Are Cubes with a broken disc drive a safe bet?

[Foxeater]

I see this problem a lot, and when buying this makes them significantly cheaper, sometimes as low as 10$ online.

But does anyone know if this is (generally) a problem with the motherboard or just the disc drive itself? I understand that it could feasibly be either, but since it's such a common problem it must have a common cause. I'm planning on making a portable that doesn't include the disc drive, so if it's an issue with the drive I'll just be tossing it out anyways.

Most of why I ask is that I don't see the point in buying one that's entirely in order just throw out working parts, yknow? Seems wasteful to me.

 

[Foxeater]

I'll look into it, thank you. I did go ahead and buy one with the busted up drive (it was 17$, what do I have to lose), so I'll get to look at it soon enough. I'll tell you how that goes!

 

[zack]

From my experience, 9/10 gamecubes on eBay that are listed as broken are disc read errors or broken lid mechanisms. I got a lot of 10 gamecubes for $70 that were listed as broken and they were all disc read errors with perfectly functional motherboards.