How to Ebay a cheap laptop (buy)

How to get a laptop cheaply as possible on Ebay!

Things You'll Need

• internet access (library will work)
• between 2-300$

Instructions

1. Ok, lets say you don't have a computer now. All you need is a library card!

2. 

   Go to the library, set up a PayPal account at https://www.paypal.com .

3. 

   Set up an Ebay account https://www.ebay.com .

4. Don't just buy anyone of them, what you want to do is spend your first day looking at the available ones, search "laptop" then go to "laptop, notebooks" and view your results. You have the option of viewing lowest price first, but this will be a waste of your time.

5. 

   Decide what your budget is in relationship to what you want to do with it. If you are only looking to surf the web, you may get away with spending only $100 - 200 . Consider Wifi options as well, especially if you live in a major metro area. I did not pay for internet access for 4 years because I live downtown in a major metro area. Free and open signals are everywhere. I suggest an external Wifi card, as it is easily replacable and upgradable. Your best bet is to make sure the laptop has the neccessary slot (PCMAI) and is set up, or has the card with it. This is the card I use.

6. Has your PayPal account been fully set up? If you don't use this, or use credit/debit, then you will have more difficulty finding a seller.

7. Ok, now you know what you want! This can be done in less than an hour. What you want to do now is go to your ebay account and I will walk you through a wonderfully deplorable method I call "sniping". Search back into the laptops, once you have them up, list them as "ending soonest" at the right top of the listings. Now you can look at them and see what is going to end now, but don't do that. You want to be able to check the sellers records and actual product, don't rush too much!

8. The best time period to check is the ones ending between 30-40 minutes from now. Look at your options and put any you are interested in on your "watch list", that way you can go over them at your leisure. Now, go through each one and look at the available options, does everything work? Do they tell the truth, such as "battery has no guarantee, but comes w/AC adapter". Remember, you are going cheap, not the time to complain about having to plug it in to use it!

9. Look at the buyers "feedback" they are not all going to be nice, see why they have any negative...if any. Sometimes it is the customer, (ie* slow shipping, charged too much for shipping, that sort of thing). Ebay can be a great resource if used wisely.

10. Do they have a lot of sales? Especially in computers? What does the positive feedback from customers say? Now...the tricky part, I did end up with two laptops once. If this happens it is not hard to find someone who wants a working laptop for less than 300$, haha. I did! Bid on more than one, if you find more than one that you like. All you have to do now is wait, do not be alarmed if you miss out. Rome wasn't built in a day, and you may have to do it more than one day to achieve what you want!

11. 

    Do think about wireless, this is a recent map of towers.

Tips & Warnings

• Stick to your budget, don't get bid crazy...there are plenty of other days for this opportunity!

• Listen to customers feedback, and read them!

• Use PayPal, for your own protection and ease of purchase.

• Read the ad closely, I do prefer to buy from a regular seller.

• If you decide you want better and have a higher budget later, Sell your old laptop on Ebay! (I always do this).

• Use the customer dispute feature on Ebay if you need, do the buy right and you won't need it!

• If you choose Wifi, DO use a good antivirus protection.