If your wrist aches by Thursday afternoon, the MX Ergo is the trackball people quietly switch to and never switch back from. Your thumb moves the ball; your hand stays still. The clever part is the hinged base that tilts to 20 degrees, so your forearm rolls outward into a handshake position instead of being pinned flat to the desk. It is also one of the best-value second-hand buys in computing, because the thing that wears out on a mouse, the optical sensor reading a ball, barely wears out at all.
The numbers that change the conversation
Top used logitech mx ergos on eBay right now
Here is what Australian sellers have listed today, refreshed live so you can see real prices and conditions rather than a guess.
Listings update automatically and open in a new tab.
Why second-hand is not “second best”
A trackball is an unusual gadget to buy used, and that is exactly why it is a smart one. On a normal mouse, the feet drag across your desk and the sensor sits millimetres above a moving surface, collecting grit. On the MX Ergo, nothing on the unit slides across your desk at all. The 34mm ball lifts straight out, the bearings underneath wipe clean in seconds, and the optical sensor reads the ball from inside a sealed pocket. The parts that age on other pointing devices simply are not exposed here.
The MX Ergo also charges over a Micro-USB cable rather than running on disposable batteries, and the internal cell is rated for months on a single charge. A few hundred charge cycles is nothing for a lithium cell, so a unit that is two or three years old will still hold its charge for weeks. The one genuinely consumable part, the two main click switches, is the same part used across Logitech’s range and is cheap and well documented to replace if it ever double-clicks. You are buying solid aluminium-plated steel in the base and a sensor that was over-built on day one.
The MX Ergo is one of the few peripherals where “lightly used” and “as new” feel identical in the hand, because nothing that matters ever touches the desk.
The savings are real
The MX Ergo sits at the premium end when new, and that premium is the first thing to evaporate on the used market. Because so many were bought by offices and remote workers who later moved roles or went back to a flat mouse, supply in Australia is healthy and prices are soft. The usual 20 to 60 percent discount applies, and at the deeper end of that range you can land a fully working MX Ergo for the price of a basic wired mouse. Buy a spare ball or a clip-on Unifying receiver from the savings and you still come out well ahead.
New vs used, side by side
| Brand new | Used / refurbished | |
|---|---|---|
| Price in AUD | Full premium | 20-60% less |
| Sensor & ball wear | None | Effectively none, sealed design |
| Tilt hinge & base | Factory fresh | Steel hinge, ages slowly |
| Battery | 100% health | Still weeks per charge |
| Receiver included | Always | Check, Bluetooth works either way |
| Carbon footprint | Full manufacturing CO2 | Already paid, reused |
The five-minute checklist before you pay
- Roll the ball in every direction. Ask the seller to confirm the cursor tracks smoothly with no skips or dead spots, which would point to dirty bearings (cleanable) or a rare sensor fault (not).
- Test both tilt positions. The base should lock firmly at flat and at 20 degrees with no wobble; the magnetic hinge plate should be present and not bent.
- Click test the buttons. Left and right click, the precision-mode button behind the wheel, the two thumb buttons, and the scroll wheel tilt left and right. A double-click on a single press means a worn switch.
- Confirm charging. It uses Micro-USB. Make sure it powers on, charges, and the status light behaves normally.
- Ask which model. The original MX Ergo and the later MX Ergo S differ mainly in quieter clicks and a small button tweak. Either is fine; just know which you are paying for.
- Check the receiver. It should come with a Logitech Unifying or Bolt receiver, but it also pairs over Bluetooth, so a missing dongle is a price point, not a dealbreaker.
You have more protection than you think
Buying from an Australian business seller, even a refurbisher rather than a big retailer, brings the Australian Consumer Law with it. The automatic consumer guarantees mean the trackball must be of acceptable quality and do what a trackball is reasonably expected to do, and those guarantees cannot be signed away by an “as is” note in the listing. If a used MX Ergo arrives with a dead sensor or a battery that will not hold charge, you have a clear right to a repair, replacement or refund. Private sales carry fewer guarantees, so for peace of mind a registered business seller is worth a slight premium.
Ready to find yours?
Compare current listings and pricing from trusted sellers below.
Red flags to walk away from
- “Sensor sometimes stutters” or stated tracking issues. Unlike a dirty ball, a genuine sensor fault is not a five-minute fix.
- No photo of the underside. You want to see the ball removed and the bearings and sensor pocket clean and corrosion-free.
- A swollen or bulging shell near the base. That suggests a failing internal battery, which is a safety issue, not a bargain.
- Cracked or seized tilt hinge. If the base will not move between its two angles, the headline ergonomic feature is gone.
- Heavily yellowed or sticky soft-touch coating. Cosmetic, but it signals hard, hot, neglected use and possibly a tired battery underneath.
Frequently asked questions
Will a used MX Ergo work with my Mac and Windows machine? Yes. It connects by Bluetooth or the bundled receiver to both, and Logitech’s Options or Options+ software for button mapping runs on macOS and Windows alike.
Can I just buy a new ball if the old one is scuffed? You can. The 34mm ball is a standard replaceable part and inexpensive, and a fresh one makes a years-old unit roll like new. A light scuff usually polishes out anyway.
Is the thumb-operated ball hard to get used to? Most people adapt within a day or two. Because your hand never moves, it is generally easier on the wrist than a normal mouse, which is the whole reason people seek one out.
What if the battery is worn out? It still works plugged in via the charging cable, and the cell is replaceable for the determined. In practice, a used unit usually still runs for weeks per charge.
The bottom line
The MX Ergo is built around parts that do not wear the way a normal mouse does, which makes a used one a rare case of paying far less for something that feels no different in daily use. You save 20 to 60 percent in AUD, you keep a perfectly good device out of Australia’s 588,000-tonne annual e-waste pile, and you sidestep most of the manufacturing carbon that dominates any gadget’s footprint. Run the five-minute checklist, favour a business seller so the consumer guarantees apply, and you have a wrist-friendly trackball that should serve you for years.
This article may contain affiliate links; see our Affiliate Disclosure.