Where to Buy Used Computers

Video Transcript

"On behalf of expertvillage.com my name is Don with Friendly Computer's and I'm here to talk today about buying a used computer. Now, you've decided that you do want to look for a used computer, you've already determined some of your needs and requirements. Now, where do you go to find the computer that meets those needs? It's not like there's a lot of used computer stores on every corner. Now one thing a lot of people do is they go to the yard sales and garage sales. Now, granted there are some great bargains to be found when you go to these places. I've heard of people finding perfectly good, almost new machines for next to nothing, but those bargains are more the exception than the rule. When you go to a yard sale or garage sale to buy a used computer, always see what the price is and the feature set unless you're comfortable just throwing it away if it doesn't work. Find out if there's a way that you can actually turn that machine on before you purchase it and make sure that it at least starts up. Beyond that there could be a lot of small issues or problems and some of those things are just inherent in buying something second hand. Now, the next place that you can go and one that is usually a pretty good place to see used computer equipment is through your local newspaper or your local bargain shopper type page. Many people advertise in them. Now, there's two types of people there, there's mom and pop who just want to sell their old computer cause they're buying a new one and then there's people that actually go and buy and refurbish computers and sell them. Now, both of these can offer some great bargains, but both of them can have some things to watch for. If you're going to someone's home, remember the first rule of a used computer is if they don't want it there might be a good reason. So check it throughly, make sure what they're asking is fair, make sure it's something that you're willing to pay for that machine and before you even go there make sure you understand the capability of that particular machine is. Now, buying them from somebody who is rebuilding them and does that to resale them, that might be a very good option, because at least somebody who is technically competent or sufficient to some degree has had their hands on the machine and has probably done some repairs and fix ups and made sure that the thing runs. However, most of the times you're not going to have a warranty with that and you're not going to have any way to go back. So, again you have to be a little bit careful even with these kinds of things to make sure that you get some references from other people that have bought machines from them or make sure that the price is such as if you have to go back and you can't, you're still okay with fixing it up the rest of your way yourself. You can also go into local computer shops like any Friendly Computer's. Many times we do get used computers and when we do if they're valuable, if there's good in them we'll fix them up, we'll mark them appropriately and then we'll resale them. It's not as inexpensive as the other ways, but you know that it's been certified."