What is a reasonable price? (used 2007 T60p w/warr)

[perfplus]

Can anyone enlighten me as to what would be a fair price for this Thinkpad? It's a pre-owned 2007 T60p w/warr.


* Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 2.0 GHz Processor
* 4 GB DDR2
* 100 GB Hard Disk (7200rpm)
* 14.1 inch SXGA+ 1400x1050 LCD
* ATI Mobility Fire GL V5250 256 MB Video Card
* DVD RW and CD RW Drive
* Intel 802.11 abg Wireless Card
* Bluetooth/Modem
* 1GB Ethernet Card
* Security Chip
* Fingerprint Reader
* 9c Li-Ion Battery

[NorrisCell]

Any wear on it? What is the warranty expiration date? Posting the seven character product type from the bottom of the machine is very helpful

[Ken Fox]

When I have a question like that, I go to ebay and do an advanced search on "completed items." You have to be registered with ebay in order to do that, and you have to sign into your account first or you will be prompted to do so. Make sure to choose your search terms wisely; in this case I'd search on "T60P," and then after I got the results I'd click on the category on the left "laptops," to eliminate all the listings for accessories and other stuff.

Unless the laptop is really ancient (this one is not), you should pull up quite a number of listings. When you look on the right side at pricing, only the ones indicated in green actually sold. The successful sales are really the only ones worth looking at, since sellers are sometimes unreasonable, or there may not be much interest in the item, no matter how it is priced.

By looking through the successful sales you should get a pretty good idea of what a given used laptop is worth, and you will see how age and condition and remaining warranty effect the sales prices. You will also probably notice that people with better "feedback" scores and a large number of feedbacks tend to be more successful in selling stuff, and will tend to get a better price, because they are regarded as more "reliable" sellers. You could have a situation where someone is selling nearly the identical laptop you are asking about, for a low price, and it might not sell because the seller has a bad feedback rating (like 92/100, for example), so you need to take all these things into consideration before reaching any conclusions.

This type of an ebay search will give you a much better indication of the current market value of any particular laptop than any person's best guess posted in this thread.

[ajkula66]

FWIW, I've sold one with fairly similar specs, dead mint for $650 + shipping some 5-6 weeks ago. Warranty was good until December, and it had Verizon WWAN along with a brand new battery.

Hope this helps.

[perfplus]

The unit, is a 2007K4U, a CTO. From the photos, it's looks to be in excellent to mint condition. The warranty is good until 7/2010 + accidental damage coverage. Said to be functionally excellent, nor has the warranty been used as of yet, or any parts yet replaced.

What I found on Ebay in many cases, was that it was difficult to find a near match. Many others were significantly higher in price, even though the configs were close, but really no cigar. There were things like; less initial ram, smaller/slower HHD, lesser vid card, etc. I don't know...I guess what I should have asked was "How much, is "too much" to pay for a system with this configuration?".

Thanks to all who are so generous to provide an answer.

btw...I've never felt compelled to buy anything from Ebay. Of course, this is not to say that there aren't any good deals to be had out there. It's just me.

[Ken Fox]

What I found on Ebay in many cases, was that it was difficult to find a near match. Many others were significantly higher in price, even though the configs were close, but really no cigar. There were things like; less initial ram, smaller/slower HHD, lesser vid card, etc. I don't know...I guess what I should have asked was "How much, is "too much" to pay for a system with this configuration?".

Thanks to all who are so generous to provide an answer.

btw...I've never felt compelled to buy anything from Ebay. Of course, this is not to say that there aren't any good deals to be had out there. It's just me.

You are unlikely to find an exact match when you do this sort of "completed items" search on ebay. The most important things are the things that you cannot change (or at least can't change easily) such as screen resolution, processor, video card, (and for me) warranty.

When looking at new or used laptops there are "non-negotiable" items and "negotiable" items. For example, I wouldn't take a 15" XGA laptop for free; the screen resolution would not satisfy me, so how such a laptop would be priced would be of no importance. Other people might insist upon a discrete video card in machines (like a T60) that might or might not come with one. This would depend on such things as how the laptop were to be used.

Other things can easily be changed. RAM and hard disks are both dirt cheap now, so I wouldn't attribute much importance to whether a machine was being sold with 1 vs. 3gb of RAM, or an 80gb 5400 HD vs. a 320gb 7200 rpm drive. These sorts of things can be swapped out and if you know how much they cost (e.g. recent prices for 320gb Hitachi 7K320 drives have been running around $55-$60 after rebate) then you can make a mental adjustment for a laptop that sold having less than your comparable configuration. A pricegrabber or froogle.com search will give you a good idea of current pricing on items like notebook hard drives and notebook RAM.

In the end there is going to be a fudge factor of plus or minus 10% (e.g. 20% variation from high to low pricing) on any of this stuff; simply looking through completed sale listings of identical new laptops will show that. Still, if one is looking for the best real time information on the value of any commodity item, such as a modern used laptop, you would be hard pressed to find better (free) information than you will get from an ebay completed items search.

[perfplus]

I understand what you are saying. Thank you for your advice.