Opinions needed and helpful please

[donhh]

Greetings All,
Didn't know where to ask of this so I thought here was best. I'm thinking of venturing on my own to refurbish old Thinkpads, from the T2x,3x,4x series and some of those next inline. The reason being, my current career in the skilled trades is not as fruitful as it used to be. Also too, I've been a loyal buyer of IBM/Lenovo since the days of the old Aptiva/PS2 desktops (circa 1985) and have a passion for making old things work again. I'm thinking of opening an e-Bay store. I intend to rebuild and restore as much as possible to factory specs the Tpads and will under no circumstances sell junk or As-is. My questions: Does anyone think there is still a need for these units ? What would a comfortable price range be that one would be willing to pay. Sometimes I see lots available which would enable a good sale price when working. Of course MS COA and licensing come into play also.
So, thanks all for reading and any thoughts greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Donald

[rumbero]

Judging by the amount of requests i received so far to sell my wonderful T61+ Frankenpad, there might be an interesting opportunity for someone who is able to recombine the best feature of a given Thinkpad generation into the best machine never build by Lenovo, but longed for by it's users. The recombination of a T60 UXGA Flexview display with a more recent T61 mainboard and it's technical advantages is probably one of the more obvious possibilities.

[donhh]

Judging by the amount of requests i received so far to sell my wonderful T61+ Frankenpad, there might be an interesting opportunity for someone who is able to recombine the best feature of a given Thinkpad generation into the best machine never build by Lenovo, but longed for by it's users. The recombination of a T60 UXGA Flexview display with a more recent T61 mainboard and it's technical advantages is probably one of the more obvious possibilities.

Rumbero,
Thanks for your thoughts. I'll keep that in mind as a CTO or Build-to -Order option.

[RealBlackStuff]

Not to put a damper on your spirits, but just have a look at the 'regulars' and what they are selling in our Market forum.
You'll be surprised at the high standard of quality here!
We advise anybody to look on TPF's Market forum first, before even considering eBay.
Selling TPs on eBay is best left to those who don't know what they are doing (and thus quite often create bargains for those who know), or who don't care what they are selling, as long as they make some (small) profit.

[donhh]

Not to put a damper on your spirits, but just have a look at the 'regulars' and what they are selling in our Market forum.
You'll be surprised at the high standard of quality here!
We advise anybody to look on TPF's Market forum first, before even considering eBay.
Selling TPs on eBay is best left to those who don't know what they are doing (and thus quite often create bargains for those who know), or who don't care what they are selling, as long as they make some (small) profit.

That would be an option also. I wouldn't want to be stereotyped like that as an e-Bay merchant as I do believe I know pretty darn well what is required to put a quality Tpad back to work. Thanks again for another point of view.
Donald

[RealBlackStuff]

If you go the eBay way, make sure you ALWAYS publish the MTM and make sure it matches the BIOS info.
If it is a CTO model, you should also publish either the PRODUCTID (if not also CTO), or give at least screen size and resolution, as well as CPU model.
Including the above will find buyers sooner IMHO.

[donhh]

If you go the eBay way, make sure you ALWAYS publish the MTM and make sure it matches the BIOS info.
If it is a CTO model, you should also publish either the PRODUCTID (if not also CTO), or give at least screen size and resolution, as well as CPU model.
Including the above will find buyers sooner IMHO.

Thanks for the info. MTM, meaning IBM/Lenovo Type Model Number (i.e. 26xx-xxx) ?, always. That would be justified with a photo of the BIOS screen and the back plate stickers. I have a wealth of info from Lenovo, the PSREF's of the Models since 2002 that are in their system but out of production. Once again thanks for the positive reinforcement and any other advice appreciated. When I get this venture off and running, I'll hit the marketplace forum as well.
Donald

[Neil]

Rebuilding older ThinkPads is a fun hobby. I've probably done forty over the past several years. In my experience it is difficult to even recover the cost of the parts needed to rebuild the older machines. Especially is that true today, with the cost of new IDE hard drives being more than a T2x or T30, or maybe even T4x series machines are worth.

My opinion is that it would not be possible to earn any kind of significant income refurbishing old ThinkPads. Almost all the older models, even fully refurbished, will only bring $75 - $150. I often pick up T4x machines for ~$25-$50 that need some repairs. I can easily spend $100 on parts needed to repair or complete the build. Then the machines can be sold for $100 to $150. Since I consider it a hobby, I'm happy if I can just break even, and recover my cost when I sell the ThinkPad.

It might work better to look for cheap current models that are broken or malfunctioning, and would sell for a few hundred bucks after repair. It's just really difficult to find a large enough supply of really cheap machines that can be fixed up and sold for even a small profit.

The best way to profit in the computer hardware industry, IMHO, is offer a local computer repair service. That way you can charge your customers for whatever parts are needed to repair their machines, plus something for your time.

[donhh]

Rebuilding older ThinkPads is a fun hobby. I've probably done forty over the past several years. In my experience it is difficult to even recover the cost of the parts needed to rebuild the older machines. Especially is that true today, with the cost of new IDE hard drives being more than a T2x or T30, or maybe even T4x series machines are worth.

My opinion is that it would not be possible to earn any kind of significant income refurbishing old ThinkPads. Almost all the older models, even fully refurbished, will only bring $75 - $150. I often pick up T4x machines for ~$25-$50 that need some repairs. I can easily spend $100 on parts needed to repair or complete the build. Then the machines can be sold for $100 to $150. Since I consider it a hobby, I'm happy if I can just break even, and recover my cost when I sell the ThinkPad.

It might work better to look for cheap current models that are broken or malfunctioning, and would sell for a few hundred bucks after repair. It's just really difficult to find a large enough supply of really cheap machines that can be fixed up and sold for even a small profit.

The best way to profit in the computer hardware industry, IMHO, is offer a local computer repair service. That way you can charge your customers for whatever parts are needed to repair their machines, plus something for your time.

I'm open to all avenues. As I mentioned, it's a passion for the refurb,rebuild and the success that it works again as it should that motivates me. I'll do a search on e-Bay out of curiosity to see what the trend is on the newer models. A local repair shop is also a good idea as there are none close by. Even if I made a couple a bucks on the older ones to get some capital that's a start. Thanks for the input and your experience with this.
Donald