Would you consider/recomend buying a second hand laptop? [closed]

Question

I'm looking for a basic laptop (to run Word and browse the net), should I consider buying a second hand laptop? It seems like it would be a risky endeavor, does anyone have any experience with buying second hand computers?

Answer 1

For what you're saying you'd use it for and what you'd still have to pay to get anything worthwhile, you'll likely do just as well with a new netbook.

I run the IT department at a small college. We buy nearly all of our desktop computers (around 200) used (or rather, off-lease). But I tend to avoid used laptops, because they just take too much wear, which reduces their lifespan in the first place, and are harder to repair when (not if) they break.

Answer 2

At least where I live, laptops are a prime target for theft. That means that if you buy one "used" off of craigslist or from some other source where you can't be sure of the owner's identity, you don't have any good way of identifying the seller to the police if the device turns out to be stolen.

If you can get the seller's name and phone number and confirm that they match, that's a good sign that it's probably not stolen.

Answer 3

I'd never buy a second-hand laptop. Short lifespans are the nature of the beast, and it's really impossible to know how much wear and tear a machine has had...Even if it looks good, it may have been bounced around a lot in the bag, and that can shorten the lifespan of a number of components.

With a desktop, I might take the chance, but even there you can run into silly proprietary parts that are prohibitively expensive to replace (I once got a "free" computer with a nice 3ghz processor...and 256 megs of RAMBUS RAM...To increase the ram up to a usable quantity would have cost more than a new computer, due to the massive price point on RAMBUS).

Answer 4

I bought a used laptop from my workplace, and it was fine. Of course, I had been using it for a couple of years before they surplussed it. But for $25, how could I go wrong?

Answer 5

Depends on a few things for me:

• Is the price justified by the equipment? (price should be deducted since 1 - it is used, and 2 - could be older hardware)
• Can you find out what was wrong with it? if not, back up everything. All computer users should do this regardless, but be extra cautious.
• Is it visibly damaged?
• Is there dead pixels?

besides that and a few other things that don't come to mind right now, for simply browsing the net and typing documents, used is a good solution. But for tasks like these, you might want to look at netbooks as well.

Answer 6

I did once. Had enough problems with it (too many to list here) that I'd never do it again, nor would I ever recommend anyone buying a used laptop.

Answer 7

It very much depends on value. A brand-new laptop can cost $500. Therefore I would not pay more than $200 for a used one with no warranty.

What I did was buy a netbook (ASUS Eee PC 1000HA) for 300, using my Amex to double the warranty.