Where can I buy a hardware wallet?

[roadrunnerjaiv2025]

I understand that cold storage wallets are the safest form of bitcoin wallets because they are completely independent from the Internet.

I also understand that a cold storage wallet may come in the form of a piece of paper, a hardware device, or simply a memorized seed phrase. I’d prefer using a hardware wallet because I’m more familiar with it and it's apparently the most durable of the three. Of course, I’m still going to use my web and desktop wallets but it would be nice to have a hardware wallet as early as now.

Someone told me that it’s best to buy a hardware wallet directly from a manufacturer to avoid getting a tampered product. Is that always true? How risky can buying from a reseller be? Can you recommend a good brand or manufacturer? And how much do hardware wallets usually cost? Thanks in advance for your answers and tips.

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[AB de Royse777]

Someone told me that it’s best to buy a hardware wallet directly from a manufacturer to avoid getting a tampered product. Is that true? How risky can buying from a reseller be? Can you recommend a good brand or manufacturer? And how much do hardware wallets usually cost? Thanks in advance for your answers and tips.

You are going to pay money so why not pay it secure. Of course buy directly from the manufacturer and always use the seed that you created by your own. I am using Ledger Nano S from long years and I can recommend it for you. There are other good hardware wallets too.

Here is their website: https://www.ledger.com

[OmegaStarScream]

In addition to the hardware wallet suggested above, you have https://trezor.io/

Unless you're interested in holding some specific altcoins, you should probably go with the Trezor One (48.76 EUR).

[btc_angela]

Another good alternative: https://trezor.io/

There is an official reseller as well: https://trezor.io/resellers/

For Ledger: https://shop.ledger.com/pages/retailers/

The risk is buying from someone that is supposedly a reseller (non-authorised).

[20kevin20]

I understand that cold storage wallets are the safest form of bitcoin wallets because they are completely independent from the Internet.

They are as safe as you make them be. A hot wallet on a completely clean, offline and secure PC is just as safe - but you need to really know what you're doing in order to keep the safety at a constant level. However, hardware wallets are more convenient as in you don't have to worry about everything. They are supposedly safe even if you plug them into an infected PC. As long as you keep them up to date all the time, you should really be fine.

I also understand that a cold storage wallet may come in the form of a piece of paper, a hardware device, or simply a memorized seed phrase.

Depends on what you mean by "memorized seed phrase". If you're talking about a seed phrase that you try to remember using your own brain, that is a very big flaw. Imagine having an unfortunate accident that causes a memory loss. Or imagine having forgotten a word or two out of your seed - or the correct order. Using your own brain to remember a seed is a big risk.

I’d prefer using a hardware wallet because I’m more familiar with it and it's apparently the most durable of the three.

Again - as durable as the method of storage is. A paper wallet could be easily destroyed by heat/water. Hardware wallets are more resistant when it comes to the materials, but you still have to store your hardware wallet's seed somewhere. That could also be a paper. So keep this in mind - and a metal seed storage could come in handy in order to lower the chances of something going wrong.

Of course, I’m still going to use my web and desktop wallets but it would be nice to have a hardware wallet as early as now.

Using desktop wallets isn't a bad idea. But try to avoid custodial web wallets. I mean, try to avoid web wallets at all. You could use your hardware wallet with compatible web wallets - that's fine, because you'd still store your coins on the hardware. But avoid Blockchain wallet, Coinomi and any other custodial/closed-source wallet. There's Electrum - it does an amazing job when it comes to being both fast and convenient and has a lot of functions as well.

Also, try to use your hot wallet only for short term txs. If you need to make a payment, use that hot wallet temporarily for it. Afterwards, move all your funds back to the cold storage.

Someone told me that it’s best to buy a hardware wallet directly from a manufacturer to avoid getting a tampered product. Is that true? How risky can buying from a reseller be?

It's usually recommended not to purchase it from a reseller. Think about it - is it worth paying $10 less to later find out your device has been tampered with and your funds just poof as soon as you send them to your HW?

There could even be fake wallets (IIRC, there was a fake Trezor selling around at one point) you might purchase unknowingly. Therefore, the best thing you can do is just get it from the original source or authorised sellers (you find the authorized ones on official hardware wallet websites).

Can you recommend a good brand or manufacturer?

Trezor and Ledger are the most widely used and known. I own both of them - it really depends on what coins you want to store and what functions you want the HWs to have. Check out both websites and their products, compare them and see which one you like more.

[Lucius]

roadrunnerjaiv2025, no matter which hardware wallet you buy, first get acquainted with all the rules of how to use it properly. Although one such device is a very secure way to store private keys - users of such devices still lose their coins every day because they do not understand how important backup in the form of seeds (24 words) is. If you learn that the seed should not be written anywhere other than in the device itself - and that you shouldn't need to store it online (at least not unencrypted) then you are already well on your way to ensuring relatively good security.

If you are from the EU then buying directly from the manufacturer is a logical choice, and if you are not check Ledger&Trezor legal resellers.

[LTU_btc]

Yeah, you're right, cold wallets is the best choice. It's necessary shouldn't be hardware wallet. It can be properly made paper wallet too which won't cost you anything. It's good choice when you're planning to HODL Bitcoins for long, but if you're planning to use your coins often, hardware wallet is more convenient thing.
It's strongly adviced to buy hardware wallet from manufacturer or official resellers. Never buy from unauthorized seller or used wallet. There is many stories how people lost their coins in this way. Security of your assets isn't place to try save $10-15.
Most popular brands is Ledger and Trezor. There is some less known brands, but it would be better to stick with these two. Price depends on what model you're going to buy. Trezor One costs €59, while newer Model T €180.29. Ledger Nano S costs €59, while Nano X (more memory, bigger screen, Bluetooth and free shipping) - €119. Additionaly these wallets may cost a bit more expensive with shipping fee added.

[Fatemablabla]

If you are willing to buy a hardware wallet than the first thing I will suggest you don't go Amazon, eBay and other e-commerce platforms around you. You can be getting ripped off. One of my friends had a bad experience with a wallet from amazon. They somehow hacked into it( maybe they already had something on it)  and stole all his funds. But fortunately, he just kept only 1 eth for testing the wallet on the first night and the incident happened.

So if you wanna buy I suggest you buy it from the official websites. As many people mentioned above me, you will find the links there.

[Stedsm]

Yeah, you're right, cold wallets is the best choice. It's necessary shouldn't be hardware wallet. It can be properly made paper wallet too which won't cost you anything. It's good choice when you're planning to HODL Bitcoins for long, but if you're planning to use your coins often, hardware wallet is more convenient thing.

If they've made up their mind for the safety of their funds and believe that they can't take the risk of going with a paper wallet for their funds' safety, I think they should buy something reliable and cheap and if not a ledger or trezor, maybe a cryptosteel wallet which stores paper wallet keys in itself can do the job as they are purely made of steel and can store many paper wallets all at once. One more thing, there are just too many alternatives available in the market that nobody can actually tell them what to do, and it's their decision in the end.

Meanwhile, check out https://coldti.com/

[khaled0111]

The most used and trusted hardware wallets are Ledger and Trezor.
It's recommended to by them from their respective official online shops:
Trezor: https://shop.trezor.io/
Ledger: https://shop.ledger.com/
Or from one of the authorized resellers. Hete is the official list of autirized resellers:
Trezor: https://trezor.io/resellers/
Ledger: https://shop.ledger.com/pages/retailers

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Go with Ledger mate, on their official website.  Don't be buying off amazon or ebay or the like, i've heard some horror stories with buying this type of hardware from market places.

Really?  What types of horror stories have you heard, exactly?  Can I assume that you mean that the devices had been tampered with?

I can understand not wanting to buy a HW wallet from eBay, but to the best of my knowledge if you bought a Ledger from Amazon, for example, it's Ledger that ships it.  I've bought two of them from Amazon so far and have hadn't had a security issue yet.

One of my friends had a bad experience with a wallet from amazon. They somehow hacked into it( maybe they already had something on it)  and stole all his funds. But fortunately, he just kept only 1 eth for testing the wallet on the first night and the incident happened.

What kind of wallet was it?  That's disturbing, assuming it's true--no offense.

In any case, there's nothing to be lost or gained by buying a HW from the official site except whatever perks you'd normally get if you bought it from Amazon or some other place.  Don't know if OP has his mind made up yet, but I'd go with a Ledger, either a Nano S or X. 

Here is their website: https://www.ledger.com

I'm pretty sure you can even pay with bitcoin if you wanted to.  That might be the case with Trezor and other manufacturers as well, but I haven't checked.

[Lucius]

What kind of wallet was it?  That's disturbing, assuming it's true--no offense.

It seems as if the device already had a pregenerated seed, or the user used a fake UI and compromised its data right at the beginning.
 

I'm pretty sure you can even pay with bitcoin if you wanted to.  That might be the case with Trezor and other manufacturers as well, but I haven't checked.

I paid for my Ledger HW with BTC, and I can confirm that Trezor accepts BTC as a means of payment also. Personally, it doesn't make much sense for some HW manufacturers not to offer the option of paying with BTC - although some users will prefer to use cards or PayPal.

[Gc62]

As everyone have mentioned, grab your favourite hardware wallet ONLY from their official website. Doesn't matter, you go for trezor or ledger.

If you're confused between the two, go check out this this comparison of Trezor Vs Ledger - https://www.latestonnet.com/2020/05/03/trezor-vs-ledger/.html

Hope it helps.

[AB de Royse777]

Here is their website: https://www.ledger.com

I'm pretty sure you can even pay with bitcoin if you wanted to.  That might be the case with Trezor and other manufacturers as well, but I haven't checked.

That would be ironic if a bitcoin hardware wallet company does not accept bitcoin :-P

I just checked their checkout page (with fake information) to see their payment option and here we have it:


I hate to see bitpay by the way.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I can understand not wanting to buy a HW wallet from eBay, but to the best of my knowledge if you bought a Ledger from Amazon, for example, it's Ledger that ships it.

As long as you buy it from the official Ledger shop on Amazon, then you are correct. Amazon also hosts plenty of third party sellers, however. For example, a quick search on Amazon.com right now finds a company called "Elite100" which is selling Ledger Nano Xs (and undercutting Ledger themselves by $1). Note that they only have a 58% positive rating. Obviously you should avoid these resellers.

Something which hasn't been mentioned yet in this thread if the privacy of your own personal details. Ledger's database was recently hacked and several thousand customers had their real names and addresses exposed. There is no telling if this is going to happen again to them or another hardware wallet manufacturer. To avoid this completely, you can order under fake details and have it delivered to a PO Box or a drop off address for collection. If you can't do this, then once you have ordered you should contact them and request that they delete all the data they hold about you as per their Privacy Policy.

[AB de Royse777]

OP I just found this:

During the checkout process paste the discount code "backtoschool". A 20% decrease will be applied to the total sum.
More info here > https://shop.ledger.com/pages/back-to-school

So you will get a nice discount if you order when this promo is running. It does not save much but still some off is better than nothing.

[Pmalek]

If you are willing to buy a hardware wallet than the first thing I will suggest you don't go Amazon,

Ledger itself suggests that users can buy their wallets on Amazon. But it has to be an official re-seller. Whatever your friend bought didn't come from the Ledger reseller network for sure.
Ledger has Amazon stores for USA, UK, Germany, Japan, and many other countries. These are OFFICIAL resellers.

When your product arrives, you should inspect it and follow the guidelines as described in Check if device is genuine.
The most important thing is to generate a new seed and never use one that came with the device.

If you want to dive even deeper into this subject, you can also inspect the hardware components of your device. Refer to check hardware integrity for that. 

[stompix]

Go with Ledger mate, on their official website.  Don't be buying off amazon or ebay or the like, i've heard some horror stories with buying this type of hardware from market places.

Really?  What types of horror stories have you heard, exactly?  Can I assume that you mean that the devices had been tampered with?

There have been cases, probably the biggest sum I've ever heard was this one, nearly 40k
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2711295.0
Or a failed scam:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3406938.0

Bottom line, never buy a second-hand device if you're not 101% sure what you're doing.

As long as you buy it from the official Ledger shop on Amazon, then you are correct. Amazon also hosts plenty of third party sellers, however. For example, a quick search on Amazon.com right now finds a company called "Elite100" which is selling Ledger Nano Xs (and undercutting Ledger themselves by $1). Note that they only have a 58% positive rating. Obviously you should avoid these resellers.

Lol, at the start 9 full 5-star ratings then dropping to 1-2 stars for shipping used goods sold as new, rather than a company it looks more like a guy selling whatever he has got his hands on, one or two items from a brand, no focus one a certain category, yeah avoid this guy at all cost.




 

[o_e_l_e_o]

Lol, at the start 9 full 5-star ratings then dropping to 1-2 stars for shipping used goods sold as new, rather than a company it looks more like a guy selling whatever he has got his hands on, one or two items from a brand, no focus one a certain category, yeah avoid this guy at all cost.

He'll get kicked off of Amazon fairly soon, but there is nothing stopping him from re-registering under a different name and continuing to pawn off second hand goods. And he certainly isn't the only one. You have to be careful because sometimes Amazon will default to these third party resellers if they are much cheaper or the official seller is out of stock, and you can end up buying a second hand device without even realizing it.

Still, even if you go buy from the official Ledger via Amazon, it's still another step in the supply chain and another group of people who have their hands on your device. If you are worried about supply chain attacks, then it's something to consider. As I said above, I think the safest option all round is to buy direct from the website using fake details, pay in anonymized bitcoin, and ship to a PO Box.

[LTU_btc]

That would be ironic if a bitcoin hardware wallet company does not accept bitcoin :-P

I just checked their checkout page (with fake information) to see their payment option and here we have it:

https://talkimg.com/images/2023/09/10/mq4dl.png
I hate to see bitpay by the way.

Yeah, it would strange if they wouldn't accept Bitcoin. And yeah - BitPay sucks. Don't know much about Crypto.com, but I believe it's better choice than BitPay. But it's a bit strange to see company like Ledger giving so limited options for crypto users to pay. It would be nice if they would use BTCPayServer.