Returns

One of the reasons I asked is certain products like say the McIntosh MC152 for example never has an open box for sale that Ive seen and I'd say that some have mostly likely been returned?

@basket random While some retailers may choose to resell returned products as "in box" or "refurbished", not all returned items will necessarily be resold. like New. Many retailers have specific policies in place to ensure that returned products are properly inspected, tested, and refurbished (if needed) before being resold to customers.

I bought a bluesound integrated amp from crutchfield. It cost me a $60 restocking fee. Free shipping back to them. They could sell it open box and still make money from the restock fee. They are good for returns, but not cheap.

I’m afraid $60 would not be making money for Crutchfield. They have to have someone process your return, refund your money, receiving processes the physical return, inspects it, it, someone puts it into inventory, then it must be advertise an open box. There are so many non-standard flow interactions they are not making money.