would you buy a laptop from ebay?

[Hisma]

Just curious if it would be foolish to buy a laptop off of ebay.
I'm considering buying one in the $1000 range, & I've seen some incredible deals from resellers with very high customer satisfaction (99%+). Still, making a $1000 purchase towards a used laptop with the possibility of having no warranty makes me a little nervous. On top of that my wife is completely against the idea. However in the end I'm pretty much the one paying for it, so I make the final decision .
Anyways, has anyone here gotten a laptop from ebay? Anyone horror stories with used laptops on ebay? Good experiences? I'm curious for some input.
Thanks!

 

[coolred]

It would be just as foolish as purchasing anything else off ebay. But yet millions of people do it every year/month/day whatever. Many of them are completely satisfied, others get shafted. Do your homework, try to deal with someone that will work with an escrow service or third party person. So that you send money and the seller sends laptop to said peron. That person inspects the laptop to make sure it is exactly as described and then forwards the laptop to you and the money to the seller. What says you have to buy a used one anyway. I mean sure 1000.00 dollars won't get you a top of the line laptop, but you could find a new one for less than that especially on ebay. If your nervous about it, then order from and online retailer, or better yet B&M.


Oh and welcome to the forums.

 

[coolred]

I mean i assume your just looking to get more laptop for your money from ebay, I guess, is that right? Cause you could easily get a nice dell for that 1000.00+ dollars with a warranty and from a reputable place.

With ebay its a crapshoot basically. I am sure many many of the laptops sold there every day are in excellant or at least described condition. But I am also sure that there are several that are sold in much worse condition then described by someone who is scammung people.

 

[Hisma]

I see
I've never heard of an escrow service... that sounds like an interesting scenario, I'll look into it. & I'm not nervous about buying used or refurbished items. I have a refurbished 57" tv & it works great. I've also bought refurbished computer parts & had mixed results. I'd be willing to take a chance on used or refurbished laptops, but only if I knew I wasn't getting a half working part, or something without significant wear & tear.
$1000 isn't chump change for me either, so I just want to make sure I'm getting my money's worth.

 

[Hisma]

Originally posted by: coolred
I mean i assume your just looking to get more laptop for your money from ebay, I guess, is that right? Cause you could easily get a nice dell for that 1000.00+ dollars with a warranty and from a reputable place.

With ebay its a crapshoot basically. I am sure many many of the laptops sold there every day are in excellant or at least described condition. But I am also sure that there are several that are sold in much worse condition then described by someone who is scammung people.

I looked into Dell, & they have decent work laptops for around $1000. But I want a laptop that can I can do a little gaming on as well. I'd say a mobile radeon 9600 or better. I've only seen a couple laptops with 9600 or better for around $1000, except on ebay where I saw as high as geforce 6800 for just around that price. Which is why I'm seroiusly looking into ebay as an option.

 

[Tostada]

Obviously the point in getting a laptop on eBay would be to save money. With places like Dell/Gateway/HP offering laptops close to $1000 with a decent warranty, you have to get a pretty good deal to make eBay worth it.

Originally posted by: Hisma
I looked into Dell, & they have decent work laptops for around $1000. But I want a laptop that can I can do a little gaming on as well. I'd say a mobile radeon 9600 or better. I've only seen a couple laptops with 9600 or better for around $1000, except on ebay where I saw as high as geforce 6800 for just around that price. Which is why I'm seroiusly looking into ebay as an option.

Inspirion 6000 "High End" model, drop down all the options you can, (Pentium M 725, 256MB, 40G, 64MB X300), then you're down to a $1497 base price with a 3-year on-site warranty, and there's a $600 off $1499 coupon, so if you can add $2 of options, you've got a pretty good laptop with dedicated graphics for about $900.

It just depends on how much gaming power you want and how much you can tolerate your laptop being disposable. Nobody on eBay is giving your 3-year on-site.

 

[kitkat22]

I have a dell refurbished and it works great, no complaints. Check out their outlet stuff to see if you like anything of the sort. I got a 6000D with PM 1600 512MB RAM 60GB HD 64MB X300 and DVD-burner for about 900. Hope that helps.

Edit: oh and a two year warrenty

 

[dnuggett]

I have bought 12 or so laptops off Ebay in about a years time. I had a problem with one of them. You can make the transaction almost foolproof if you know how Paypal's system works. PM me if you need more info before the buy.

 

[Hisma]

thanks for the info guys!

 

[coolred]

Have you checked for deals here on the forums? I know there was a guy selling his Emchaines 6810 on here for 800 bucks. I think he sold it already though. Thats was a pretty good deal on a nice machine.

Yeah ehres the link to his thread. I would ahve gotten that if I where you, I actually thought about it myself.

 

[BlackBeardThe3rd]

i wouldnt buy unless they're a verified member. which means they have to submit, name, address, credit card, phone #, and social security number or bank account. also only send the check to the same address as the one verified. that should weed out 99.9% of the scamers.

 

[phaxmohdem]

Yes I just bought my thinkpad off of eBay for $1350. I have been working ebay for many years though. AS long as you know what to look for in a seller you'll be alright. Also one thing about purchasing off of ebay is that some auctions look too god to be true and as the old saying goes they ussually are. Particuarly the sellers that have what looks like a killer deal on hard ware and a saying in the description that says "Contact me and buy it now for $xxx" This ussually = scam. Find a seller that does fairly high volume in sales, over 1000+ feedback is ussually a safe bet. Make sure that that seller has sold several items in the previous weeks, and that positive feedback was left on those transactions.