Thinkpads Forum

hi all,

i want to own a thinkpad t43/p but brand new cost a fortune. i've been watching on ebay... the t43/p second hand is about £1000 vs £2400+VAT. even for a second hand, the price is still too good to be true. so i am a bit concern the quality of those machine.

i am wondering anyone in here have purchased a recent thinkpad like t43/p from ebay and please let me know the quality of the machine if anything dodgy.

cheers.

lenovo has a huge sale on T43p's

Web price 3250 US down to 2000 dollars US, someone probably just bought one of those to try and make a profit and ebay it, take a look at lenovo's site

I'm hoping others have also purchased from the e-bay store that I got my T-42 from so they can also comment. Well I bought mine from an E-Bay Power Seller, an online vendor(admin edit), for a total shipped price of $1189:
1.7 Ghz
1 GB RAM
40 GB HD 5200 RPM
Wireless stuff but no bluetooth
1400 by 1200, 14.1" screen
Class-L laptop

I've had it for about 3 weeks now and i'm very happy thus far. It came in an IBM sealed box and I registered with the Lenovo website and it shows that I have a 3 year limited warranty. I decided to get it from this E-Bay seller after a co-worker got an X-41 and was satisfied with his purchase. After I got mine another co-worker got herself a souped up T-43 with the 15" monitor which i'm envious of.

Check it it out, you might find what you want and please don't think I'm working for this outfit either. They are based out of Manhattan and if you do decide to purchase with them don't be alarmed by the guy who takes your order. When I heard his voice I thought for a second I was talking to someone from Nigeria but the place is legit. Anyways, the delivery took about a week for the $40 shipping and i'm a happy camper so far.

us price are so so within my budget... i forgot to mentioned i am from the uk. thinkpad over here are so expensive

thanks for let me know t43/p are currently onsale over there... i ask my brother in canada see if he can get a hold of one cheers

SDBob wrote:...I bought mine from an online vendor(admin edit), for a total shipped price of $1189...

...They are based out of Manhattan...

I'm glad you are happy, but any seller (or "power seller") that sells "re" laptops (re-furbished, re-manufactured, re-certified, re-conditioned, re-"what-the-hell-ever") which they put way, way, WAY down in the auction in print so small that you practicaly need to have a 600x400 screen just to read it is not someone I want to deal with. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but when someone titles a sale as "factory sealed" and then sells this class of merchandise it's highly misleading. Factory RE-sealed is more like it (or are they just claiming that some "factory" somewhere did seal the box for them? ). I don't care if they sell class X, S, W, L, Z or whatever laptops, they are doing their best to hide the fact that they are NOT selling you (in most all cases) a brand new Lenovo laptop with a full IBM warranty. That is why they have to give you a Mack warranty but mislead you in the title into thinking you are getting the IBM 3-year warranty. If they are aware of the situation IBM will not warranty a "re"-anything laptop longer than 180-days and they will not sell you a warranty extention either.

Another thing... when last I checked they were in Brooklyn and not Manhattan. Maybe they moved to escape the bad rep (well earned I might say) that Brooklyn-based electronic & optical businesses have?

Oh, and am I the only one who has noticed the recent rash of posts all over the forum from brand new members touting this eBay seller? I guess I'm just overly suspicious. When any business goes out of their way to hide what it is that they really do it screams "run away" to me. But apparently I'm in the minority. Most laptops don't get returned because there isn't a [censored] thing wrong with them. Maybe it's not severe enough to be covered under some of these very conservative warranties (like needing 11 bad pixels to return an XGA screen), but something is likely wrong. I don't want to be that person who gets the Thinkpad that someone returned because it had 7 dead pixels. I surely would not think I received a bargain at any price!

This is just my opinion and yours may differ.

-Yak

Your are correct in saying that they are not brand spanking new laptops and I hope either I or my two co-workers are not dissapointed with our Thinkpads. Please know that the first sign of trouble I will be posting about it here.

The main reason I got mine from site is because my co-worker researched this pretty intensly. He's the type of guy that will spend weeks researching any major purchase like this. If anyone else is looking to buy, ask around, the more information you have the better.

As for the warranty goes, I'll look back and give full details on what the Lenovo site tells me about it.

Good Luck All

SDBob

P.S.
I found the details on the e-bay post for my laptop to be pretty detailed. If anyone knows of misleading information from this seller I would be interested in knowing.

I found the details on the e-bay post for my laptop to be pretty detailed. If anyone knows of misleading information from this seller I would be interested in knowing.

I agree, I did not even buy it from EBay listing, I purchased the T42p direct from him...

The T42p looks 99.99999% new, the only reason I do not say 100% is because it came in a "generic" ibm/lenovo box!!! There was not one fingerprint on it, NOT 1 scratch on the unit!!!!! The only "bad" part is a stuck sub-pixel on the top right quadrant of the screen....I think whoever got it before me, purchased it, powered it on and returned it ASAP as soon as he saw the little speck(and for what he probably paid for it, rightfully so!!)...the battery had not even been installed on the thinkpad (now it shows an install date of 03/2006)...the laptop still smells like new.....I am really impressed with them!!!!

IBM is showing 3 year warranty until 03/2009, Monday I am purchasing on-site with the ThinkPad protection...I will let you all know how it goes!!!!

It was by no mean a "cheap' purchase, but for what I dished for it( if we include the onsite/protection), I am satisfied!!! I could have bought the T43p(sale price!) with standard warranty (3 year) but to me the perfect T4Xp is the T42p!!! 14".........

I hate those Mack warranties too. The last Thinkpad t40 I sold on ebay had like the 4 year on site service warranty. I had to put in like huge letters that my laptop was not one of those recertified or rebuilt ones and had a real warranty. Luckily, my T40 sold for almost 1,100 dollars:)