Seems the purchase I made for a MacBook Pro hailed from a lot put out by Apple who later acknowledged had a known issue. I am unsure what the exact issue is technically, but what I have noticed is that it starts up when hard wired plugged in. when not there is about a 3 out of 10 chance it starts up fine...the other 7/10 times it has this blinking folder with a question mark.

Apple's free service program to fix the issue had ended by the time I had purchased and became aware.

If you know how to fix it, this might be a worthwhile purchase.