I was wanting to know how hard it is to replace a receiver? I see that there are several receivers on Ebay for sale that do not have the smartcards with them. I will just be changing the receiver so what is the procedure for getting the new receiver to recognize the smartcard? Do I have to call Dish to have this done? What if this is a receiver that has not fulfilled the initial contract and the person just wants to make some money? Can they track a receiver without the card...? Just trying to cover all the bases here so I do not get burned buying one.

Call Dish for some info. I didn't ask them all these questions, but recently I asked some.

They said if you buy a used receiver and smartcard, the previous bill must be current before they will allow you to set it up as a new owner. I don't believe the previous owner has to be free of yearly commitments, but he does have to tell them he's selling the card to you so they will transfer it. So yes, you do have to call them to switch ownership.

I never asked about getting just a receiver, you may be able to transfer your current card into a new receiver. Of course, if you are adding to instead of replacing your old receiver, you still need a new card. It sounds like they don't track receivers. Since most of them are purchased, they don't actually have a right to do this, they just track programming and bill-paying, which is all related to the smartcard.