Thinkpads Forum

WTB: Help me find a decently priced 14" T42 here, Ebay, CL.

I'd appreciate any of the former T42 purchasers who were able to FIND, PRICE & ACQUIRE .. good deals from these sources or others to point me to some deals.

Even if it is not in my city region etc I think I'd be able to source it through a friend in the city or atleast get a comparative DEAL understanding.

Minimum requirement being that it be SXGA+ resolution with Bluetooth and Wireless B/G.

Also, please post what you think is a good price / how much I should pay for it due to your history & experience in T42 pricing.

Thanks.

Bluetooth may be an issue with the majority of "regular" T42s...if you're willing to give that requirement up, you'll be looking at more machines and lower prices...

IMHO, for such a machine anything less than $425 is a steal, although it may shoot above $500 depending on specs, warranty and overall condition.

You may want to look at 14" T42Ps on eBay as well, some of these have recently been sold at the $600-650 level, and these are VERY serious machines...

Good luck with your noble quest...

To find a good deal on eBay, you need to check very frequently, many times a day. Go to the "Laptops, Notebooks" section, and copy and paste the following into the search box:

T42 (SXGA,1400,1400x1050)

Remember to check the "Search title and description" option under the search box.

Look for not only auctions that are closing soon, but also recently posted "Buy It Now" items. Many excellent Buy-It-Now deals are gone within a minute or two. When you see one, read the item description as fast as you can, and after confirming that it's what you want, buy it as quickly as possible. For auctions, place your bid in the last ten seconds. This strategy is called sniping and many people here, including myself, swear by it.

Considering that your T43 only has XGA resolution, I think you ought to upgrade ASAP because XGA seriously reduces your productivity. I personally couldn't stand a 14.1" XGA screen for more than half an hour. You may even want to sell this T43 before getting the SXGA+ T42 because the longer you wait, the less money you would get for it.

crashnburn wrote:I'd appreciate any of the former T42 purchasers who were able to FIND, PRICE & ACQUIRE .. good deals from these sources or others to point me to some deals.

Great deals on eBay never last long, so you MUST look for them yourself. If you rely on others, by the time you get their PMs/emails, the items have already been sold.

I deeply appreciate your words of wisdom .

Some facts:
- T43 XGA is not my primary machine right now. A former T42 SXGA+ was last year (it belonged to the company)
- I am going to go with the UXGA upgrade for the 14" laptop
- I bought an R50 UXGA cable and am currently looking for the LCD in one of the Inspirons out there or buy the LCD in itself
- If the UXGA works on the Intel GMA Card on the T43.. Great. I'll have a T43 UXGA
- If not I am considering swapping the SXGA+ from the T42 I buy on to the T43 and UXGA on to the T42 like pw & doylnea- Hopefully pretty soon I shall have a T43 with UXGA OR.. have a T43 SXGA+ and T42 UXGA. One of them might get donated to someone in my family

I hope my logical stepping through the above is not out of whack.

Any thoughts / comments?

PS: I will look for myself and I do appreciate your 'technique' suggestions. Could you post a spec of the T42 you bought for the $410 shipped and where you bought it? (Just so I have an idea of what kind of best bargains are possible.. even if not always).

Bluetooth may be an issue with the majority of "regular" T42s...if you're willing to give that requirement up, you'll be looking at more machines and lower prices...

Would a Bluetooth card + antenna upgrade be easy / economical / worth the extra effort?

How much lower would the prices be? Can you post some ball park figures?

IMHO, for such a machine anything less than $425 is a steal, although it may shoot above $500 depending on specs, warranty and overall condition.

Is this the ballpark you suggested for the non-BT machines. Just like the one Pianowizard bought?

Go to the "Laptops, Notebooks" section, and copy and paste the following into the search box:

T42 (SXGA,1400,1400x1050)

I had some of these keywords but I am guessing I was missing some of the boolean logic in the brackets.

Considering that your T43 only has XGA resolution, I think you ought to upgrade ASAP because XGA seriously reduces your productivity. I personally couldn't stand a 14.1" XGA screen for more than half an hour.

I might even do that. I havent gotten rid of it yet because someone in my family might actually WANT a non-SXGA ... i.e. low res XGA screen. But they are in no immediate need. If one of the above UXGA AND SXGA+ upgrades works out ... even better.

Great deals on eBay never last long, so you MUST look for them yourself. If you rely on others, by the time you get their PMs/emails, the items have already been sold.

Some guidance on Configs & Values from your thoughts would be helpful - Even if those items get sold before I get to them. From then on ofcourse I'll have to DO IT MYSELF

crashnburn wrote:Could you post a spec of the T42 you bought for the $410 shipped and where you bought it?

Here. If you look at the bid history, you'll see that I snatched this laptop 3 minutes 15 seconds after it was posted.

I used to have an SXGA+ T43 and my current T42 has better build quality, doesn't have fan noise issues, and is faster thanks to its 7200rpm HDD.

pianowizard wrote:

crashnburn wrote:Could you post a spec of the T42 you bought for the $410 shipped and where you bought it?

Here. If you look at the bid history, you'll see that I snatched this laptop 3 minutes 15 seconds after it was posted.

I used to have an SXGA+ T43 and my current T42 has better build quality, doesn't have fan noise issues, and is faster thanks to its 7200rpm HDD.

Wow.. You made an amazing quick call on VERY LITTLE information posted. Did you also do a PRICE UPPER LIMIT based search (fi thats at all possible on ebay)

crashnburn wrote:Wow.. You made an amazing quick call on VERY LITTLE information posted.

The seller stated the following:

"excellent working"
"Centrino 1.6 ghz. processor"
"60 gig 7200 RPM hard drive"
"Windows XP w/ COA"
"CDRW/DVD Combo drive/Integrated Wi-Fi A/B/G"
"14.1" SXGA"
"3+ hour battery life"
"Memory (RAM): 512 MB"

That's plenty of info for me. Had it been a much more expensive machine, I would have wanted more info, but that's enough for such a cheap unit. The "excellent working" statement is critical, because if it wasn't true, then I could dispute through eBay/PayPal.

crashnburn wrote:Did you also do a PRICE UPPER LIMIT based search (fi thats at all possible on ebay)

Yes that's possible, and yes, I probably set an upper limit of $500.

I agree with others, you can find T42's for around $400 with those spec.'s but not often. And will require work/time to find.

Like all eBay sales, you have to weigh the risk with each purchase. Supervisor passwords, dim backlights, scratched LCD's, bad pixels, loud fans, loud drives, flakey motherboard, cracked plastics, etc. are all the risks the buyer bears.

An IBM warranty helps mitigate some of the above, but a reputable seller is best.

Don't forget T40's and T41's also come with these spec.'s - and those come up in the $400 range much more often.