The cheapest headphones or earbuds we hold a verified price on are the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro from £50 (new). We don’t currently hold a verified refurbished headphones price — every pair in the list below is a used listing we could verify. That is honest, not a gap: for headphones we only headline a price we can anchor to a trusted seller, and right now no refurbished set clears that bar.
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Used is the cheapest route and sold as-is, and two things matter more here than on most tech. First, hygiene and consumables: ear tips and ear pads are the parts that touch you, they wear out, and they’re replaceable — plan to swap the tips on any used buds and budget for fresh pads on older over-ears. Second, battery wear, which bites hardest on true-wireless earbuds: the cells inside each bud are tiny, they degrade with every charge cycle, and they are not user-replaceable — so a cheap used pair can have badly reduced runtime that you can’t fix. Over-ear headphones have far larger batteries that age more gracefully. Whatever the form factor, check the kit is complete: both buds and the charging case for earbuds; the cable and case for over-ears.
Refurbished (and certified refurbished) costs more because the set has been tested and restored — typically cleaned and re-tipped or re-padded where needed, with a confirmed working battery and a warranty, often 12 months. On true-wireless earbuds in particular, that tested battery is the single biggest reason to pay the refurbished premium rather than gamble on a used pair.
Headphones — and premium earbuds above all — are among the most counterfeited products online. AirPods, Galaxy Buds and flagship over-ears are faked convincingly enough that a “brand new sealed” unit at a fraction of the real price is a classic fake, not a find. Read the title and condition together and treat these as warnings: “single earbud” or “case only” (you’re buying half a product), “for parts / spares or repair”, stock photos rather than the actual item, and clone model codes or odd spellings on the box.
Our approach is precision over recall: for headphones specifically, we will not headline a price we can’t verify. If a listing has no trusted, non-eBay anchor to price it against, we suppress it rather than risk crowning a counterfeit as the cheapest. That is exactly why some models show no price here — and it’s deliberate. The prices above are the ones that survived that filter.
The sweet spot is a last-generation flagship — premium over-ears or top-tier earbuds — bought refurbished or graded-used. You get most of the sound, noise cancelling and features of the current model for a lot less, and on a refurbished set a tested battery and warranty take the sting out of buying second-hand.
There are times to just buy new: on cheap earbuds the refurbished saving is often too small to bother with, and on tiny true-wireless buds the battery and hygiene risk of a used pair can outweigh it. Weigh the saving against a degraded, non-replaceable battery before you commit. Compare every set we track — over-ear and in-ear — on the cheapest headphones live-price guide.
A lot of the “brand new sealed” flagship earbuds sold far below retail are counterfeit — AirPods, Galaxy Buds and premium over-ears are among the most faked products online, and a good clone is hard to spot from photos. That is exactly why some popular models show no price on this page: where we cannot verify a listing against a trusted non-eBay seller, we suppress it rather than risk headlining a fake. Buy from a graded refurbisher or a seller with genuine serial/box detail, and treat a flagship at a fraction of its price as a warning, not a bargain.
It is fine if you replace the parts that touch you. On in-ear buds, swap the silicone or foam ear tips for fresh ones — they are cheap and sold separately. On over-ear headphones the ear pads are usually replaceable too, and a wipe-down of the cups handles the rest. A graded refurbished set will normally have been cleaned and, where needed, re-tipped or re-padded as part of the process.
Usually, yes. Graded refurbished and certified refurbished sets are tested and typically carry a warranty, often 12 months, and crucially the battery will have been checked. A private used listing generally has no warranty — that testing and cover is what the refurbished premium buys you. At the moment we don’t hold a verified refurbished price on any set we track — every priced pair below is a used listing we could verify.
It varies by model, and the saving is biggest on last-generation flagships. On a £300+ pair of premium over-ears or top-tier earbuds, refurbished or graded-used can take a meaningful chunk off while keeping a tested battery and a warranty. On cheap earbuds the refurbished saving is often small — and with battery and hygiene risk on tiny in-ear cells, buying new can make more sense.
It depends how much assurance you want. CEX is strong for graded, warrantied used and refurbished stock with easy returns; eBay (including reseller and certified-refurbished outlets) often has the lowest outright price, but assurance varies by seller and counterfeits are common. This page tracks the live cheapest verified price — currently from £50, and we leave out listings we can’t anchor to a trusted seller.
PriceSlicr is a price tracker, not a shop or a review site. We don’t test or rate products, and we never invent reviews or ratings. Some links are affiliate links and we may earn a commission when you buy through them — it never affects the price you pay or which listings we show.