Did you buy your own ThinkPad?

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The Insider · #1 Post by **The Insider** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 4:57 pm

I know there was a post earlier about "where you buy your ThinkPad", but I'm curious to see if most of the members here actually bought their own ThinkPad.

I'm using a T43 that my company gave me, and I would assume many users didn't actually buy their own ThinkPad since a majority TPs are purchased by businesses and not individual consumers.

JHEM · #2 Post by **JHEM** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 5:11 pm

I took the liberty of changing your poll a little to better represent the users here in the Forums.

Regards,

James

#3 Post by **JaneL** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 5:43 pm

The Insider wrote:I'm using a T43 that my company gave me, and I would assume many users didn't actually buy their own ThinkPad since a majority TPs are purchased by businesses and not individual consumers.

You know what they say about that word "assume"...

I personally own a 755CE, 2 or 3 760 models, a 600X, a T23 and a T40. Along the way, companies I've worked for issued me a PC AT, a PS/2 Model 60, a PS/2 Model something-I-can't-remember, a Honeywell/Bull desktop, a 755CE, a 760EL, a 760XL, a 600E, a 600X, a T40, a Dell desktop, and now an HP nc6220.

#4 Post by **Kyocera** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 5:58 pm

My company gave me a car, no thinkpads, what's their problem

I need to change companies.?

#5 Post by **GomJabbar** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 7:45 pm

I bought my current ThinkPad, a T42 through a reseller. My previous and first ThinkPad, a 600E, I bought at a brick-and-mortar store that sold used computers. That was my first laptop, but not my first PC. I was attracted to the 600E by IBM's reputation, the legendary IBM keyboard, and I liked it's size and appearance. Same for the T42.

#6 Post by **K. Eng** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 7:50 pm

Bought my T40 through a reseller... wish I hadn't because it came with 1.5 stuck pixels

Next time I'm buying a Z series direct so I can return it if it has ANY bad pixels.

Thane_Bitter · #7 Post by **Thane_Bitter** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 8:12 pm

Way back in March 2002, I bough my R31 ThinkPad from IBM Canada (order it online) and had it "in hand" about 2 weeks later

.
My first ThinkPad (365XD) was purchased as a refurbished unit from an "authorized reseller" campus computer store. Still have it - still works!

Website · #8 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 8:32 pm

I have had many thinkpads and they have come from numerous sources...never direct though...don't have that kind of money.

I actually purchased my first Thinkpad in Chicago from a liquidator that was selling off everything previously owned by a company that went under. They sold everything out of the basement of the Sears Tower. I picked up 2 thinkpads (600 & 600E) and two Compaq Armada 7400's. I was hooked instantly on the thinkpads.

#9 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 8:45 pm

I've gone through many ThinkPads from many different sources, my first being a ThinkPad 350C that my dad was given at work and then in to given to me. That was in 1998. In 2003, bought a 760ED for $25 from a neighbor, then a 380ED from that same neighbor for $60 in 2004, the 380ED was well worth the extra money over the 760. I also had a 760E from a coworker, a 760E from a forum member, several 760's I built, a broken 600E from a teacher, another 760ED from a forum member, a 385CD from a forum member, a 600E (which is my everyday laptop now) from a forum member, an A21m from a forum member and soon I'll have a 560X. The ThinkPads I still have are in my sig which I update everytime my collection changes.

DavidNZ · #10 Post by **DavidNZ** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 10:03 pm

First Thinkpad was a 770ED given to me the firm I worked for as a going away present. They couldn't think of anything to get so they said "just keep the computer". Nice.

Bought an R32 through a reseller here in NZ, and bought the X40 from another reseller. All Thinkpads, I think, coming to NZ go through a big importer (TechPacific). They're usually about the same price as direct from IBM, but at least they're in the country and not in Australia.

The Insider · #11 Post by **The Insider** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 11:18 pm

Can I assume that most ThinkPad owners don't visit or respond to polls on forum.thinkpads.com?

nonny wrote:
The Insider wrote:I'm using a T43 that my company gave me, and I would assume many users didn't actually buy their own ThinkPad since a majority TPs are purchased by businesses and not individual consumers.
You know what they say about that word "assume"...

I personally own a 755CE, 2 or 3 760 models, a 600X, a T23 and a T40. Along the way, companies I've worked for issued me a PC AT, a PS/2 Model 60, a PS/2 Model something-I-can't-remember, a Honeywell/Bull desktop, a 755CE, a 760EL, a 760XL, a 600E, a 600X, a T40, a Dell desktop, and now an HP nc6220.

christopher_wolf · #12 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 12:51 am

I added another option to the poll as well; Academic Institution falls under the category of a kinda special "Reseller" I think as far as IBM/Lenovo is concerned. That is where I got my T43; my first Thinkpad, a 701C, was given to me as a gift. It had the external floppy, a PD Writer from Japan (pretty impressive too; I could use it like a 650MB CDRW

), and a port replicator. I used it for *many* years to come.

#13 Post by **draco2527** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 2:38 am

I only purchased two ThinkPad T30's direct from IBM, all other ThinkPads were purchased from resellers or as used machines.

In the "old days" I purchased some ThinkPad's from "Computer City" (I think that was the name!) that was owned and operated by Tandy Corporation. (760 series, I also got a display 701C "butterfly" from them)

I have ALWAYS been able to find a better deal then on IBM.com; the T30's were the exception I got the top of the line T30 AND a middle of the line T30 for the same advertised "retail" price of the top of the line T30 from IBM! That was one sweet deal!

Red_October_7000 · #14 Post by **Red_October_7000** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 4:31 am

The two with Keyboards came from the same family. Neither were well cared for, but they still are excellent machines and rare examples of good engineering in today's computer world. Real IBMs have become my first choice in Laptop Computing. Followed by Dell (My ladyfriend and my father have Dells), then by Toshiba (I use them at work; they're nice but I have some serious issues with them). The 730TE I bought off of Ebay for the novelty value and actually found some use in an ancient, monochrome, 486-based computer.

EDIT: Oops!

Doltan · #15 Post by **Doltan** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:59 am

My first laptop and thinkpad. Bought from IBM directly since gotten a good offer at the time. Would have cost much more buying from a reseller then.

pschemo · #16 Post by **pschemo** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:48 pm

I bought my T23 from re-saler...
In Poland you can find now many T23 from USA which are after-leasing thinkpads =DDD
And thanks to it students like me can afford it

Im really satisfied and if i have enough money in future i will certainly buy another Thinkpad =DD

wolfman · #17 Post by **wolfman** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:50 pm

Bought my current Thinkpad Direct from IBM. The previous one as well. My first Thinkpad was a refurb unit that I bought on eBay from IBM Global financial services I believe.

maingray · #18 Post by **maingray** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:03 pm

Bought by work which is Academic Institution.

#19 Post by **thePCxp** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 1:19 am

I bought my ThinkPad from IBM.

egibbs · #20 Post by **egibbs** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 7:09 am

I've always bought my own laptops, even thiough I could get one (albiet a Dell) through my company. I would not put personal information (finance software, personal emails and documents, etc.) on a company owned laptop, and I refuse to travel without it - so I get my own.

Lately I've been getting concerned about putting company owned information on my personal machine however, because of some regulatory and policy issues that I'd rather not have to deal with. I suspect that in the not too distant future I am going to decide that it is a bad idea, and I will wind up either lugging two laptops around, or convincing my company to build a removable disk for me with one of their standard machines on it.

Anybody else in a similar situation?

Ed Gibbs

no_man · #21 Post by **no_man** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:06 am

I have carefully purchased my Thinkpads through ebay, never a problem.
Ed Gibbs, similar situation, about 1 year ago I purchased Sandisk USB flash drives, and today all programs and data (contact manager, financials, and utilities) are on a single USB 2GB drive. New found freedom, next to my knife in my pocket.

#22 Post by **KristianJ** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:22 am

There's a buy and sell publication here in Sydney called The Trading Post - both of my ThinkPads I bought in private sales after seeing advertisements in it. I thought about eBay for my T40, but I wanted to be able to see what I was buying, boot it up and have a look to see whether the components equalled what was being described before making any sort of financial commitment (and for this poor university student, $1049 Australian is a massive one). I wasn't able to do the same after asking questions of sellers. My eventual purchase had a $100-150 premium over the eBay sellers, but I think it was worth the extra money.

MSR_Steve · #23 Post by **MSR_Steve** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 8:48 am

Well, they were purchased by my company through the IBM business Mastercard site, but since I own the company I just put "direct" in the poll.

Aroc · #24 Post by **Aroc** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 7:48 am

I always buy my own. I have a work provided Dell latitude (business class), and I keep work stuff on that. And I keep my personal stuff on my own personal computer, which is of course, a Thinkpad.

I also use two BlackBerries. One for work, and one for personal. It's just better to maintain that level of separation. It also introduces some level of fault tolerance, as if one machine is down, I'm not completely shut off. But it does mean that I have more machines to baby sit and thus increases the odds of failure.

I also give my wife two personal computers. One desktop (that we share) and a notebook. Again, it lets her separate the duties and gives some measure of fault tolerance, as when one machine breaks, she just walks over to the other, loads her backup off of a USB key drive, and continues to function (email, MS Office for her writing, web for reasearch, and a couple games).

none of these machines have to be powerful. But they do have to be well built. Hence my attraction to Thinkpads. We are considering an R-series to replace my wife's aging Gateway.

#25 Post by **underclocker** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 4:46 pm

Bought direct AND reseller AND eBay AND bought from company...

#26 Post by **schen** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 5:08 pm

Bought my very first (a 701C) off of ebay. But have acquired them from every possible source since. IBM direct, reseller such as CDW, state contractor, and given as gifts by people who didn't know what to do with the "old computer".

dewey · #27 Post by **dewey** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 7:54 pm

I purchased both of mine for my business. I used that lease/purchase option.
Thinkpads are great since after the 2 years of payments both were still going strong.

ThinkPad · #28 Post by **ThinkPad** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 8:24 pm

I purchased my thinkpad from a member here.

lithium726 · #29 Post by **lithium726** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 8:27 pm

Got my T23 on anandtech forums
Got my GF's T40 on ebay
Got my T40 from IBM refurb direct

going to buy a T60 direct from IBM when they have a sale (like the 1,999 they're running a 2ghz/x1400/1gb/100gb... pretty nice, but no money right now)

tjb229 · #30 Post by **tjb229** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 10:46 pm

Got my 701c from my Uncle who works at IBM
Purchased my R32 on my own during my first year of grad school.

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