ebay

Any one notice how many lenovo products are on ebay. I was so happy when I seen al the good deals on all models of lenovo laptops, but then I see there were 7 thousand of them. I looked at 20 or so, and honestly finding a good deal even with all those cheap laptops kinda makes me sick. Since you can get alot of the X series/W series/T series and older models for decent prices in the outlet, the prices on ebay are even lower and it starts to feel like there not laptops any more but cheap play toys or something. Does any one know how I feel from my description?

Has any one got a good deal on an lenovo off ebay?

 

Gotten good deals on an Ultrabase and unoriginal HDD-bay.

 

I bought only parts. $25 for 2GB RAM from Lenovo Turkey, and $100 for the Ultrabase. They all came really brand new unpacked. Yep, I've seen plenty of cheap HD bays too.

 

lenovo is used a lot by businesses, these are laptops coming off their 3~ year leases. so yes, you will find a lot of business laptops on ebay. try finding ones from this year though....and it will be much harder. I recently got an x60+ultrabay+8cell battery off ebay for 200 dollars shipped.

 

200 dollars shipped is not bad... i got mine X61s from a friend with ultrabase + dvd combo and 6 months warranty for 270 USD equivalent (i think the company that he bought it from was charging 250 USD per machine and in bulk of 50 machines +). The laptop has already gone back to depot to get the LCD exchanged.

 

Ah X60 is an older version of X200 with a square screen?

 

X61 (same as the X60) versus X200

 

I just bought a wireless card on ebay for my x100e to help with the so-so wireless. I don't know why some random person has dozens of Lenovo branded Intel Wireless Chips, but hopefully it works out.

 

lol..... I love my x200 tho. I just peaked and yeah X60 is really cheap on ebay. And a pretty decent machine....

Btw, x201tablet is now $1300 on Lenovo website. It used to be $1600 or so. I am mentioning it because X61 tablet is around $1k on eBay, which is a ripoff in comparison.

 

I could get a x61t for 500 dollars, 1000 dollars are excessive for a second hand machine. You can get a brand new example at that price including the sxga+ lcd and wwan.

 

When alienware started making laptops with dedicated GPU's, they were expensive. I bought one from ebay for 2300 dollars.

Sifting through all them lenovo laptops though, all 7k of them would take literaly weeks lol.

 

I bought most of my laptops from eBay, usually you get much more for your money from a used/refurbed machine than buying brand new - well at least here in the UK anyway. If we get new prices similar to the US then there wouldn't be any need for eBay! But if you know what you're looking for then you can grab a bargain.

Like most things its all about the depreciation, notebooks tend to depreciate very heavily within the first year of ownership - expect a whack of 30-40% of the original retail price. While bad news for the original owner, it means bargains to be had on the second hand market. My T61 costed me just £250 when I bought it and I thought that was a steal, but then I bought a 3 month old R400 with 3 years warranty for only £200 which is the best one yet for me.

Of course there are some who really try to recoup their money back and sell some old ThinkPads at ridiculous prices which just won't sell unless you're the poor soul who haven't done their homework and bought it on the whim! For example a T400 for £1,200+ (~$1931) excluding postage! I rather buy a T410 brand new for that money instead, or an X series tablet.

 

Some of the stuffs on ebay are not very cheap, and some of them can contain certain faults that do not come up till some times later or when you open up the laptop for some servicing.

My friend bought a T61 recently from an ebay guy and when he opened up the laptop there was noticeable corrosion on the laptop motherboard. Basically the seller spilled some soft drink on the laptop keyboard and it seeped onto the motherboard, and he then tried to sell it off as a working machine.

 

There are good and bad deals on ebay. Many laptop models, especially if youre from USA, cost far less in US online stores than in Ebay.
Ebay sellers often ripp people off with higher than average prices in certain cases.
In other cases prices are far lover than those from other online resellers.
It depends.

 

Basically i wouldn't buy any second hand Thinkpad laptops over the net, unless it is from a reputable dealer or a product that i can fully inspect before i hand over the cash.

 

I would probably buy only something that is either a steal, x200 for 300 bucks shipped for example
Or something that is no more than 200$ shipped.
Other than that its not worth to take risks and buy used if you cant be 99% sure about items description and how it was handled, IMO.

 

well only buy it now prices, but those don't sell. they get relisted until the seller gets the point..

you see this all the time, everyone thinks their old stuff is gold.

 

It's not only that. The buyers often lack basic intelligence. For example, I was buying Logitech web cam the other day - new one cost $60, and you could find Buy It now offers for around $45-50. Then I start bidding on 1 that was offered for $10 initially (used). I was surprised the winning bid was $55. I mean really.... you really have to be complete retard to buy a used one for $55 when the new one is $60 from newegg shipped AND when there are others for ~$45 that you can directly buy. I bought the new one next day for $30.

 

Given that a person paid 400 dollars for an empty PSP box (which clearly stated that it was just an empty box in the description), anything can happen.

 

Sounds like elitism, to which I am also not immune, but we're talking laptops here, not something that's actually rare and has the ability to hold its value over time.

I got my T500 on eBay, brand new with a three-year warranty in January 2009 for well under $1000. It was easily going for $1300-1400 from authorized Lenovo resellers at the time.

 

It seems people give things away on Ebay.

I have no idea how they can sell things for 90% less than other places.

 

eBay can definitely be a good place to find some great deals, and also can be a easy way to get burned. One of my best deals was from a couple of weeks ago-a computer liquidator was selling a Thinkpad T60p 8744-C9U (15.4" WSXGA+, T7200, BT, FPR, 802.11n, etc) because the latch on the battery was broken and he claimed he couldn't remove it-and the battery wouldn't charge-but the laptop would boot to the BIOS screen. So I took a chance and made him a best offer of $150 and he accepted.

When it arrived I was stunned-the laptop was immaculate. Within 5 seconds I had the battery removed, put in a spare hard drive and another battery, and installed Windows 7-the machine worked perfectly. Well, the cooling fan was making some noise so I disassembled it, cleaned it, and added a drop of machine oil to the bearing and it was as good as new.

I paid almost $2300 for this exact same model when they were released in 2007, so to get one for $150 was a great deal. Someone asked me if I had a laptop for sale two days later, and I sold it to them for a fair price but made a very nice and quick profit on the machine and they are very happy with it.

 

I'm a fan of Ebay, but one always has to proceed with caution and common sense. I got the W500 in my signature from Ebay for $600 shipped, including the ultrabase(not including the SSD and ultrabase HD). It was in perfect condition, and is still under the original warranty until 2013. I believe it's one of the last W500s built since it has a build date of 4/2010. What I always do when making a larger purchase from Ebay is to read all the negative and neutral feedback. Those can tell you a lot about the seller. I also ask the seller as many questions about the item as possible. How the seller responds back to me also tells me a lot about how he/she handles things and their overall customer service. I also have the seller send me pictures of the item if the pics posted don't give me the warm and fuzzy. Lastly, I always put the id of the seller into a Google search and see what comes up. Most of the folks use the same id on other sites. I've found that many sellers on Ebay are sellers here as well. One can be surprised what comes up in Google. I bailed on bidding on one item when I found that an Ebay seller was trying to rip folks off on another website.

So, yes, deals can be found on Ebay, but if one does the correct research, one can also greatly reduce bidding on something they will regret owning later.

 

That is a very useful info, dlai. I usually forget to do all that and want to bid as fast as possible as I get worried someone else getting it first.

 

I bought my T400 which was brand new and still sealed in the box off ebay just after the T410 came out for less than half price - so it was a great deal.

I also bought a X201 off ebay that was supposed to be brand new but arrived used and without an operating system -so I got my money back on that one. I think there are some great buys on ebay - but you do have to be careful.

Frankly I use ebay as I can't afford to buy new from Lenovo in the UK as their prices have just been going up and up and there's no outlet shop here.

New old stock can be very good to buy on ebay - I just wish I had a way to buy this kind of product from Lenovo directly. But you have to have good luck with the sellers you choose to deal with. I just asked about another X201 today that someone is listing as Brand new in Box - but apparently it is without an operating system and I didn't think Lenovo shipped them without operating systems.

 

Easily, they are used. It is like the old adage about used cars, cars lose their value so quick because the buyer has no ability to verify he isn't getting a lemon, sure you can do some superficial checks but who knows how it was driven, you only got the sellers word for it. So all used cars are assumed lemons, with that risk comes the low price. Every year that goes by makes an old laptop even more obsolete, they are hard to repair, and expensive to repair and their daily use can be abusive, they are subjected to loads of movement a desktop never has to deal with. A replacement lcd for an x60 is 100 dollars for instance, that is ~1/2 the price of buying a new one. Even relatively new laptops break on people all the time, so the risk is actually kinda high. If laptops were built so solid that most survived for many many years it would be a different question. But the reality is that they are only really meant to last a few years for most people and are not made to be easily servicable.

Plus, things like batteries make up a high % of the cost of a low priced device, which detracts even more from the value.

And of course theres the popularity of netbooks and the like that will only kick the prices even lower. It is becoming less important as more people get smart phones as well. and of course there is the mac book air... makes any of lenovos laptops look bloated....

 

Great advice dlai, exactly how I go about it.

"and of course there is the mac book air... makes any of lenovos laptops look bloated...."... The Air looks like a expensive, useless toy to me... a very neat impractical toy though (^_^).

 

did anyone get ultrabase for your x series on ebay? i'm looking for one and it doesnt seem much cheaper than the pricing I get ($175+tax on lenovo.com)
thanks

 

eBay is kind of a gamble. There are some good deals on there if you look hard enough, and I consider myself to have been fairly lucky regarding that. My T500 and T400 were eBay purchases; the T400 was $600 in Febuary and the T500 was $500 a little under two weeks ago.

However, you get people selling models with equivalent specs for absurd prices; charging more than brand new T410/T510 builds for a T400/T500 on eBay is simply ridiculous. These sellers usually advertise that they're factory sealed machines, but does an older model NIB really command a higher price than a current model NIB, shipped from Lenovo?

For example, I just found a T500(2055-5TU) on eBay, from a US seller, for the low, low price of $1,875. That one has a T9400, 2GB RAM, HD3650, WXGA+ LCD, Bluetooth, FP reader, and webcam.

In comparison, you can currently configure an Optimus T510 with an i7, FHD display, Win7 Ultimate, and all the goodies except 8GB RAM and an SSD for about the same price(and being a little conservative on the build could get you an SSD within that budget, too).

So, you can find good deals if you know where to look, but you can also find ripoff artists. Being prudent and looking for a good deal can net you a good deal.

 

Well it is self correcting behavior, either they learn their lesson or they get lucky and bag a sucker which is good for them. So I wouldn't worry about it even if it fustrates you as a buyer. People get attached to the price they paid for the device and what they percieve as the value rather than its actual value.

 

Ibm X60 - Worth Monkey
new tool for finding prices lol, so far it seems pretty close.

the t500 Lenovo T500 - Worth Monkey is about $432

Lenovo X6 UltraBase - Worth Monkey
about 40 dollars,but i guess u just have to wait till some appear.

 

i just got a X200 Ultrabase for $60 USD (second hand).... which is a pretty good price. X6 Ultrabase is about 30 USD if you buy them in bulk from second hand computers liquidator.

 

wow! how can you get a $60 second hand... the cheapest I saw now is $90 + shipping. Hmm But what do you guys think about the ultrabase that is used? is it reliable? Normally the ultrabase comes in 3 years warranty if new - so they never say when it is expired on ebay. Do you guys know how long ago did the x200 get out in the market? ebay used items normally don't come with security keys also... i'm really reserved about buying used item right now...
thanks

 

I bought a used X200 ultrabase over the summer on ebay for something like US$45. It came with manual, and both keys. The dock looks brand new, there is physically no sign of use. I was surprised and relieved.

 

I managed to get an X6 Ultrabase about a year ago for around $50 or so. However, if I could get that kind of deal on an X200 Ultrabase I'd jump on it right away.

And, are you asking when the X200 was first released? I'm pretty sure it came out around July/August of 2008.

 

$60 is a great price, if it's in a decent shape. I got a new one for $100. But I didn't really spend that much time looking...

 

Yeah. I'm looking for x200 ultrabase for my x201 and it's not under $100 right now
well, i got one for $80+shipping. no key though. i just need it to house another drive given my small 128Gb ssd

 

it is quite hard to find a X200 Ultrabase, but i managed to locate one. I am most interested in the displayport and ultrabay slim, so as long these works, then it should be okay.

 

I see. Well, we'll see how my $80 ultrabase look
Also, when you guys buy the SATA slim for the second hdd, do you guys get in ebay too? there are so many kinds and all from China. Any reliable seller?

 

i have a ultrabay slim caddy for the T6x machines, but not the T400 and later machines. These X series Ultrabase should be fairly reliable, and since most of them are desk bound and used by mostly executives, then they are usually fairly well taken care of.

 

I bought a T43 1.8ghz (intel graphics) for 326 shipped back in December 2008, it arrived in perfect condition and still works perfectly! I've been thinking about upgrading, but at the same time I love this machine. It's a billion times better than the HP Zt1260 i had previously which completely turned into a shoddy pos.

 

The T43 and T43p are wonderfully great machine. It's hard to give it up if you're lucky enough to own one.