Abstract
The refurbishing of used technology products sourced from downstream points in the supply chain has been recommended as an approach that is both environmentally sustainable and economically beneficial to sellers and consumers, with online marketplaces serving as popular channels. However, despite the similarity in quality to their new counterparts, refurbished products suffer from greater information asymmetry between sellers and buyers because of the rigorous and costly restoration processes required. Using data from eBay auctions of new and refurbished versions of a popular consumer electronics product (Apple iPod Touch), we find that for refurbished item listings, seller specification of returns acceptance is associated with higher final prices for sellers with high feedback scores but not for sellers with low feedback scores. However, we do not find such a contrast for listings of new units. Our findings are robust to the inclusion of a broad range of product vintages (generations) and variants (storage capacities) in the sample. We provide insights into the interactions between different buyer safeguards for new and refurbished products in an online marketplace, while simultaneously addressing the open empirical question of whether and when distinct buyer safeguards operate as substitutes or complements.
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