Buying an open box new Mavic 2 Pro. What should I scrutinize?

[imnotmarvin]

I'm buying an open box, new Mavic 2 Pro from a private seller. Are there things I should be looking for to avoid losing money? Are there fakes? How can you spot a refurbished unit? Does that matter? Will I be able to check the battery through the Fly app without registering the drone through DJI?

 

[Deleted member 103366]

How much inspection are you allowed to do prior to it being yours?

 

[Starz]

At one time, there was some talk that DJI inserted the letter“R” in the serial number sequence for refurbished product. I’m not certain that information was ever confirmed. I have seen that R letter in units that I wasn’t convinced were refurbished units because they truly looked brand new. Refurbs will function as new anyway.
Whether the aircraft has been activated through DJI should be visible when connected with the Go4 app. Even an “open box” could have been activated and never flown or flown very little.
I can’t remember if the battery info is visible if the aircraft hasn’t been activated. Batteries that have been well used should show signs of use.
If unused, they should look as new with no signs of wear at all.
I would look to information on the seller as much as the aircraft.
Someone that accepts returns?

 

[imnotmarvin]

How much inspection are you allowed to do prior to it being yours?

I don't know that there's a limit but I planned to to take 10 minutes or so.

 

[John Locke]

If your private seller has flown the craft before, I would ask him to fly the craft in your presence. Check the display for horizon being level while flying at 200' AGL. Then ask him to show you the battery charge cycles. Under 25 charges would be my preference, but I presume it's less than 10 charges when you say "open box", as though it's implied to be rather new.

FYI, the M2 batteries can show no apparent wear and still be bad. Check the bottom surface where the label is for bulges. I had 3 of my 4 M2 batteries go bad at about 1yr old, they expanded on the bottom so much that they could pop out of the battery clip during flight, potentially disconnecting. From appearance they looked brand new, other than the slight bulge on the bottom. That label area must be absolutely flat. M2 batteries are notorious for bulging out the bottom.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Starz mentioned some stuff I was going to suggest.
Other stuff if the drone has been activated.
1) Check how many spare props there should be and how many there are. (hit and miss as props are easily replaced ) Though I would check all props are genuine DJI props (personal choice). There are good quality alternatives but there are probably crap ones too. Personally I stick to DJI props.

2) You could take a empty, formatted, memory card, a card-reader and a laptop with you, if the drone has been activated put your memory card in the drones take a photo and have a look, on the card, at the photo name, there is a counter in the name, this is a "hit and miss" check as the counter can be reset and may be reset by a new card, I do not reollect that happening with me .

3) Fly the drone with YOUR phone connected to the controller, you'd need the GO4 app installed, if the controller is an RC1A (look on the back of the controller) the controller will record a DAT file on the phone. Look at the name of the DAT file, it too contains a counter, as in FLY014, FLY 015 etc. the counter relates to the number of drone switch on/off cycles. Unfortunately this is also a but hit and miss since FLY099 + 1 becomes FLY000. If you have an Android the path to the files was, for me "My Files/internal storage/DJI/dji/go.v4/FlightRecord/MCDatFightRecords. If the controller is an RC1B then it does not creat a DAT.
The txt flight log does contain a reference to the DAT number but you'd need a Windows laptop with you with the software "CsvView" installed on it. You'd need to process the txt flightlog with CsvView but that might be a bit more than you are willing to do.
You can look 'at' the DAT's on the drone but you'd need "DJI Assitant 2 for Mavic" to do that and all you can do is look to see how many there are, you CAN NOT read them (they are encrypted) and there are never many, probably less than 20 (I guess old ones are over written), so again a bit hit and miss and perhaps a bit invasive.

 

[Foley909]

I'm buying an open box, new Mavic 2 Pro from a private seller. Are there things I should be looking for to avoid losing money? Are there fakes? How can you spot a refurbished unit? Does that matter? Will I be able to check the battery through the Fly app without registering the drone through DJI?

If you haven't purchased it yet and not to hijack but I've got a brand new one for sale on the classifieds, if you want to skip the headache of purchasing a used one...

 

[imnotmarvin]

At one time, there was some talk that DJI inserted the letter“R” in the serial number sequence for refurbished product. I’m not certain that information was ever confirmed. I have seen that R letter in units that I wasn’t convinced were refurbished units because they truly looked brand new. Refurbs will function as new anyway.
Whether the aircraft has been activated through DJI should be visible when connected with the Go4 app. Even an “open box” could have been activated and never flown or flown very little.
I can’t remember if the battery info is visible if the aircraft hasn’t been activated. Batteries that have been well used should show signs of use.
If unused, they should look as new with no signs of wear at all.
I would look to information on the seller as much as the aircraft.
Someone that accepts returns?

If you haven't purchased it yet and not to hijack but I've got a brand new one for sale on the classifieds, if you want to skip the headache of purchasing a used one...

If you haven't purchased it yet and not to hijack but I've got a brand new one for sale on the classifieds, if you want to skip the headache of purchasing a used one...

If I found the right listing, yours is a Fly More for $1500. I'm buying the base model for $800. That's about the top end of my budget. Thanks though.