cheap laptop
 

can anyone point me in the direction of a good used laptop seller? i'm looking to buy something that i can take back and forth to school (i commute) i'm not looking for anything new, such as a dell, as i know that i will probably buy a new one after i'm out of school.. i found one on tigerdirect.com for $450.

thanks

DO NOT BUY FROM TIGERDIRECT
unless you wanna have your address and cc sold.

BestBuy has a lappy on sale for around $450 today and tomorrow but it's a celeron.

I've had success with eBay. Just make sure to research the seller, some won't be much help if you end up with a dud. And obviously never send more than a few bucks to a guy who has a rating under fifty or so.
It just takes patience... but you can get a great deal if you wait for the right auction. I checked every day for two weeks before finally buying.
But the $450 best buy is something I'll look at, since I'm going there tomorrow anyway.

Edit: and more eBay paranoia: only send by PayPal or legit money order. Regardless of the guys rating, don't send to an escrow or anything.

which one is it thats on sale, i cant see it on bestbuy.com was it an open box ? or instore only

it was actually Circuit City that had a $500 Toshiba 2.4ghz 256mb DDR, DVD/CDRW 14"celeron laptop. And nothin' wrong with a celery in a laptop - it's not like you need desktop power in the thing.

You should also take a good look at refurbished laptops.

http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/st...goryId=2576396

For IBM.

Weigh the options and read the fine print on anything with Best Buy/Circuit City/etc. sometimes they have a $200 rebate for signing up for 2 years of service for MSN or AOL or Earthlink or some other BS.

I think either Best Buy or Circit city had brand new Toshibas for sale for $599. I know it is more than you were looking to spend, but I thought maybe it would be worth the extra $ for a brand new one.

You should set your priorities. Do you want speed, lightweightness, long battery life, fast graphics, etc. etc.? Keeping in mind the budget at all times, of course.

My bias has been, for the last few years:
1) Lightweight/small
2) Long battery life
3) Fast graphics
4) Processor speed

I find that something I'm going to carry around is infinitely more enjoyable to have when it weighs less and lasts longer off wire. But then, I have servers and stuff I can use to do my major work.