I swear that I saw laptops like mine selling for several hundred dollars--when I paid $800 a few years ago. I only looked at completed auctions. Maybe I waited too long. When I determined that my Lenovo had a hardware problem and that component was soldered to the motherboard, which would cost me $400 to replace, I started fighting Allstate, who bought Squaretrade, and they eventually agreed to replace the motherboard. Before I sent it in I bought my second Black Friday laptop of the year.
The first was another Lenovo, which also froze randomly, so I returned it.
The HP supposedly cost $400, but I think that I paid an extra $40 for a backlit keyboard and full HD screen.
That backlit keyboard is important to me. I often wake up before my family gets up and they have an odd habit of sleeping in the living room. Also, my brother has an odd habit of turning off my light when I am using my computer.
The thing is that I realized that my $400 laptop was faster than my significantly-older $800 desktop that didn't come with a monitor, mouse, or keyboard, so I have both hooked up to my 43" television.
Like some kind of weirdo I have 2 keyboards and 2 mice.
Neither keyboard is backlit, so I am not benefitting from that $10 investment.
$400 laptop
+40 to upgrade the screen and keyboard (I am not using the screen, either!
)
+96 for an extended warranty, which they initially claimed they would refund if I didn't use, but that disappeared as soon as I clicked on Buy.
+37 tax
+108 for me to upgrade the RAM and SSD myself
= Priceless.
For everything else, there's Mastercard.
My $400 laptop ended up costing $681! Good thing it was on sale!
The buyer paid $531 for my old laptop.
-30 for taxes
-58 for shipping
-67 for their cut (despite originally claiming it was no-fee and I didn't approve any extras)
They paid out $376. My friend said "Better than nothing!"
I always want to slap people who say that.
Posting the laptop was annoying because, on top of trying to get me to pay for extras, they kept asking the same questions different ways.
Anyway, my $400 laptop ended up costing $305 after selling my old laptop with a new $400 motherboard for $531.
Unless someone actually has something that flies off of the shelves I don't know who uses eBay voluntarily. I can absolutely see shop owners paying employees minimum wage to do this, though.