Ok, so I've put together a little guide with some tips on buying a used computer, particularly
a laptop, from another individual.
Lets get right to it!
OK, so here are some serious red flags that should have you walking away from any transaction.
If they want you to wire them money by western union or pay by paypal and have them ship
it to you.
Shipping is fine if you are buying off of eBay but never pay by western union, only
use paypal.
A missing power adapter is a big red flag.
This usually means one of three things.
The most likely case is that the computer was stolen and they simply never got the power
adapter with it.
Another possibility is that they actually DO have the power cord but they pretend they
lost it because the computer just doesn't work, or there is something that they don't
want you to see.
So it is easier for them to just say "Hey man, you can just buy a new power cord on
eBay for $15."
Don't fall for this.
If you can't power it on, don't buy it.
Here's another problem.
If you turn on the computer and it has a password, then you ask the seller what the password
is and he doesn't know.
This also likely means the computer is stolen.
He'll try to convince you that you can send it back to the manufacturer to have the password
cleared.
But as soon as they run the serial number and see that it is stolen they will ship it
back to the original owner.
So don't fall for this either!
And I guess I'll throw this in too.
Anything that sounds too good to be true, probably is, especially if the seller seems
in a hurry to sell it.
So if you are buying locally and you can inspect the computer then you should take a few minutes
to test it out.
You'd do the same thing if buying a used car.
Bring a CD or DVD with you.
Make sure it is one you don't care about.
Stick it in the computer and make sure it can read it.
I know it isn't always possible, but see if you can connect to something with wireless.
Typically if the computer can actually see some wireless stations even if you don't know
the password this generally means the WiFi is working.
Try turning up the volume and make sure the speakers work.
While you're at it, connect some headphones to the computer and make sure you can hear
through those on both speakers.
Also try jiggling it around a bit.
Often these jacks get broken when somebody trips on a cable and as a result the jack
will work intermittantly.
You should test the webcam.
On a MacBook just open up photobooth for a quick test.
The Power connector.
If you have a MacBook with the mag-safe connector, you can probably skip this.
But if it is a Windows PC with a jack like this, these get damaged all of the time by
people tripping over cables.
So make sure it works and try jiggling it around a bit to see if it has a good connection.
Check the USB ports.
Mostly what you are looking for are ones that are broken from somebody yanking a cable out
sideways.
Check the screen hinges.
The screen should stay open on its own at any angle without falling.
It should be very sturdy.
If it seems loose it is probably because the hinges are damaged.
Also make sure the screen doesn't flicker when moving the screen back and forth, this
could be a sign of damaged cables internally.
You should check the battery.
On Apple products you can go to the system profiler and see how many cycles the battery
has been through.
If it is more than 400 you know the battery is at the end of its life.
If it is 600 or more, its probably just about dead.
One last thing, check the keyboard.
Open something like notepad and just try out every key.
See if any of them feel sticky or fail to type the character to the screen.
I'm not saying you shouldn't buy a computer if one or more of these things turns out to
be broken.
Just make sure you know what you are getting.
So then you ask, is it a good deal?
Well, in order to determine its value you're really going to need to get the exact model
number.
Then you should be able to determine its age, which is very important.
I've created a chart here to sort of help you.
Anything older then 3 years is starting to become out of date, but should still be useable
for most things.
Once you get around 7 to 8 years old, the computer is totally obsolete and should probably
be avoided unless you know exactly what you are dealing with.
You can also check eBay's completed listings.
I don't mean live listings, but ones that have actually already sold.
This way you can see not what people are asking for the computer, but what they have actually
sold for.
Also factor in any warranty.
If the seller is backing it with a full money back guarantee, then that is always worth
something.
You should also investigate what a brand-new computer costs.
Pawn shops are notorious about overpricing used equipment, knowing that the buyer will
automatically assume it is a good deal because it is used.
In many cases you can buy a brand new one for the same price or even cheaper.
I'd also like to point out that after you buy a used computer, you should probably consider
wiping the hard drive and completely re-installing all of the software.
Here's several good reasons why.
The computer could be infected with viruses or other malicious software.
It could contain porn or even worse child porn, which could land you in prison if found
on your computer.
It could have spyware that the seller put there so they can watch what you do online
or activate your webcam and snap nude photos of you.
It could contain pirated software, movies, or music which might get you into trouble.
And last but not least, it will probably just run a lot better with a fresh, clean software
load.
Well, I hope you found the video useful, I get inundated with emails from people asking
me what I think about a particular deal.
They'll send me a link to an ebay or craigslist posting and they'll be like "do you think
this is a good deal?"
And to be honest I really just don't have the time to go look at them.
And even when I do, half the time the auction is already closed by the time I get to look
at it, so there's really no point in sending those to me.
Uh so I put this video together to try to help people decide for themselves whether
they should buy a particular computer or not.
I want to throw in one other little tip, especially if you are buying a mac.
There is a great website, its been around for years.
And its called www.everymac.com um if you go to this website you can pretty much find
the detailed specifications of any Apple computer all that way back into the 1980s and up the
current versions are.
Now they do have estimated street price on there, but I wouldn't go by that.
From what I can see their street prices are always out of date.
Uh, they're usually a bit high.
In many cases they are double what an actual computer is selling for.
But if you are just going there for the specifications, you want to find out what a particular model
has, its a great resource.
Its also useful if somebody says "well I've got a you know macbook and its this processor
speed" well in many cases you can still use that information to go through there and find
out what the model number is and also find out how old the computer is.
So, um, anyway leave me some comments and tell me what you'd like to see in the next
video.
And if you happen to live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and you'd like to do a joint video
with me sometime, let me know about that too.