Sager Re-Sale Value

As we all know, resale values for any computer is frankly quiet crappy.

Just wondering though, if anyone has estimates or actually has sold an older sager model...

1- What is the ease of selling a sager laptop (with not many people hearing of this brand before) and through which venue to sell (easiest way find the most customers, as used computers are no where close as easy as selling used cars for example) ?

2- What estimate re-sale value would you guys put on a 8150 speced out to be around $2300-2400 say in 3-4 years from now?


Just part of my deciding factors before I spend a fortune on this laptop....

Comments and thoughts appreciated..

 

I can't comment on actual resale value, but I can point you to the NBR marketplace. A lot of people sell Sagers here because people have heard of the brand and trust it. If I were to sell mine, that's where I'd put it.

 

Even though Sager is not as widely known as let's say Dell or HP, it is good to know that on Ebay and on the market place here on the forum they do sale well at a decent price.

This has been the case for several years now...
_

 

Considering that these laptops have cutting-edge graphics cards, the price will drop dramatically within a year or two when cheaper, better cards come out. An NP8690 with an ATI 5870 was around $1500. You can get a laptop with a GTX 560 for around $1200 now.

 

I did quite a bit of research before ordering a NP8170. As a company, Sager has lower resale value than Alienware. This is mostly due it is a less know brand. Also, people who interested in Sager are performance/vaule driven, unlike Sony & Apple shopper.

However, there are options you can take to secure better resale vaule. For example, Sager offer cheap extend warranty $149 for 3 years on NP8170. Same warranty from Alienware cost $300+. I would definately pay more for a two years old Sager with 1 year warranty left than an equivalent Alienware with expired warranty.

For those performance laptops... the possibility something fail after 1~2 years quadruples

 

Thanks everyone

 

In 3-4 years, you'll be lucky to get $400.

 

What about in a year?

 

True of any laptop, unfortunately.

 

yeah but in 3-4 years a midrange laptop would be 100-200usd, and thats if you find someone who even wants it.

 

From personal experience you won't get much from any laptop that's out of warranty. Most retailers can credit in the trade towards a new purchase and even at that retailers will buy it at the low end to resell it to make some kind of profit on it. The market for used (2-3+ years) notebooks is a tough business.

 

Credit in the trade NovaH? I had asked about this before, but they claimed they'd never re-buy it, because they would not sell it to someone else at all. I think my machine is a bit more timeless (since it's the D900F, the only downside is the GPU options for it; the CPU is still strong etc), but I was of the opinion I absolutely had to make a personal sale.

 

What i mean D2 is this:

If you were to bring us model XXXXX Sager notebook we'd have a look at it and offer you $X00 off your new purchase.

The thing is it's a case by case basis we'd have to look at if it's under warranty, cleanliness, model #, etc.
I couldn't tell you over the phone that you'll get $200 credit for it, we need to see it.

Also keep in mind that this is maybe not the best route to go for the client all the time as we have to resell that used notebook. Yes you'll get more for it on Ebay, but if that fails we'll have a look at yours and decide from that point on.

 

Okay. Mine's still under labour warranty, but that's all, sadly. Everything's fine though, the battery doesn't last long AT ALL, but that's a bit of a moot point since a new battery will only last 50 minutes anyway.
But thanks for telling me about that; who knows, I might make a trip to the US just to do such a thing. I really, really hate living outside of the US in this technologically backwards country and being a techie... it's hard for resales and even harder for warranties/replacement parts. And don't get me started on modding.

 

Parting it out would get you more money than selling it whole.

Put the GPUs on eBay.

 

Heh. If I parted it out, everything would have to go on ebay.

What about the shell? If I sell the RAM set (would work with the x7200s I believe) and the CPU and the GPU, what else could I effectively sell?

 

You could theoretically sell everything except the case (RAM/CPU/GPU/Power brick/screen/fans/motherboard/etc). There are always those out there that can make use of the parts as replacements or upgrades for their own machines. The shell itself would be hard to sell because unless someone physically damages theirs, they have no reason to need a new one.

 

I think the re-sale value depends on:
The original sale price and the 'performance/value' when you bought it - IF you pay a 'premium' for a top of the line gaming laptop, you should EXPECT TO GET BURNED when you re-sell it. A $2500 laptop today is worth about $1000-1200 next year (retains 40-50% of value) and even less when your warranty expires (25% value in year 2); however, if you buy a 'performance/value' model (like the $1200 Clevo P151HM1 with a 560m), it will retain a higher percentage of value (probably 60% value).
The ability to play 1-2yr old games at the time of re-sale - I bought my 260m to play the 'backlog' of computer games from my last year in college (Fallout3, Dragon Age, Black Ops), and it played them well. As long as it can still play 1yr old games flawlessly, you should be good unless....
Power/capability of purchasing new - If the Ivy Bridge/Nvidia 660m of 2012 is 50% more powerful than a 485M/580M this year (at a $1500 price point), expect to lose more value.
Condition of the equipment - always keep your stuff in MINT condition, with original boxes, manuals, CDs, etc. My G72 is 'pristine': I dust it daily with a micro-fiber cloth, it doesnt have any scratches, and I disassembled it to apply new thermal paste to the CPU and GPU. People can spot a well maintained product.
Name brand recognition/Target audience - eBay has several 280m SLI Alienware models that didnt sell for $1000. Let's face it, our target audience is GPU 'power hungry' uber-geeks with $2500+ bank rolls FOR A LAPTOP. Do you think we're going to 'step down' to a used 2+yr old gaming laptop? Dump it while it has some performance life left and take your beating, or stick with a performance/value name brand that can retain some value.

2 real world examples here:
1. I bought my Asus G72gx, 2.53Ghz dual-core, 6GB, 260m, 1600x900 in January 2010 for $1000 at best buy.
Now, 18 months later, I fully expect to get between $500-650 on eBay for it (3 sold in the past week)

2. Here's a *BETTER* laptop (a Clevo) with 3GHz, 4GB, 280m with 1920x1200 screen that DIDNT SELL for $650


Of course, all these observations are based on our current technology trends:
Graphics performance increases from Tesla to Fermi were lousy (360m and 480m were crap)
PC games lost their 'technological edge' as developers focused on 'console ports' (cough... Modern Warfare 2, Crysis 2)

Fair warning though, things are about to change... radically:
Xbox 360 and PS3 are showing their age
'multi-core' GPUs are due next year which could re-crown the PC unless.....
Dawn of multi-core tablets - seen the Kal-El 'glowball' demo yet? With more cpu/gpu power than an Xbox 360, the quad-core Kal-El tablet can utilize USB or bluetooth game controllers and output 1080p via HDMI. If you think iPad/Honeycomb game development is miniscule now, give it 18-24 months. I would LOVE to see the old Wing Commander and Dark Forces games get a 'reboot' on a tablet.

 

Well geez. That's a lot of advice. I was hoping to get a lot more for my machine. Mind if I PM you to ask your thoughts on the price? If I do sell it it'll be in a couple months when I have the cash difference for a P170HM3.

 

Check eBay for "280M SLI" in completed auctions... Unless there's some secret secondary market offering top dollar, no one will pay $1000 for a 12+lb beast with 280M SLI when a nice shiny single 560M laptop at 6.5lbs provides the same performance for only $200 more (with a warranty!).

Your CPU, memory and HDD configs are adequate... If NP9280/D900F can accept the 480M/485M (keep an eye out when people dump them for the 580M), it's cheaper to extend the life for another year or two for $600-800 (resell your 280M for parts too) rather than pay $2500 for a new one.... that's my 2 cents.

 

This isn't SLI. This is the D900F, previous iteration of the x7200. This uses the triple channel RAM, exactly like in the x7200, as well as the i7 bloomfield desktop CPUs. In my sig it has an i7-950, as well as the 8x DVD drive, bluetooth, 5300N wifi card, 3.0Megapixel webcam and two 500GB 7200 RPM hard drives, with a 3rd HDD slot open. My only downside is the card, honestly, if Clevo would release a heatsink/BIOS flash for my machine, I could throw a 580M in here and not have to worry about the P170HM. Unfortunately these things aren't gonna happen, though this could take up to a 480M. Soviet Sunrise said it should be able to handle a 460M/470M too, but I'm not sure. I can always ask XoticPC people here though.

 

Oops, I thought I saw SLI in your sig... sorry! Even a 470M or 480M would give you a decent performance boost for about $350 US.

Noticing your location, it will be TOUGH to sell your laptop in Trinidad/Tobago (fewer buyers), and I think US buyers would be reluctant to purchase your laptop from outside the Continental US (plus $100+ shipping fees from the Caribbean). Where would you sell it?

 

Was hoping e-bay or through NBR; I was thinking of the 485M/580M/480M share the same heatsink, there MUST be a heatsink for this machine. Anywhere I could get a modded BIOS to support it? Hehe.

If not, but it *does* support the 470M, it shouldn't be completely ruled out. Plus, it's great with CUDA, people doing video editing/etc and some good gaming should still find use for it, they would not need to buy the x7200 at a higher price point if CUDA support and a great CPU is all they really need. If I can't get it sold for at least a good price (due to shipping + shipping of new laptop) I might keep it as a server-style machine (and backup gaming machine for friends to use if they come over).

 

If you have a Hannstar or B173HW01 LCD, that will get snapped up pretty quickly, in the range of $150 to $200.

Add in $250 for the GPU, $200 for the i7, $200 or so for the RAM and HDDs, and you're looking at a nice return.

 

I don't know what my screen make is. And really? A used i7-950 would only go for $200 USD? Damn...

 

I bought an NP8662 with P9700 (2.8GHz Core 2 Duo), GTX 260m GPU, 4GB DDR2, 500GB HDD (Momentus XT), DVDRW, blah blah blah for about $1500. 18 months later it sold for $500. Granted this was January of this year, 2011, so Sandy Bridge was just coming out.

A top end laptop will hold value decently longer than a lower end one. But even after two years, by that time CPU and GPU's have surpassed it nearly doubling the performance. So it's hard for people to justify the cost when they can buy a new machine for $1000 that performs the same as your two year old machine, and comes with a full manufacturers warranty, and is, well, new.

 

I know, I agree with that logic too, but the only thing "outdated" in this machine are the WiFi card (5300N) and the GPU (280M). I think the x7200 still sells with i7-950's in some places, then 960's, 980's and 990X's. Everything else should be on par with an X7200, which (minimum spec) sells bare for over 2000 =3.
Feels like I should buy used machines instead of new ones if it's that much cheaper.

 

If you think about it though, an updated GPU would probably cost $500-$600 if not more. Plus the fact that it's used is a major turn off for people unless they can save a significant amount of money. Then there's warranty. Even if warranty is cheap, like it is with Sager notebooks ($79 for two years), the fact that there is none at all makes it a hard sell too. At least the user has some recourse if it dies in a couple months. So it's a lot harder to spend $1500 with no warranty, and I don't even think you can warrant a used notebook from any place either.

 

I think that depends more on the brand of notebook. Even a high-end Sager/Clevo will lose its value a lot faster than an Alienware or Apple.

 

Won't squaretrade warrant used items if sold thru ebay?