Why do people sell unopened laptops?

Just curious, some people sell their brand new, still-sealed-in-plastic laptops. What could be the reasons?

 

To make money. If they cannot return the notebook to the original seller without having to pay the additional restocking fees, it would probably be wortwhile to sell the entire laptop for additonal profiit.

 

But they haven't opened and looked at it yet, after long enough time for returns not to be accepted?

(Can one be sure the "sealed" is genuine, not resealed somehow?)

 

if they got it at a clearance and want to make a small profit they will put it online. another reason may be what scifimike23 already mentioned above.

also if you're like my ex then you may buy it and not open for a while in case a better deal comes along within a week or two.

 

Other legit reasons are:

Show/Conference Promos
Bulk discount
Gift
Freebie (Sometimes given to companies that buy in bulk)
Project(s) that went up in smoke
Need to liquidate inventory ASAP

 

The first reason that comes to mind is to make money.

 

Unless you see one you know is really sealed to compare then I guess you can't be 100% sure.

 

Or...because the stole it.

 

Sometimes they are insurance replacements where the insurance company won`t send the customer cash as they either get a brand new replacement which is identical or a voucher for a leading computer store.

 

Or they found a better laptop at a similar/very slightly lower price...
And then the aforementioned restoking fee makes returning the old one unviable.

 

I sold my first laptop without opening the box. My reason was not because I wanted the money, it was because I had realized that I ordered the wrong config for myself and didn't want to return it and eat the 15% restocking fee. I knew that I would be keeping the laptop I bought for a while so I didn't want to be stuck with a machine that I wasn't 100% happy with and feel sorry.

 

I'm sure there's still the occasional "carder" selling them (I've seen a few on craigslist I'm pretty sure were that way). Carders are people who buy stuff on stolen Credit Card numbers and then resell it for below market value to make cash. There are also plenty of legitimate ways to get a laptop below market value to flip, like there's tons for sale every year after black friday from people who went and bought them just to resell. I'm sure the occasional small computer store/laptop shop puts a few out there "off the record" to sell below MSRP to meet their account quotas and what not without driving their instore price down.

 

Tax -
People are able to buy a new laptop each year and count that as work expenses (which are tax deductable) in some countries / states. They then just sell the unopened laptop for roughly the same as the market price - an instant tax reduction.

 

I think a good percentage of them are "inside job" shenanigans.

 

There is a case here where a member got his laptop damaged by a clueless repairman. The original manufacturer apologized and sent him a brand new laptop. He sold it at eBay to make money.

 

By inside jobs do you mean the company themselves appearing to sell as individuals? I have always been baffled why on EBay say someone has 5 unopened Dell's available. Bulk discount?

 

Open Box are usely demo i seen Most them still have good full warrentys on them

we buy alot open box lenvo they great type this on open box it was simple that open it to show to customers or other way i seen them get alot open box is they order cert config for company then don,nt want them they just sell them off

 

By "inside jobs" I mean that certain shipments made to retailers disappear en route or that items that should be in inventory are no longer found. Many items can sometimes magically appear south of the border where they aren't otherwise obtainable.

But this is just a percentage. I know of someone who received a warranty replacement and simply didn't want it anymore. In that case, they're completely within their rights to do what they want with it.

 

Thanks for all the replies! I see quite some good deals out there but am not sure if the "sealed" is real or not. Also, you can't tell if the box has been carelessly dropped or bumped possibly causing damage. Has anyone here had a bad experience in buying such pc's?

 

If it's a Dell, their warranties are transferable and you can check the status easily enough. I would check with the manufacturer, most give at least a year.

 

You can know easily if its stolen ...........

 

also some dells are from different regions. like i always make my purchases in malaysia because IT equipment is tax free there, and dell always seems to be cheaper there on top of the no tax thingy.

i did consider myself, buying a few units from dell malaysia and selling it to people in europe!

 

My friend brought an Acer 5315-2713 from Tigerdirect for his wife cost $500 and she didn't want it. She rather have a tower so he sold me the laptop for $200.

I added a new hard drive for $100

 

My cousin got 3 laptops (HP DV4) in the Black Friday deals, and earned 200$ bucks on each one of them... People take a risk, jump on a good deal, and then sell it for a lot of profit. Simple as that.

 

True, first thing one should do is register their product or even get the info before hand and contact the original selling company to determine its current status and source/destination.

For Dells, tag #'s and a phone call work (or check online for some preliminary info). For others, serial # and a call works too.

But if a unit comes sealed/new and/or complete, that helps alleviate some of the fears unlike some units that, "Only come with computer and AC Adapter." That always throws up a red flag for me.

I never even thought of the potential year end tax break or need to move excess inventory at or below cost to keep lines open and flowing.

 

Yeah, this time of year a lot of people rack up the Black Friday deals and then sell them for a profit. I know lots of college students that do that.