Looking to buy..

Hey guys I'm looking for by a 1000 in the very near future is it work it to get one off ebay and just get all the upgrades or should I just get a brand new one from Guitar Center? What should I be looking for when I'm checking ebay?

depends, what area are you from? Have you checked craigslist in your area? Guitar center sometimes has old stock that they are selling as brand new...... You may get something that has the bad pads.... I'd buy used and upgrade myself

There are no MPCs at all on craigslist in my area, I'm thinking Ebay there's a few older blue ones in the $500 price range +180 for pads should does sound to bad at all. Plus from what I understand you can get RAM cheap now, and I have an old laptop hard drive that should work as well. Is there anything else I should be looking for on ebay to make sure I'm not getting someone else problem?

I'm often hesitant to buy from ebay, mainly because you never know what you're getting until it shows up and by then its too late. Buttons, pads, screen all can be issues. What state/area are you from? Perhaps I can find something in your area

trillyum wrote:There are no MPCs at all on craigslist in my area, I'm thinking Ebay there's a few older blue ones in the $500 price range +180 for pads should does sound to bad at all. Plus from what I understand you can get RAM cheap now, and I have an old laptop hard drive that should work as well. Is there anything else I should be looking for on ebay to make sure I'm not getting someone else problem?

More than $300 for a blue is too high.
Having a hard drive isn't enough you still need the mounting kit.

$300-$600 for a blue isn't too bad. Depends on what extras it has... such as pad upgrade, JJOS, HD/Mount kit... as well as wear/usage.

The hard part with ebay is that it's hard to tell if the item was almost never used or if it got the heck slammed out of it. Technically the same problem at the store, but at least in the store it is harder to hide defects as you can usually get your hands on it and really give it a once over.

A fully maxed out used MPC shouldn't run you any higher than $600-$700 really. If you're patient you can probably find better deals though.

Another consideration is what CF it might come with, though a lot of the online 'deals' are pretty garbage CF cards and don't even consider the samples that are or may be on there anything other than garbage. You could get hit gold but expect it to be junk.

NearTao wrote:$300-$600 for a blue isn't too bad. Depends on what extras it has... such as pad upgrade, JJOS, HD/Mount kit... as well as wear/usage.

At a time when 2500 are going for $725-850?

dizmaloner wrote:I'm often hesitant to buy from ebay, mainly because you never know what you're getting until it shows up and by then its too late. Buttons, pads, screen all can be issues. What state/area are you from? Perhaps I can find something in your area

Yea exactly my worry. I have the money to buy new but I was hoping to get a deal so I could invest in some other equipment as well, I'm in El Paso, TX.

Mpc stuff is selling a used blue one with pad upgrade 128mb ram and JJOS1 1 gb cf card in "perfect working condition" is this a good deal? Are they more reliable than ebay?

use some of your money, drive to dallas....... they have some mpc1000's with jjos and ram upgrade for under $500 on craigslist up there