Has anyone bought a refurbished trail camera before? I’m looking at getting a new camera or two and looking at the prices, buying a refurb camera can cut the price in half if not more in some cases. If you buy a refurbed camera from the factory, is this a good way to save money, or are you just asking for a lot of problems? Any thoughts?

I've bought several refurbished items (but not game cameras). Generally they have all worked as well as new ones.

I have 3 factory refurbished Stealth Cam STC-I230IR(s)of which 2 have been in the field for 4 months now. Those 2 are still working just as well as a new one. One I had to send back because it started malfunctioning shortly after purchase. I bought all three from an authorized retailer on ebay. Each one was purchased seperately, and all were less than $50 each. Each came with a 90 day warranty, standard practice of refurbished items.

Hope this helps. FWIW- look at Wildgame Innovations base model camera. At around $50 it could be a real bargain. And they claim to have the lowest return rate in the industry.

Make sure the factory will stand behind them. I have heard that if you buy new trailcameras from Ebay stores, the factory will not honor the warranties. Something to that effect.

Hopefully too, they are not older models. If you send one back to be fixed they may tell you to pay for the newer model.

Refurbished cams are the ONLY way to go. When they refurbish cams, or anything else for that matter, they test it thoroughly before selling it. That is better than buying something off the shelf that was never looked at before being packaged.