Here in São Paulo there’s a street market called “feira do rolo”. It takes place several times a week and works like this:
The sellers get there, usually right after midnight, lay out rugs, cloths or other things on the ground and put everything they have for sale on top. Usually the spots are separated by category: home appliances, car parts, video games, computer parts…
It goes more or less like this:
https://youtube.com/shorts/uXFXELgCcQI?is=g22IdQTNdja65m9N
People who want to buy also need to get there early, because the best stuff gets sold off quickly. For example: last week in the middle of the night they were selling a 3070 Ti for 70 reais, probably because the seller didn’t know what it was. Or because the card wasn’t working either. But there’s no way to be sure. You buy already aware of the risk. That’s why you really have to pay attention to the details. Take a good look at the contacts on the component you’re buying. Check if anything is bent, if all the pins are fine, etc.
Personally, I’ve managed to build a very good PC from stuff I got there, except that the M.2 SSD I bought simply wasn’t recognized in the BIOS. They sold it to me fried. But I don’t know if the seller knew.
I made this post to let people know about it. Stay alert.