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I get many DVD players through here. They're worth so little that they are thrown out for the most trivial faults. The most common operator error faults are setting the player to progressive which turns off the the composite video, setting the unit to NTSC and only getting a B&W picture on their PAL only TV. Others are dumped because they won't read copied discs reliably.
The most common actual faults are jammed trays (stick on labels from rental or home burnt discs always cause problems), dead power supplies (usually capactors, but bad diodes, choppers and regulator ICs show up as well) and dead lasers.
I can't blame people for dumping this stuff though. The minimum charges at many repair shops are more than the elcheapo gear is worth. The only way I make anything out of them is doing them in bulk, using used parts wherever possible and getting the units themselves for almost nothing.
When a wholesaler imports this stuff they are expect to handle a certain amount of defects and it is built into the deal. The returns are usually sold off by the pallet load. Many of these pallets are bought by those discount shops offering "factory reworks". They then pallet up their left overs and returns for someone else to pick over. I've bought a couple of these pallets and done okay out of them.
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