Scored a Band New Mavic 1 Pro on eBay

[Conservative Nihilist]

I'd been window shopping on eBay for a couple of weeks looking for either a lightly used Mavic 2 Zoom or a Mavic Pro Platinum when I stumbled on a true diamond in the rough that caught my eye and triggered the buy reflex instantly. This pristine Mavic 1 Pro has never been flown and is being sold as a brand new product that just happens to be in an opened box.

For a reasonable $350 plus shipping I decided to roll the dice on this purchase despite the fact that it bears the dreaded descriptor: "Open Box", which can occasionally translate to "Dead in the Water".



All told, my confidence is high that this drone will work as advertized and will in fact be a brand new drone that has remained unsold since the Mavic 1 Pro family of drones were first released back in 2017. The eBay seller of this drone has a 97% approval rating so my usual suspicions are on hold for now.

Often on eBay I have seen new unopened Mavic 1 Pro quadcopters selling for the same $800 price tag they commanded when the M1P line as first released 7 years ago, so it is mystifying to see the price drop by 50% simply because that box was openeed at some point. I can only hope I don't get a nasty surprise when I open that "opened box" haha.

Anyway I won't complain about that low price unless of course I discover that the drone is flawed despite appearing brand new, in which case I will return to this forum to express my regrets while wailing and gnashing my teeth in the throes of buyer's remorse.

 

[Kilrah]

Your most likely problem will be a dead battery and difficulty finding replacements for the poor 8 year old thing.

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

I haven't bought an OEM battery from DJI for years. Ali Express is my dependable source for after-market DJI batteries on steroids that give these old-model drones flight times as long as 33 minutes, during which distances of over 13 miles can be covered with 27mph cruise speeds assigned for Litchi waypoint missions.

I have a soft spot in my heart for these older Mavics because all DJI drones manufactured more recently than the Mavic 2 Pro are NOT readily compatible with Litchi's standout waypoint creation utility. Since it is perfectly legal in my Third World backwater to fly fully autonomous drone missions way beyond my line of sight, that vital ability to follow programmed waypoint sequences under full autopilot control is one of the greatest freedoms enjoyed by older drone owners residing where FAA or CAA regulations are but a distant curiosity.

I look forward to taking delivery of this my second only ever brand new drone now attractively priced on eBay for penny-pinching miserly cheapskates like me.

 

[Dale D]

I'd been window shopping on eBay for a couple of weeks looking for either a lightly used Mavic 2 Zoom or a Mavic Pro Platinum when I stumbled on a true diamond in the rough that caught my eye and triggered the buy reflex instantly. This pristine Mavic 1 Pro has never been flown and is being sold as a brand new product that just happens to be in an opened box.

For a reasonable $350 plus shipping I decided to roll the dice on this purchase despite the fact that it bears the dreaded descriptor: "Open Box", which can occasionally translate to "Dead in the Water".

View attachment 177615

All told, my confidence is high that this drone will work as advertized and will in fact be a brand new drone that has remained unsold since the Mavic 1 Pro family of drones were first released back in 2017. The eBay seller of this drone has a 97% approval rating so my usual suspicions are on hold for now.

Often on eBay I have seen new unopened Mavic 1 Pro quadcopters selling for the same $800 price tag they commanded when the M1P line as first released 7 years ago, so it is mystifying to see the price drop by 50% simply because that box was openeed at some point. I can only hope I don't get a nasty surprise when I open that "opened box" haha.

Anyway I won't complain about that low price unless of course I discover that the drone is flawed despite appearing brand new, in which case I will return to this forum to express my regrets while wailing and gnashing my teeth in the throes of buyer's remorse.

I personally think that you should have at least received and tried out the drone before writing this. As the saying sort of goes, "if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't."

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

I personally think that you should have at least received and tried out the drone before writing this. As the saying sort of goes, "if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't."

You are right in advising caution. I have been scammed before on eBay. Bought a Phantom 3 Standard that would not bind to any controller including its own, and now sits gathering dust on a shelf. A year later I bought a Mavic Air 1 that remained tethered in beginner mode and would not fly higher or further from me than 50 feet That drone too is now an inert conversation piece.

Recalling those "good deals" has certainly put a damper on my jubilation over acquiring a "new" Mavic 1 Pro, and it's all your fault, Dale. Haha just kidding. I guess I'm a gambler at heart. Good thing Vegas is time zones away or I'd be broke and living in the Vegas drainage tunnels regaling my fellow homeless colleagues with tall tales of my drone piloting days.

 

[Dale D]

You are right in advising caution. I have been scammed before on eBay. Bought a Phantom 3 Standard that would not bind to any controller including its own, and now sits gathering dust on a shelf. A year later I bought a Mavic Air 1 that remained tethered in beginner mode and would not fly higher or further from me than 50 feet That drone too is now an inert conversation piece.

Recalling those "good deals" has certainly put a damper on my jubilation over acquiring a "new" Mavic 1 Pro, and it's all your fault, Dale. Haha just kidding. I guess I'm a gambler at heart. Good thing Vegas is time zones away or I'd be broke and living in the Vegas drainage tunnels regaling my fellow homeless colleagues with tall tales of my drone piloting days.

This has nothing to do with your post but your experience on e-bay interested me.. I presently have two items listed on e-bay and have had nothing but good experience with e-bay. Can you tell me and all of us how you got scammed, or what to avoid?

Dale
(I'm selling a camera and a lens)

 

[dave canada]

ANYTHING WRONG WITH A MAVIC PRO IS AN EASY FIX AND THEY FLY ROCK SOLID MISSION,S AGAIN AND AGAIN

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

This has nothing to do with your post but your experience on e-bay interested me.. I presently have two items listed on e-bay and have had nothing but good experience with e-bay. Can you tell me and all of us how you got scammed, or what to avoid?

Dale
(I'm selling a camera and a lens)

Generally speaking my buyer's experience with eBay has been positive, and that is where I purchased all my used DJI drones numbering nearly ten, over the past few years.

The Phantom 3S that wouldn't bind with its controller and the Mavic Air 1 that arrived locked in beginner mode were sold "as is" but with no mention of the defects I encountered after my purchases, so it wouldn't be accurate to characterize those two sales as being made by intentionally dishonest sellers.

The one time when I was scammed on eBay was about a year ago after I paid for a Mavic 2 Pro that later turned out to be non-existent. The scammer was no neophyte because he hacked into eBay's tracking update feature, and thereby faked the tracking of the drone right up to the point where tracking indicated that the drone had been "delivered". That level of criminal sophistication amazed me then and still does.

Once it became clear there was no drone to deliver to my address, I had a devil of a time persuading eBay customer service that I did NOT take delivery of that drone, and I had to threaten legal action to eventually get eBay to honor their own buyer protection guarantee by refunding my payment. Ultimately, the scammer's account was hurriedly closed and eBay covered for the loss. The debacle left a bitter taste in my mouth and I resented being doubted by eBay customer service reps when I repeatedly told them that I did NOT receive that drone in the post as erroneously stated by their own compromised tracking log.

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

ANYTHING WRONG WITH A MAVIC PRO IS AN EASY FIX AND THEY FLY ROCK SOLID MISSION,S AGAIN AND AGAIN

I am delighted to hear this assurance, Dave. I've been studying YouTube videos about repairs on Mavic 1 Pro drones, and I think I could replace a broken arm should the need arise. I recently took apart the broken carcass of an old Mavic Pro Platinum that was a crash write-off and found the disassembly to be within my capabilities as a one-time electronics tech.

 

[ioprok]

I am delighted to hear this assurance, Dave. I've been studying YouTube videos about repairs on Mavic 1 Pro drones, and I think I could replace a broken arm should the need arise. I recently took apart the broken carcass of an old Mavic Pro Platinum that was a crash write-off and found the disassembly to be within my capabilities as a one-time electronics tech.

about 2 months ago i got a crashed mavic pro, broken landing pads on the antennas, gimbal cables ripped apart, gimbal motors wasted, and before it takes here 2-3 pages basically the drone was in bad condition. to make matters worst, it came with no battery and charger, so basically "buying" (paid 1.18USD equivalent) something that could be garbage. for cheap ~150$ i bought everything that was required and fixed it, all from aliexpress. these old drones are cheap to repair and you will find everything you need. lets be realistic here for 2 minutes: the advancements in camera performance are unnoticeable to the amateur eye, given that most people flush the video and photos in post production.

the only 3 arguments against an old drone are: more advance systems, longer flight time (i give them this one) and not original parts. anything else I consider money down the drain, especially as DJI is pushing new drones and changing always the lineup. I have a mavic air, which was air, now air is like pro and mini became like air, but now you also have neo... mess. yes if someone would give me free a mavic air 3 I would take it but to buy it... no.

hope you have good flights and share some great video. cheers!

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

I agree with you, ioprok, that the evolution of drone cameras can only be impressive enough to be worth an upgrade for drone pilots with superb eyesight. With my bespectacled eyes, the difference between 1080p, 4K, and 5K resolution is not impressive enough for me to begin saving up for a Mavic 3 Pro. In short, I remain loyal to my old DJI drones and will continue to fly them until spare parts are no longer available.

My craving for longer drone flight times is fulfilled with the purchase of non-DJI extra-capacity batteries from Ali Express, where I've just placed another battery order to extend the flight time of my Mavic 1 Pro, Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic Air1, and Phantom 3S.

 

[howardK]

I still fly an M1P. At this point i have no reason or need to replace it. I have 5 batteries for it too. I also have the software from NLD loaded so it really frees it up

 

[Kilrah]

I still have my M1 from basically when it launched but mostly for nostalgic purposes... it files once a year or so but realistically a mini2 is better already

 

[ioprok]

I still have my M1 from basically when it launched but mostly for nostalgic purposes... it files once a year or so but realistically a mini2 is better already

cant really say the mini 2 has better sensor than the mavic air or pro since it is the same. flight time yes, regulation wise too, noise and object visibility OK. but hard for me to say the mini is better.

 

[Kilrah]

The MP has some quirks, e.g. the gimbal tends to start vibrating especially in cold temps, the mini2 doesn't have that problem. Image processing wasn't that good on the MP either with quite some artifacts.

 

[PHZ]

This has nothing to do with your post but your experience on e-bay interested me.. I presently have two items listed on e-bay and have had nothing but good experience with e-bay. Can you tell me and all of us how you got scammed, or what to avoid?

Dale
(I'm selling a camera and a lens)

Dale, take a look at Fred Miranda to buy and sell photo equipment.
Phil

 

[BugHunter]

So what happened here? Did the drone work?

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

The drone still has a few time zones to cross before I see it for the first time, but when I finally get to test it out, I plan to add a final report to these posts. Keeping my fingers crossed in the meantime haha.

 

[BugHunter]

Cool, I'll await your review. I hope it turns out even better than expected.

Been a long time since I was around here and I came here looking for info about my Mavic Pro battery that bricked recently. I'm almost certain I had an account on this forum in the past but for the life of me I can't find one so it's possible I'm thinking of a different forum.

I'll just share one experience that might be encouraging for the machine you have coming. Back in July and this would have been July 20th I think, I attended a family reunion where I took my drone to shoot some photos and memorialize the event. I know at that time I charged all three batteries, and I'm virtually life and death certain that all three charged correctly and I checked them all with the button so they all lit up. Now I know that I did not use all three batteries to completion. As I recall I used two. I don't use my drone on a regular basis, it's more for utilitarian use and I got it back out this past week for more flights. This time I charged only two batteries and by chance, the one that I did not charge is now bricked and won't respond to anything.

Now yesterday, I had put it on the charger and by that I mean the four-way Gizmo. My other battery charged and this one caused a red LED on that charging cube. After many tries, I couldn't get it to do anything but anytime I plugged it in it was clearly communicating with the charger because the lights responded as if they were attempting to power up, and I could do the double press to power the battery itself and the LEDs would flash as normal but the battery had no power. After the charger would error out, the One LED would flash 16 times which is evidently some kind of error code. It did this for the entire day. Not that I sat there the whole day doing it but suffice to say the battery clearly appeared to have some power, enough so that it would light up, but it wouldn't charge.

Now I'm not absolutely certain this is the one that I put away with a charge and then it discharged on its own, but that seems most reasonable. Now the part that would apply to you, is I bought this drone in 2017. It was a fly more kit with three batteries and the nice case. Since then I have had multiple extended amounts of time that I did not use the thing. I might even say there could have been a year and a half time, but maybe that's a small exaggeration. But some very long times anyway. Those long times are not what killed my battery, this relatively short time did. I don't know what's reasonable to expect but I wouldn't be surprised if you get this thing and some or all of the batteries work.

After letting my battery overnight connected to just the power supply charger, the LEDs were still operating but extremely dim this morning. Now that it's afternoon here they are absolutely dead. There is no response whatsoever on those lights now. I've read elsewhere that you might need to let it sit for 48 hours to get it to come back and I'm hopeful it might. It certainly sounds like it's a software problem that kills them, not an actual electrical issue. It simply won't put voltage to it to make it charge. And I suspect it's the electronics on the battery telling the charger to not turn on. But I don't know enough about these things to make that claim.

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

When batteries start to act up I usually play it safe by giving them a befitting burial with full military honors, since I don't have the skill set to revive a dormant DJI battery.

After-market, non-OEM batteries are viewed with skepticism by many drone owners, but I've had reasonably good luck with non-DJI batteries sold by Ali Express, who also sell extra-range batteries for DJI Phantoms, the Mavic Air 1, The Mavic 1 Pro, and the Mavic 2 Pro to name a few. If you decide to ditch those malfunctioning DJI drone batteries, trying out a non-OEM battery remains a viable and attractively priced option.