Is it possible to format and safely use a second-hand hardware wallet just like a flash drive wallet?

What is the name of the hardware wallet? Some hardware wallet are old in a way that they are not worth buying.

It will be advisable to order your own hardware wallet from the company that is manufacturing it or from an official reseller if available in your country.

If it is a common hardware wallet, maybe you can see some YouTube reviews to know the fake from the original but you will have to open the hardware wallet to see some components that are inside.

Depends on both the wallet and your skills to recognize counterfeits (if any).

However, commonly, to be on safe side it is always better to acquire wallet from the maker ( or, at least, from official dealer) than from the second-hands.

Hardware wallet usually have factory reset or wipe feature. But in terms of safety, you never can be sure about that. Aside from verifying it's hardware, who knows if it's installed with malicious firmware. Most importunately, there's no good reason to buy used hardware wallet unless you're performing some kind of research or analysis.

I would skip the idea with out a doubt.

Why is the person selling their Hardware Wallet?  Why are they giving it away?  Why do they want to get rid of it?

There are so many ways this could go wrong.  And unless you are going to store 1 Dollars in your Wallet or want to keep it just as a Collectible, I truly believe it could end up as a huge mistake.  Think even about others.  You purchase the Wallet today, you die tomorrow, your closest relative inherits the Hardware Wallet and out of Trust will use it.  If the Hardware Wallet is malicious, they are screwed.  Like I said.  So many ways it can go wrong.

Just spend more and get a genuine one or build one yourself.  Or if both are impossible to do, just build an Airgapped Wallet instead.  Any thing other than a SECOND HAND Hardware Wallet sounds safer.  Not worth the risk.

Hardware wallet is not a second hand t-shirt that you can buy and use. Technically, it is possible to format (reset to factory settings) HW, but should you rely 100% on these standard formatting tools as safe and reliable, I think not. Because it is unknown whether the previous owner of the HW device added malicious applications. Do you really want to play roulette and bet your savings?

It is better not to save money when it comes to storing cryptocurrencies and buy only directly from the manufacturer (or official dealers). In general, I agree with the answers of other users in this thread and would not recommend using second-hand hardware wallet.

Thanks for the links, so people really do offer their used hardware wallets for sale and some people also look for used hardware wallets to buy, the number may not be high, but..yeah.

I don't mind buying second hand of a few things, but surely not something that's going to hold the keys to my money. Even if you may reset it, and follow all safety conditions before use, it still does not make sense trying to save a few $ with something that's going to store way more than that.

@ContentWriter
Other users already answered your question, but I want to point to something else... If the second-hand HW that you were looking to buy is at the higher end of the price spectrum, it's worth noting that various cheaper brand-new models in the market can also provide similar protection to a certain degree: List of hardware wallets ^{[pick something that has a "secure element" while being "open-source" and having "reproducible builds"]}