Craigslist flooded with modified Xbox 360s

Jacqueline DiOrio 12 Nov, 2009 at 12:24am ET Article published in Gaming

Look at all those pretty modified Xbox 360s

Earlier today we reported that Microsoft was banning modded Xbox 360s from the Xbox Live network. Now, in reaction to this news, Craigslist has become flooded with modded Xbox consoles for sale.

For anyone looking for a modded console or who doesn’t care if they can connect to Xbox Live, there’s no better time to be purchasing a used Xbox. The consoles are going for as low as $90, which isn’t a bad price for something that normally retails for $200.

On the other hand, anyone wanting an unmodded console might want to avoid Craigslist, or any secondhand Xboxes right now. Some people are reporting that they purchased supposedly unmodded Xbox 360’s off of Craigslist very recently and found that they actually had been tampered with.

Microsoft is reporting that they will not extend the warranty to used Xbox 360’s, and anyone finding that they have accidentally acquired a modded Xbox are on their own. As a result of this, and of the many players that must now be looking for new consoles to replace their banned ones, Xbox 360 sales will most likely rise in the near future, especially at the holidays.

Comments

1. 
   12 Nov 2009 ~ 12:31am BuddyJ Sucks to be a pawn shop now too, I bet.
2. 
   12 Nov 2009 ~ 1:10am lordbean I can only imagine.
3. 
   12 Nov 2009 ~ 2:07am Bandrik I can just see a whole slew of people purchasing a second Xbox, now that prices have dropped (both for resold modded ones and new retail ones). "Best of both worlds" kind of thing. Which is really too bad...
   
   Me, I'm sticking with a legit 360. The few games I actually want for it, I'll happily buy.
4. 
   12 Nov 2009 ~ 9:22am pragtastic I wonder how places like GameStop are handling this new influx of bad hardware?
5. 
   12 Nov 2009 ~ 9:50am the outsider PS3 - It Only Does Everything - welcomes former xbox users
6. 
   12 Nov 2009 ~ 10:12am ThatzMyDawg @pragtastic,
   theyr'e supposed to check to see if the systems have been tampered with first, if the warranty sticker is intact. If not they can not accept it. If they stck with their already existing rule there should be no problem getting a used one from them.
7. 
   12 Nov 2009 ~ 10:27am murph @ThatzMyDawg
   You can mod without breaking that sticker.
8. 
   12 Nov 2009 ~ 10:49am Lacoka_houston Just another ploy by MS to get MORE sales to keep ahead of PS3!!!
   
   They saw that they were about to loose the console war by the end of next year so they Ban 1 million people that NOW have to BUY another Xbox..
   
   LOL MS are Theifs
9. 
   12 Nov 2009 ~ 10:55am Thrax
10. 
    12 Nov 2009 ~ 10:56am BIRD This is fantastic.... there must be a ghetto entrepreneur working at M$ cause that is some hood hustle-n right there.I love it.and if it were my box i would buy another one and never cross back over to the darkside
11. 
    12 Nov 2009 ~ 11:36am cover MS has always banned modded xboxes. this isn't news.
12. 
    12 Nov 2009 ~ 11:38am jared Play with fire, you get burned.
    
    No surprises here.
13. 
    12 Nov 2009 ~ 11:46am wax i'm sure everyone "accidentally" acquired their modded xbox.
14. 
    12 Nov 2009 ~ 11:49am AlexDeGruven I'm not up on the 360 hardware, but is there no way to "un-mod" your 360 once you've done the deed?
15. 
    12 Nov 2009 ~ 11:59am mike you can unmod yes but you cannot unban
16. 
    12 Nov 2009 ~ 12:41pm fadfa ps3 is JUNK. hahahahaha
17. 
    12 Nov 2009 ~ 2:21pm wugga Could you single player play games on consoles that have been banned? If I can pick one up for 50$ I might go for it. I wanna play l4d.
18. 
    12 Nov 2009 ~ 2:50pm Thrax Yes you can, Wugga.
19. 
    12 Nov 2009 ~ 3:12pm primesuspect

    wugga wrote:

    Could you single player play games on consoles that have been banned? If I can pick one up for 50$ I might go for it. I wanna play l4d.

    
    The only problem with that is: L4D as a single player experience gets old VERY quickly. L4D is meant to be played with people.
20. 
    12 Nov 2009 ~ 4:17pm Paul Even if I had a banned 360 and couldn't sell it I'd buy another one before a PS3. What a worthless brick that thing is!
21. 
    12 Nov 2009 ~ 4:41pm Brendan PS3's are pretty amazing, actually. The problem is that there isn't the online support that Xbox Live brings. If you don't care to play games online... PS3 is amazing. Especially when it comes with a blue ray. If you want online support though... xbox is the way to go. However, like the article states... if you don't want online support... just get a mod'd one... way cheaper than a ps3.
22. 
    12 Nov 2009 ~ 7:50pm 360experts To AlexDeGruven and mike.
    
    It is very possible to Un-ban an xbox 360. I have done it. The only problem is that it's around a 5 hour job and you must flash the nand with details from a console which hasn't been banned.
    
    Technically I could buy 100 or these banned consoles, Un-ban them and sell them for full price. Unfortunately old habbits die hard and as soon as one person is banned they would all get banned.
23. 
    14 Nov 2009 ~ 12:18am hammerhead wat da hell, microsoft is always crapping on about original material and banning piracy. there loosing to the ps3 so they make people who already have the xbox, buy another one
24. 
    14 Nov 2009 ~ 12:27pm Snarkasm In fact, they're not losing to the PS3 in any metric that matters to Microsoft.
25. 
    18 Jun 2010 ~ 2:45am Zain Guyz,i am a victim of modified xbox ..
    i purchased if for 34,000 PKR which is almost $450 here in Karachi,Pakistan.
    The retailer made a fool out of me be giving me a moded xbox elite .. =( i mailed to microsoft about this whole matter... lets see if there's any help... ;# piracy sucks!
26. 
    18 Jun 2010 ~ 2:48am primesuspect Sorry to hear that, Zain
27. 
    22 Jun 2010 ~ 4:44pm Jereme 1 question name a ps3 game thats says 1080p capable on the box Enough said. all your games are 720p why waste a blu-ray tbh.
28. 
    23 Jun 2010 ~ 2:30am ardichoke Cool story, bro
29. 
    23 Jun 2010 ~ 3:57am Koreish Once again the little console that could is left out of the "big boys" discussion. The Wii continues to out sell both other consoles by a large margin and guess who Sony and Microsoft are copying at E3 not something the other company produced but Nintendo.
    
    I sure wish people would stop being ignorant, but then I guess the world wouldn't be as happy as it is now.
30. 
    23 Jun 2010 ~ 11:22am Thrax The Chevy Aveo sells well, too.
    
    (TROLOLOLOL)
31. 
    14 Jul 2011 ~ 12:22am joe the runner im am going to buy a $100 xbom slim 4 gb with 2 controllers do you think the xbox is modded?
32. 
    14 Jul 2011 ~ 12:48pm pragtastic No way to tell without plugging it in and trying to get on an Xbox Live service (that i know of). If you can try before you buy, it would be recommended (assuming you don't know the seller that well).