would disagree but I’m not a heavy gamer. I have found that the “workstation” class cards are easier to find new and used likely haven’t been used in a crypto farm. These are the Nvidia Quadro and AMD Radeon Pro cards. The equivalent “gamer” card is usually double the cost at the moment. I just picked up a Radeon Pro W6600 at retail and their was no wait time. Last year I bought a Radeon Pro W5500 and again it was at retail and the wait time was minimal (I think I had to wait a week before it was released to me). Workstation cards are harder to find used because they aren’t as prevalent as the traditional cards.

The games I play based on review of other cards, I’m likely seeing a 3-5% performance hit by not going with a “gamer” card vs the workstation card. That 3-5% performance hit to me isn’t worth the current cost of a “gamer” card.

This is actually a really good idea, one that hadn’t occurred to me. Thanks very much Brandon!

PS: Love the Sudo Show - I listen to it almost every week. Keep up the good work!