Homelab

I used to be concerned, and then I saw this video which made it apparent it's extremely unlikely and difficult for ESD to kill modern electronics

https://youtu.be/nXkgbmr3dRA?si=lr7wIJa3KH6q1EHE

I can't say I've ever had second hand electronic devices (devices like a switch...not components like RAM, HDDs, GPU) shipped wrapped in anti-static bags. Completely unnecessary imo. The card, as it's a component, may have been nice to have in a bag, but if it was cheap-ish, I wouldn't really care.

Anecdotally, I've been working with electronics for decades, never using any of those grounding bracelets, or anti static mats. And never once had a problem. Could static cause damage...yeah, probably, but there is a far far greater risk of physical damage than from static.

Honestly, i don't think it's really an issue. I've also had stuff shipped like that. Not just network devices, but servers, ssds, hdds, memory, etc. Never had anything doa with that kind of packing. I did get 5 hdds once in antistatic bags with no other packaging in the box. 2 doa, 2 more died eventually.

Almost everything I have purchased is in anti static material (pink bubble wrap, pink bags, or grey bags). Anything I send out also is. I have gotten one card loose in a box, no wrap at all, and it worked fine. It's more of a rare occurrence, but it's certainly not a guarantee it'll get damaged. Just test them out and make sure everything works and don't worry about it further. Anything in a case (switch, server, etc) isn't an issue, it's just boards with exposed PCBs.

A while back a bought a UNVR-PRO second hand and the idiot seller shipped it in a 1U Unifi network switch box with a few scraps of cardboard but plenty of room to bounce around. I was vocal about how terrible the packaging was, but ultimately ended up keeping it as somehow there were no signs of damage. Fast forward almost a year and the device bricked up. Was investigating the issue by asking questions on the Ubiquiti Discord and a UI employee reached out and told me to RMA it. Told me to hang onto it until they had one to ship out. Had to wait about a month and they sent me a new one, but never asked for the old one back. Sat on the broken one for a few months. Opened it up but there wasn't anything obviously broken, took some photos, and put it on ebay for parts. Couldn't believe how fast it sold. So while my initial packaging experience was terrible it worked out to me owing a UNVR-PRO for a net investment of about $150. Can't complain too much.

LTT did a great video with Electroboom where they tried to deliberately destroy electronics with static and they failed.

This matches my own anecdotal experiences. I think it's an over-hyped issue.

Unrelated to the question, but what models were the switch and network card? I looked a long time for an affordable secondhand Cisco switch with more than 2 SFP+ slots before I bought my jet engine pretending to be a ProCurve 6600, and I'd like to know which one I missed.