Buying a used laptop can be a real minefield. There are plenty of great laptops being sold off by their old users for any number of reasons. Maybe they upgraded to something a little shinier, maybe the laptop was inherited and not really needed, or maybe they just decided that they didn’t really need it once they got their hands on a good, powerful desktop.
So yeah, there are some great deals to be had when it comes to second hand laptops, but it’s a lot easier to get ripped off than it is to find one of these great deals. Maybe somebody’s selling their laptop simply because it’s a piece of junk, and they’ll take any price they can get for it.
So before you get lured into buying a piece of junk just because of the low price, here are a few rules to shop by…
UPGRADES!
The very best way to score a great deal on a laptop is to buy an underpowered, older laptop, something a little outdated, and then upgrade it into a rig as capable as anything on the market.
The basic idea is that, while a top of the line, new laptop may cost you a couple thousand dollars, an older one will cost you maybe five hundred. Now, if you just go pick out all the parts you need, an NVIDIA card, some extra RAM, etcetera, you might only spend a couple hundred bucks on that, and wind up with a two thousand dollar computer for a fraction of the price.
TRUST YOUR SOURCE
When buying a used laptop, you should only trust a few different sources. First, you can of course trust most of your friends and family who simply just got a new rig and are looking to sell their old one. Or, you can buy through a trusted source such as a well known electronics or auction website.
You don’t want to buy from anyone you can’t hold accountable. It’s easy for someone to pawn off a really junky computer, something that doesn’t even work, possibly, on somebody else who’s just very eager to get a good laptop for cheap. Simply put, you don’t want to buy from some guy you met on a message board!
KNOW WHAT YOU WANT
The only way to know if you’re getting a good deal is, simply, to know what you want. This way, you can check the specs on a rig and know for sure whether or not you’re getting what you’re after. Remember, it’s not just about getting a good deal, it’s about getting a good deal for what you want.
