seeking advice on buying notebook on ebay

[babushka]

Hubby wanted to get me a notebook. We have picked out the brand and model and got an idea of the prices in the shop. However, when I searched the net for review and prices I found there were quite a few sellers on ebay selling the exact brand and model (claimed to be brand new) for about $800 less than shops (the one we picked is the top of the line).

My questions are: Has anyone buying a notebook on ebay? What are the pitfalls? How do I go about choosing a seller that won't cheat me? I have not bought anything from ebay before.

Thanks in advance for any advice - which will be much appreciated.

 

[Sunfish]

My results on ebay have been generally very good.

One thing you can do is to scratch the surface of the seller's feedback. Compare the seller/buyer interaction for a number of trades. If the seller consistently gives feedback AFTER the buyer, that's a yellow flag. (the seller gets the money before the buyer gets the goods, so should give feedback first) If the buyer's comments seem a little lukewarm it may be that they are being bluffed into a +ve because they need to get one in return. I no longer care cos I have enough +vs. If the seller doesn't give me any feedback, they get none. LOL

Try and find their -vs and neutrals. Remember that there are a lot of cranky buyers out there too and if their response is OK, don't take it too seriously.

To answer your question: The best TV I've ever owned, I bought on ebay and the Mac I'm using now, and the flat screen on my windows box ...... All OK.

 

[babushka]

Hi Sunfish, Thanks for the quick and helpful reply!

I have now registered on ebay and I discovered that some the notebooks sold seemed to be from people who took them as salary sacrifice and sold them for a profit! I have read the feedback as well.

 

[hobo-jo]

Be very wary. In my experience with laptops on ebay, they aren't that much cheaper than if you shop around or haggle. A lot of the really cheap ones are ex-demo, factory seconds or as you suggested salary sacrificed. Some will come with limited or no warranty and some will come with warranty that won't be transferrable or will be for an international country and local supplier won't honour it. I am not saying not to consider a laptop from ebay, but if you are new to ebay it will be a lot of money down the gurgler if you get ripped off, especially as you are going top of the range...

Do you mind my asking what model/specs and linking me to where it is $800 cheaper on ebay than in stores?

 

[Beef_Hooked]

Hi babushka,

I buy heaps of stuff on Ebay and most has been a great deal. I have purchased 2 "refurished ex lease laptops", both IBM ThinkPads from 2 different sellers.

The first one was from what appeared to be IBM itself selling them, trading under the brand name etc. The notebook was immaculate, it must have belonged to some executive type who used it as a desktop fashion statement. It was like brand new, came with glossy brochures from IBM about buying and using the refurbished product and how to get support etc if reqd. It runs just sweet with no failures and I was very happy with it. Sadly, this seller has since closed the account so I couldn't buy again.

My second purchase was from a private seller and appeared to be the same thing so I bought another one. At about $500 each seemed great given how good the first one was. This one turned out to be a canabalised dud. The software was'nt "preloaded" it was just plain pirated and installed on the same sector as the OS. No recovery disks of course and the hard drive was reconfigured to hide a number of bad sectors. It worked OK for a few weeks then fell aprt.

All nerdy stuff, but it boils down to me feeling like drop kicking it through a door every second time I use it. Every other time it's OK and runs well, which makes me even more furious as I feel there is some value in not throwing it away. Well it does work 50% of the time

Nothing seems to fix the situation short of buying a new Hard drive and a licensed copy of WIN or Linux but why throw good money after bad on something worth so comparitively little? Repairing would probably cost half the initial price, with no gurantees.

I think in balance I will buy my next one from r/vision or HN, where I am covered by warranty, even if I buy another S/H I'd want to touch and test the item.

Apart from that, being a regional dweller, living far away from a range of stores/markets etc, Ebay is great!! and most sellers are more than helpful and honest. I'd hate to think of life without it now.

Cheers,
Beef.

 

[Pushka]

A few things irk me about ebay!

To me the most important feedback is negative feedback - so you can see what goes wrong. Yet you have to wade through all the other feedback to get to it.

Second, it is buyers who only post their feedback, not when you pay, but after you have given them their feedback - ie when you get the goods!

I have bought around 50 things on ebay, and two of those have gone wrong. The first one, I paid as cash so basically lost my money, and the seller went AWOL as soon as I had paid so I could not warn others! The second - the item never arrived - was supposed to have been posted but I have my doubts. This time I had paid through Paypal, so I got my money (most of it) back!

Sometimes people have online shops on ebay - I have bought MP3's through these and they are safe, esp when you pay through paypal. Also cheaper than 'real' shops as they dont pay rent.

So if you do take the plunge, you reduce your risks by paying through paypal!

 

[hobo-jo]

A few things irk me about ebay!
To me the most important feedback is negative feedback - so you can see what goes wrong. Yet you have to wade through all the other feedback to get to it.

Quick tip: On the right hand side of the feedback page there is a drop down box with 'period' and a go button. Select 12 months from drop down box and press go. Then there will be:
Show: All | Positive | Neutral | Negative | Withdrawn
Across the top of the feedback and you can choose to show only 1 type of feedback.

 

[Sunfish]

I've never tried them but my son and his mates speak well of graysonline.com.au

 

[Pushka]

Hey, I will check that out - thanks hobo-jo.

Greys online - have used them too and they are probably more reliable than ebay but not as good a selection of products. As long as you can find the required items, they would be a better place to buy high end expensive stuff!

 

[babushka]

Hi, thanks, for all the comments about using eBay. I could not log into the forum this morning - the site seemed to be down.

Hobo-jo: The notebook I am looking at is HP dv9205tx - this is the top of the range and all the big stores selling it for about $4K. However, there are a few sellers on eBay flogging it off "new" and not re-furbished (they claimed) for about $3,200 or under. However, this morning I was talking to a friend who said that through her company she might be able to get one for me through HP staff prices. Not sure how much though, she will let me know in the next few days. I know through Myer I can get this for 10% off (their current promo). Both Harvey Norman and Dick Smith may match Myer's price.

Another friend has also told me this morning about graysonline.com.au where he has bought IT things from. So, I am going to check it out, but since the notebook I am after is at the top end I am not sure if I will have any luck with graysonline.

 

[hobo-jo]

http://www.shopbot.com.au/p-53010.html
http://staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=dv9205TX

I think you would be better off going through an online store or your friend as opposed to ebay, but that's just me. Peace of mind for an extra $200-300. Either that or find one on ebay that will allow pickup so you can see what you are receiving.

 

[redsquash]

Hi, thanks, for all the comments about using eBay. I could not log into the forum this morning - the site seemed to be down.

Hobo-jo: The notebook I am looking at is HP dv9205tx - this is the top of the range and all the big stores selling it for about $4K. However, there are a few sellers on eBay flogging it off "new" and not re-furbished (they claimed) for about $3,200 or under. However, this morning I was talking to a friend who said that through her company she might be able to get one for me through HP staff prices. Not sure how much though, she will let me know in the next few days. I know through Myer I can get this for 10% off (their current promo). Both Harvey Norman and Dick Smith may match Myer's price.

Another friend has also told me this morning about graysonline.com.au where he has bought IT things from. So, I am going to check it out, but since the notebook I am after is at the top end I am not sure if I will have any luck with graysonline.

Myers have always matched anything I could buy at the superduper discounts stores.
Thus once I have got the best deal I go to myers as I find their customer service generally faultless

 

[babushka]

Thanks, hobo-jo and redsquash.

I have checked hobo-jo's links and the prices looked better than Myer. I am going to see what my friend says about the price from HP staff store. Otherwise, I will go to Myer and haggle the price down to the ones offered by the online stores (like redsquash suggested).

 

[babushka]

Just to update. We have bought the notetook from Myer. Hubby was cautious and so against buying the notebook on ebay. Hence, this afternoon I printed out a copy of the ad from one of the online stores and took it to Myer to ask them if they could match. Yes! they did (cost more than $500 than ebay price but hubby said he did not want to risk $3K on ebay). I will now have to wait for the notebook to arrive from Myer's warehouse towards the end of this week.

 

[nc6000]

Just to update. We have bought the notetook from Myer. Hubby was cautious and so against buying the notebook on ebay. Hence, this afternoon I printed out a copy of the ad from one of the online stores and took it to Myer to ask them if they could match. Yes! they did (cost more than $500 than ebay price but hubby said he did not want to risk $3K on ebay). I will now have to wait for the notebook to arrive from Myer's warehouse towards the end of this week.

FYI, you should have waited for your friends HP staff prices

That model is currently selling to staff for sub $2k

 

[babushka]

How can one predict when the prices are going to crash? However, hubby claimed it as a salary sacrifice so the actual cost is about half anyway.