Buy Your Xbox 360s Somewhere Else

If you’re thinking about getting a 360 this year, your best bet is to not buy one via Craig’s List or eBay.

At the time of me writing this, there are 5,753 360s for sale on eBay alone and I’m sure the number is only going to grow since Microsoft’s announcement of 600k+ system bans for modding and violations of terms of service. Adjusted numbers according to Daily Tech and CNN/CNET, put the ban at about a million.

The reason for this influx of systems to Craig’s List and eBay is consoles are being banned from Xbox Live but not GamerTags – not yet anyway. So, if your current console gets banned from Xbox Live, you can buy a new console and get back to Xbox Live fun. What this means for you as the deal hunter-gatherer is that some of those consoles on eBay and Craig’s List are probably banned consoles.

Imagine the hilarity that would ensue if you unknowingly bought a banned console off of eBay with every intention of playing on Xbox Live and then you discovered that your console was banned. Fun times.

So, the moral of the story is two-fold: don’t buy a used Xbox 360 from someone you don’t trust if you want on Xbox Live for fear it might be banned and don’t download pirated games on your Xbox 360. Not only is that illegal, but you’ll end up banned and stuck with a console that can’t got on Xbox Live.

Image|Microsoft