what about ebay?

1. Don't buy laptop on ebay.
2. I'm not sure your allowed to post ebay link on this forum.
3. http://pctorque.com/9860.php

I got my ferrari off of ebay, no problems whatsoever, the best thing to do is look at the sellers feedback. This seller seems to have nothing but good feedbacks (from buyers who have bought more than one thing, i.e., not fake accounts) and they were pretty much all from laptop purchases, and since they are all positive, if there was a problem, they would most likely be easy about it so as to not get a negative feedback. (FYI, the seller I bought mine from only had 16 positive feedback, but since one was from a $56,000 purchase, I took the chance, there was a problem with the shipping so they couldn't ship it for a week, so they shelled out an extra 50 on overnight shipping to make up for it, and it was brand new in box with warranty, works perfect )

I've bought and sold laptops on Ebay. There's a tactic to it, just like buying from anyone. This auction you've linked includes their phone number which is a good sign. Apparently they are in TX since that is the only place they charge tax when shipping, too. I'd call them and ask for their address and see if you can come by their shop. If they're in Houston, I'll go! That does look like good prices.

Edit: Looks like they're just north of Houston. 'might have to call them and make a little road trip and check out their shop.

I have purchased one laptop on ebay, the toshiba laptop in my sig. Any time I purchase anything over $200.00 on ebay, I do the following:

1. Determine how long the seller has been doing business on
ebay.
2. Review seller's feedback.
3. Contact previous buyers of similar items and price.
4. Contact previous buyers, whom gave negative feedback, if
any.
5. As of recent . . . See if PayPal Buyer Protection is offered. It
may not insure you for the full amount, but it's better than
nothing.

I have heard of nightmare stories. However, all of my ebay experiences have been productive.

If you ask me, I also take a look at the overall quality of the page's design. Aside from being unviewable at 800x600, this page exudes professionalism - it appears that a good amount of effort was put into making it aesthetically pleasing. Also, this seller tells you the actual specs of the machine on the auction page and not a bunch of default multiple specs from a manufacturer's site - one of my BIGGEST pet-peves of computer sellers on eBay.

He only has 36 feedbacks, but at least they're all positive. Before spending this amount of cash on eBay, I'd strongly suggest you contact him by all practical means possible: basically email and telephone, in this case. Make sure this seller is interested in making YOU happy, and not just making THEMSELVES happy by getting the product out the door and getting the cash in the door.

Ask him/her whatever questions you have - even if you don't have questions ask things that you're sure you already know, just to evaluate their PR.

Why do you say that?
Personally WATCH OUT FOR SCAMMERS

Laptops is one of the bigest scam sections of ebay. You will notice that you will see a sweet setup and it is only a 1 day auction. Almost 99% of these are hijacked accounts. If you see "please contact me at dlfjsdl@ldsj.com because my ebay is broken" its not because its broken its because they have hijacked that persons account.

Personally I was looking at ebay, if your going to buy get a phone number, call them, ask questions, dont buy alienware as thats their #1 target.

I agree, just make sure it is either:

an established or power seller on ebay with good and/or recent feedback.

it has a link to a valid reseller website off ebay, you can always call and confirm the auction

i run a company off of ebay and you can definetly trust most all of the sellers. just look at their feedback!

I bought a laptop off of ebay. You can find some great deals there.

Most important is the user's negative feedback. Is there any negative feedback? What percentage is the negative feedback? On what items or price ranges does that negative feedback cover?

Does the website or price look "suspicious"? Is it trying to sell features that the product most likely cannot deliver (ie, "this is the fastest laptop that PC Magainze ever tested!!!!"). Is the price too low? Does it seem too good to be true?

Just use your common sense if you are not comfortable with ebay. And try to pay with credit card through PayPal... that gives you some level of purchase protection.

I bought the laptop listed in my sig off of ebay. It was in pretty good shape when I got it. It will run for 3+ hours on the battery which I think it pretty good. The display is very nice as well. The only real drawback is the 1.5MB of video RAM and no 3D acceleration. I didn't buy it for games though. The orginal HD failed about 2 months ago. I have had this laptop a little over 2 years. I have about $600 in it with all the upgrades and the HD replacement. I bought a laptop bag for it at a yard sale last summer for $3. LOL

DeadSmiley

about those scamming ebay bastards.

I bought my Sager from ****, and it was through ebay. They currently have over 200 feedback, under 210, but 99.9% positive. The EASY most efficient way that I check for scammers with anything on ebay is, I look at their ID history to see when it was changed if ever, look at their recent feedback. Have they made a few transactions within the last 3 days? Look at the items sold. I find it a bit odd to see someone selling tons of child toys and dolls, or vintage items, then the next day they have this nice alienware or dell for sale.

The newest scam people tried to pull on me at ebay was them having an auction, then when you attempt to bid it says you must contact the seller because only pre-approved bidders may bid on the auction, which I find rather suspicious as that would limit too many out, and make you receive much less $$$ from people ahving to wait and get confirmed. Anyways, After basically knowing person was scammer, I decided to email him (them, 4 different people with exact same method) just to see how there little scheme worked. They stated that they were verified through square trade and they would initiate the transaction through them, then they end the auction so it is no longer visible, and pull it off some way. I said, if I am to buy this product, I want a BUY NOW button with the price we disclosed in order to have it visible on ebay as proof that I've purchased, also I will ONLY pay through paypal to have protection. They then said, don't worry, please give me your name and address so that they can initiate the transaction with squaretrade.

I knew it was bullshit already, so I gave a nonexistent address to see what would become of it. They stated that under the square trade policy I was protected as well as them up to $3,000. They then sent me a SPOOFED email from square trade that looked like a real transaction sheet, which I quickly analyzed.

1 = In the mail headers I looked at the originatinig IP and traced it to a country & company that did NOT match square trade

2 = the userid he claimed he had at squaretrade, was NOT on the squaretrade website when I put it in (although, once again, I already knew it was a scam)

3 = the reply-to was to something @ squaretrade-compliance.*** or something like that... at least similar.

4 = why would his ebay ID be different from his squaretrade id?

5 = ALL squaretrade verified people on ebay have a SquareTrade seal by their userID to identify them as a squaretrade user, so where was his?

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, the list goes on. It's basically common sense things. Just look at EVERY little detail, analyze how they are so eager to get the money (sorta rushing you to make payment fast, threatening you must pay within 5 days, etc. or they come with some lame excuse... winning bidder's husband/wife said no to it and buyer changed their mind, so will sell to you etc. etc.

nice try scamming bastards, but you'll are too damn stupid, and can kiss my natural yellow

Oh I can go on forever, it's ridiculous, but anyways, to the point...

nevermind... I lost tuch of the topic.

I have spent about $10,000 on eBay because I get most of my supplies there and, to be honest, I haven't had much trouble with it.

The serious issue I've had is a guy for whom I paid for a lot of floppy drives and never sent me anything, but he was Australian. I lost like $30 or so.

There is really good people around there. A good example is a guy whose nickname is 'nghh'. When I said that the screen's inverted came bad, he just sent me annother one and paid for shipping; without any questions. Needless to say that he didn't had one and purchased it from someone else and paid double shipping.

I've bought a dozen of laptops or so to date. I once bought four Latitude D600 for $600, but they were broken, etc.

eBay is a good place, if you act really paranoid. My advise: go away at the slightest sign of fraud; don't risk anything. There are lots, lots of sellers.

Finally, sellers usually stop having good business practices like offering returns, refunds, etc. because there is a lot of people who abuses. Never abusve the good faith of the people there.

Those computers are from hybrid gear. They have a few reviews at laptopresellers.com I've spoken to them and my problem was that they seemed waaay too anxious to get me to buy a lappy. Calling me back 3 times in one day to see if I had made up my mind. Spooked me right off. They might be fine though.

They may be overeager, but that happens sometimes.

Look, if you feel like something might not be right - walk away. Ebay can be great, you just have to be wary of the many scammers out there. If you're careful and patient you can do very well on Ebay.