Buying Used Laptops.

[Celdwist]

Hello, I was asking the community if buying Laptops used, or with parts missing (to use your own parts) have gone well or bad with anyone. With some advice, because I saw a listing on Ebay for an old Lenovo Thinkpad x220 with no RAM or HDD, used..

I'm just wondering if anyone had any situations similar to this and had a bad experiences with it if you recommend it?

Thanks!

 

[Seoulja615]

Stay away from those on craislist. Ebay is little more safer since the seller will refund or ebay/paypal will step in. Personally, I would get a perfectly working laptop.

 

[10tacle]

I've never bought a used PC/laptop from on individual, but I have bought refurbished ones from a reputable dealer that allows a 30-to-90 day return policy (NewEgg for an E-tailer, Fry's Electronics & Micro Center from a brick retail store). They have worked out great for the price and I'm still using all of them (2 desktops, one laptop) for general abuse use (one for the garage, one for the kitchen, one for the bonus room for visiting kid relatives).

Depending on the deal they are asking for, I would recommend you find a refurbished one from a reputable source that is ready to go (including having a valid copy of Windows...remember that costs ~$100 to buy).

 

[Celdwist]

I see. Thanks so far you both. They are asking around $96 which is not too bad, I already have the missing parts.

 

[Seoulja615]

I don't see why not. Make sure the seller has 14days or 30days return policy

 

[10tacle]

I see. Thanks so far you both. They are asking around $96 which is not too bad, I already have the missing parts.

Well if you have DDR3 laptop memory laying around, there's no guarantee it will work with that laptop. And even if you had a 2.5" laptop HDD laying around, you'll still need to buy an OEM copy of Windows unless you have a retail copy which can be transferred to another computer. I'd rather trust from a reputable refurb source and save the headache. Plus you never know how that laptop was treated. It may crap out on you in a week.

At least with a refurb you know it's been cleaned, tested, and somewhat taken care of in ownership since most are bought from businesses when they do mass upgrade migrations (been involved with that personally). You won't save much money if at all. Plus at least you get *some* sort of return policy if something goes wrong in the first 30-90 days (depending on refurb vendor).

 

[Celdwist]

I understand. Though they should work, I have an Acer laptop from 2011-2012, same years as the Lenovo one, and I had no compatibly issues when installing new ram and SSD. I have seen other online upgrading the same Laptop in this Forum

 

[10tacle]

Well, give it a shot. Worst case you are out $96.

 

[Celdwist]

Ya... Well $104 to be exact 😀. They aren't including the AC Adapter so I had to find a one. $8.00

 

[thor220]

Refurbished is usually better.

 

[mcnumpty23]

i used to buy lots of ibm/lenovo ones from ebay either with parts missing or sold as faulty and sort them and resell on ebay

used to be quite profitable--but nowadays new laptops are so cheap it isnt worth my bother doing it

 

[Celdwist]

mm hmm. Well a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad X220 goes around $150-$200 range. So I'd be saving around 50 to 100 dollars. The seller does accept returns.
If it were to not do the designed tasks, and the seller did not mention any other defects in the description, it is a guarantee return correct?

 

[mcnumpty23]

mm hmm. Well a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad X220 goes around $150-$200 range. So I'd be saving around 50 to 100 dollars. The seller does accept returns.
If it were to not do the designed tasks, and the seller did not mention any other defects in the description, it is a guarantee return correct?

is the seller listing them as faulty?

or as have been tested then hard drive and ram removed?

 

[Celdwist]

Well, all there is in the description is that HDD, RAM missing, and some wear, like cracked bezel on the corner and some rubber mounts missing. I have contacted him and he sent back to me that it does in power on. Again I asked him if any other parts were faulty, but came back with, if I replace the parts it will work.

 

[10tacle]

used to be quite profitable--but nowadays new laptops are so cheap it isnt worth my bother doing it

Yep...not to mention you can get a 14" C2D Lenovo ready to go for $175 refurbished or an i5 one for $250 with a licensed copy of Windows. I upgraded my nearly 4-year old 17" 900p $400 2.3GHz i3/4GB/500GB HP Pavilion G7 with a 3.2GHz i5 (2520M), 8GB, and a 1TB drive for a net of $150 after selling the single 4GB stick for $30.

Even with that upgrade, which is a nice improvement, I could never sell it for more than $300 or so right now. So it would still be a $150 loss and I'd have had to bought the original laptop for $250 just to break even.

 

[mcnumpty23]

yeah power on isnt the same as work properly

though ebay 9 times out of 10 will side with the buyer anyway if you said it wasnt as described

 

[Celdwist]

Ya....... 🙁. That too. I COMPLETELY understand. Though I never had an issue where I had to return an item.

 

[mcnumpty23]

used to be quite profitable--but nowadays new laptops are so cheap it isnt worth my bother doing it

Yep...not to mention you can get a 14" C2D Lenovo ready to go for $175 refurbished or an i5 one for $250 with a licensed copy of Windows. I upgraded my nearly 4-year old 17" 900p $400 2.3GHz i3/4GB/500GB HP Pavilion G7 with a 3.2GHz i5 (2520M), 8GB, and a 1TB drive for a net of $150 after selling the single 4GB stick for $30.

Even with that upgrade, which is a nice improvement, I could never sell it for more than $300 or so right now. So it would still be a $150 loss and I'd have had to bought the original laptop for $250 just to break even.

yeah theres just no money to be made in it now--same with laptop drives i used to bulk buy them from a pc shop when people upgraded to bigger drives the pc shop guy just put their old drives in a box i used to buy 100 at a time from him dirt cheap test them with the manufacturers diagnostic tool then sell them on ebay as well but drives are so cheap now as well--need to think of something new i can turn a good profit from on ebay lol

 

[mcnumpty23]

Ya....... 🙁. That too. I COMPLETELY understand. Though I never had an issue where I had to return an item.

oh believe me i have been forced to issue refunds by ebay on perfectly working items where the buyer either didnt know what they were doing and when i got the item back and tested it there was no issue at all with it

or the buyer broke it trying to install/repair it and i still got stuffed by ebay

 

[Celdwist]

Huh, bad experiences? Just some people don't know what their doing.