Honestly its better to get a "remanufactured" device, than a suspect brand new one. Apple doesn't refurbish their phones, they are remanufactured. Basically every phone new, or reman comes off the assembly line. New phones are tested in clusters(If 1 phone passes as good, the next 100 go through as good without actually being tested.) Remanufactured phones are just built with "some" parts that were still good from peoples swapped phones. For example If I swapped out my iphone because I broke the glass, Apple is gonna keep my camera and logic board for remanufacturing, because there is absolutely nothing wrong with those parts(and its good for the environment ) Also remanufacted devices are individually tested twice, before they can be used as service phones i.e Black box genius bar phones or white boxed iPhone 5/ipod touch GB phones.
-Recently retired Apple FRS
-Recently retired Apple FRS