My girl's sister has a daughter 2 years older than my oldest. She has never passed down any clothing of any sort, until about 2 months ago when she sent a HUGE bag of little underpants. I thought that was kind of weird and we threw the bag right into the trash.
Aside from that, I really don't have an issue with used...especially with kids clothing because they wear shit 2-3 times before they outgrow it. As for electronics, it's usually possible to purchase a third party warranty through a service like
SquareTrade.