Is A Second-Hand Hardware Wallet Safe?

[Yamane_Keto]

I think that the only way to enhance your security is to buy several wallets and use the multi-signature feature, but the cost has not been reduced and there is still a risk, so building a wallet yourself or using airgapped is much better.

[PrivacyG]

I think that the only way to enhance your security is to buy several wallets and use the multi-signature feature

OP would need to buy multiple Hardware Wallets from separate Sellers and meet them personally for the exchange under different identities.  Today you are Rob purchasing from A, tomorrow you have to be Jim purchasing from B.  Otherwise, the Seller could have different accounts under which they sell Hardware Wallets and if the same customer asks both, they can get a friend or a partner-in-crime sell it to you.  Purchasing from the same Seller implies the risk of owning multiple devices from the same perpetrator.  And even if you buy 5 devices from 5 different Sellers, nobody guarantees all 5 are not from the same group of perpetrators.

Then you would need to pay very little per piece so at the end of the day you get to pay less on the Multi Sig setup than you would on a single legitimate device from the original Seller.

It is useless trouble.  Just purchase a legitimate device.  If you can not purchase any device other than an already used one, just do Airgapped like you said.

[Meuserna]

I think that the only way to enhance your security is to buy several wallets and use the multi-signature feature, but the cost has not been reduced and there is still a risk, so building a wallet yourself or using airgapped is much better.

Yes.

SeedSigner: $80
Blockstream Jade: $70
Krux: $45 running on a really nice device.

That's less than $200 for three hardware wallets, all of which can be run stateless and airgapped.  Very minimal DIY.  For SeedSigner, you just have to buy a kit and load the firmware onto a micro SD card.  Jade comes ready to go.  For Krux, you buy the device to run it on, download the firmware and run a command in Terminal to flash it to the device.

And that Krux price isn't even the cheapest option.  You can buy a Maix Cube for around $35 to install Krux on, but the Yahboom K210 module ($45) is a much better device for Krux since it has a larger screen, and it's a touchscreen.  Sometimes those Yahbooms can be found for even less.  I got one for $37.

[shield132]

First of all, why would someone sell their used wallet? I have a Bitcoin wallet in my smartphone and when I plan to change my smartphone with a new one, I simply destroy it instead of selling it because I had a Bitcoin wallet in my old smartphone and despite the fact that I can format it, I can't still risk to sell it to someone unknown.

I think that the only way to enhance your security is to buy several wallets and use the multi-signature feature

OP would need to buy multiple Hardware Wallets from separate Sellers and meet them personally for the exchange under different identities.  Today you are Rob purchasing from A, tomorrow you have to be Jim purchasing from B.  Otherwise, the Seller could have different accounts under which they sell Hardware Wallets and if the same customer asks both, they can get a friend or a partner-in-crime sell it to you.

I have never thought about that but that approach is very logical for safety. In that case, we have to use the help of friends or freight forwarder companies that let us to get items in different locations with different names.

If you can not purchase any device other than an already used one, just do Airgapped like you said.

What's safer, a laptop with HDD or a laptop with SSD? I have heard from many people that SSDs are good but I have a laptop with NVME SSD that I have used since 2020 and recently SSD got damaged itself, without any physical harm while my 10 years old PC with HDD still works fine.

[Pmalek]

Don't do it if you are buying it from an unknown person on the internet that you don't know and have never met. It might look like a good deal, and probably is if you are getting if for like 50% cheaper than a new one, but it's not really worth the worry. If you are buying a hardware wallet, it's fair to assume that you have or will have an amount that you feel is big enough to store on such a device. If that is the case, don't make shortcuts and try to save a few bucks by increasing the chances of hurting your crypto holdings.

Imagine if you have a really expensive car. Fill the tank at a gas station and don't trust the guy at the corner who says he can get you the same quality fuel for half the price. If you can afford the car, use quality fuel with it and not something that could be mixed with water or other fluids.

After that, send a small test amount to your wallet. If hardware wallet is unreliable, then this money will be stolen immediately.

Not necessarily. If there is some automatic drainer, then yes, the sum would be stolen and sent to an address that the scammer controls. If that is possible, of course. Let's not forget that hardware wallets require physical confirmation to send transactions.

But if there is no drainer and someone is manually checking the addresses, they could wait. Let's think like scammers. If I had control of your keys and I am planning to steal from you, I am not going to do that after you send $5 worth of crypto to your wallet. I will wait a little, maybe for $500, $5000... Only then will I react. Doing it earlier will show you that something is wrong, and you would probably abandon the wallet. So, I'll wait.

[Hispo]

The only way I would go as far as buying a second-hand hardware wallet it would be whether I am capable of analyze both hardware and software, seeking for irregularities and evidence someone maliciously tampered with the wallet, in order to steal other money. It would not be the first time I have seen something like that happening, actually, there have been some documented cases of Ledger hardware wallets being tampered with the sold on eBay.
If one as an user is not willing to go through all the hassle of analyzing the software and hardware of what one has bought, it is better just to go safe and buy directly from official vendors.

Needless to say, most of the average person interested in acquiring a hardware wallet does not have the capacity to analize both the firmware and the hardware of those products... 

[PrivacyG]

The only way I would go as far as buying a second-hand hardware wallet it would be whether I am capable of analyze both hardware and software, seeking for irregularities and evidence someone maliciously tampered with the wallet, in order to steal other money. It would not be the first time I have seen something like that happening, actually, there have been some documented cases of Ledger hardware wallets being tampered with the sold on eBay.
If one as an user is not willing to go through all the hassle of analyzing the software and hardware of what one has bought, it is better just to go safe and buy directly from official vendors.

Needless to say, most of the average person interested in acquiring a hardware wallet does not have the capacity to analize both the firmware and the hardware of those products... 

What if somebody actually studied specific Hardware Wallets for a long time and found a way to disassemble them, tamper with them and then assemble them looking just like new.  Asking to pry a Hardware Wallet open before purchasing it is strange anyway, nobody would do it, so maybe you find out only after purchasing it and prying it open back home.  But what if the tamper is not physically observable.

Even if it lies in the Code and you do have the capacity to Analyze the Firmware, mistakenly skipping a single line or not being able to connect the dots at the right time could lead to using a malicious Hardware Wallet and even Trusting it since you did analyze both its Firmware and the Hardware too.

Even if the Seller is reliable and trustworthy, you have no idea whether it was a device they purchased from official sellers themselves or if it was a device they got for free.  What if they are actually selling a device they thought they received as a gift in their Post.

So at the end of the day, there are so many possibilities it is still so much more convenient to either purchase it from a legitimate official source or to just create your own Airgapped Wallet.  While not the most convenient User Experience wise, it is the Safest choice for OP still.