If you choose to sell your laptop on a site like eBay or any other online site, or through your local newspaper or notice board, or in fact anywhere you advertise your laptop, there are some important points to consider.
1. Advertising your laptop
When advertising your laptop it is important that you accurately describe the specifications, the condition and any additional features or selling points the laptop may have. If you try to hide information or forget to mention something important then this will only lead to disappointment and frustration for both you and any potential buyers.
The last things you need to encourage are disputes and a demand for a refund. It could also cause you to have negative feedback if you are selling your laptop on line and jeopardise any chance of you selling future items.
Also make sure you mention any additional features such as speakers, webcam etc. that are included in the sale and what software is on the computer, what licences there are and if any updates are required. Is it boxed? If so, mention that.
2 .Wiping your data
Before you sell your computer to anyone, even if the buyer is a friend, make sure you have wiped all personal data, surfing history, emails and address books, etc. You will have no way of knowing who will have access to the laptop once you have sold it and what they may or may not do with any personal information they come across. There are a number of software programmes available that will wipe your data for you or you can ask a reliable expert to do it for you.
3. Cleaning your laptop
Keyboards and screens can get quite grubby with a lot of use so make sure that there are no fingerprints and stains on it or any crumbs or other bits and pieces lodged between the keys. A gleaming laptop is a lot more likely to please a buyer at first glance than one with sticky keys and a dusty display.
4. Setting the price
Take a look around and see what other second hand laptops like yours are going for and base your price on that. Take into consideration the condition of yours, how dated it is and what additional features it has. Even if your laptop is in pristine condition don’t expect to get what you paid for it, laptops are a bit like cars, as soon as you take them home and try them out they are no longer worth what they were on display.
5. Payment
Be careful when accepting payment as there are many ways of being ripped off. If you are selling through a site like eBay then as long as you follow the guidelines for trading on eBay and you don’t make arrangements to accept payment outside of eBay then you have some protection.
It’s advisable to wait until any payment is cleared before handing over the laptop as even though it can appear that the item has been paid for the transaction can still be cancelled. If selling locally, the same rules apply. Accept cash only or wait until any cheques have cleared or you could be saying goodbye to your laptop and any cash you expected to receive forever.
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