Because a few of my friends know about me deal hunting and doing flips they often approach me if they or their friends want to sell electronics or video games. As a result of this I have come into possession of too many PS3's.

So the other night at class a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to buy his with 2 controllers and all his games. I told him sure, I'd give him $100 cash for it right there if he brought it in the next day. He countered with $120, and I pay him the next day when he brings it in and I couldnt resist. The next day he brought the :PS3: (a phat 40gb) and the games/controllers and it was in pretty tough condition. It was as dusty as I've ever seen any console (almost all of the small square air ports on the side were blocked by dust, dog/child chew on a small portion of the corner, food marks/ stains on it and it just overall looked like garbage, (one of the controller has the joysticks chewed off as well). I took it home and started the refurb process for myself, got some canned air and got rid of all the dust, cleaned off all the stains and ordered a new pair of joysticks from Amazon that arrived today (99 cents), by the time I was done it looked 10x better and I felt a lot better about things. I traded in the 5 games it came with (Madden 11, UFC 2010, MLB: The Show 10, MLB: The Show 12, Marvel: UA) for about $60 in BB credit so if you consider the credit to be as good as cash (I do because I can use it for Amazon as well which is huge for the family) I paid just about $61 (and about an hour of cleaning time) out of pocket for a 40gb phat ps3. I ran this console for about 3 hours straight to fully format the HD (and it also seemed like a good idea to stress test it) and it ran fine the whole time; I put it away for now cause I dont really have a spot for it.

This story is funny because its almost identical to how I got my 2nd .
A buddy of mine had told me his friend needed money for his phone bill and wanted to sell his slim 160gb with Black Ops and 2 controllers for $100. I already had 1 at this time and wasnt really sure if I needed another, but this one with a big upgrade over the beat up phat 60gb model I had. I decided that I couldnt really pass it up, and could trade in Black Ops and lower the cost. I agreed and my buddy showed up with the system, to my delight it wasnt actually Black Ops, but Modern Warfare 3. The console was in great condition so I was very happy with the deal. The next day I traded MW3 to BB for $35, effectively making the console with 2 controllers $65. This is the we have hooked up in our living room currently.

This first PS3 I got was from the friend that knew the person who needed the money for the phone bill. He was moving down to Florida and didnt wanna take it with him so he sold me his 60gb to me with 2 controllers and Gran Turismo Prologue, and Heavenly sword. It has a pretty nasty ding in the corner of it (like it had been dropped, which is in fact what he said happened) so I was a little skeptical at first. I dropped a 320gb harddrive in it when I first got it (about 3 years now) and traded in the games. Its still running strong and this is the we use in the bedroom for Netflix and light gaming.

I plan on getting rid of at least one of the systems in the near future in preparation for the next generation of consoles. It will probably be the 120gb slim because it is in the best condition so if I do a store trade in I'll get the most for it, and if I sold it to someone on here Id feel better about it (both of the phats have ed up power button corners, but dont effect functionality). I'm waiting for the right offer or promo to unload it.