5970 in New Zealand -- why so cheap?

[pokwer]

Hi,
I live in New Zealand, where hardware is extremely expensive.
5970s usually retail for over $1000NZD, but today I found a few of these advertised:

Sapphire (21165-00-51R) HD5970 2G GDDR5 PCI-E DUAL DVI-I / MINI DP; Dual Slot Fan Cooler; 32M x 32 GDDR5 512-bit; 725MHz / 1000MHz

for just over $400NZD in a few places.  One of them is a reputable retailer so I'm not thinking "scam", but I am wondering if there's anything I should know about this particular model which makes it so much cheaper? 

Will it still perform effectively (~750Mh/s) for mining?  What about gaming?  Any helpful advice appreciated

[1713898913]

1713898913

[1713898913]

1713898913

[1713898913]

1713898913

[CanaryInTheMine]

Wish I could buy it...

Grab ALL you can!!! beg, steal, borrow...
sell on eBay.  get money to build more rigs.

[KKAtan]

Probably because Bitcoin isn't widespread in New Zealand, so the demand for older cards like the 5870 and 5970 haven't exploded over there. Get them while you still can, they're fantastic.

[pokwer]

It turns out the reason they were so cheap is they are refurbished... but they have already been snapped up since I posted!!
Other than that, the best mining GPU deal I can find in the country is $200NZD for 5830s. 
Oh well at least it's cold enough here that I don't have to include electricity in the costs for another few months
Thanks anyway!

[Dargo]

IMO, the rule of thumb for 5830+ series cards at a good price is: buy first, think later. As long as you are confident you can easily return the card if you don't open the box, you will have time to think later and return it if you decide you don't want it (or even sell it yourself at a higher price). These cards get snapped up so quickly, you have to act immediately to get them at all. I've already missed out on 5830s and 5870s at a good price by thinking about it for a little while (the 5870s were gone in about 10 minutes). Luckily, I didn't hesitate on two 5850s.