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Best place to sell laptop or desktop?

M

MacFanJeff

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 28, 2008
220
3
IL, USA
I am looking to sell some older machines, but am having trouble getting much interest. The problem I am having is that I will NOT use sites like Craigslist to put ads on because they don't screen people enough. Mainly, I have always used eBay because if you know what to look for and have maintained a great feedback rating like myself then it is the best place I found until this year. My eBay sells have dropped to virtually no interest and I have 100% positive and been a member since 1997!

Right now, I find that unless you practically give them away, you can't sell hardly anything. ALL of my items are in GREAT condition too which is the other real issue. Others may discount more, but they have cosmetic issues or such. Also, it does not pay to advertise locally because it does not reach a large enough audience that would want used computers.

Any thoughts in general on selling computers or on eBay sells in particular?
 
I use craigslist, even though you say you won't. I am not afraid of the people on there, if someone wants to come and try to rough me up for an item, have at me. I always have friends with me when the deals go down, and I always meet in public.

I find that I get MORE money on craigslist vs. ebay because there is no PayPal fee, shipping, and like you said people with lower quality items pulling prices down.

So my advice is give craigslist a try, indicate very clearly that you will NOT ship this item on the craigslist listing to avoid a majority of scam emails, and try at it.
 
uberamd said:
I use craigslist, even though you say you won't. I am not afraid of the people on there, if someone wants to come and try to rough me up for an item, have at me. I always have friends with me when the deals go down, and I always meet in public.

I find that I get MORE money on craigslist vs. ebay because there is no PayPal fee, shipping, and like you said people with lower quality items pulling prices down.

So my advice is give craigslist a try, indicate very clearly that you will NOT ship this item on the craigslist listing to avoid a majority of scam emails, and try at it.
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That another reason I don't use craigslist.com, I don't want strangers showing up to my home. Also, I don't have a large enough population to draw any interest anyway. That is why eBay was always best for me until this year.
 
I just used Craigslist a few weeks ago to sell my PowerBook. Sure, you got a few scammers and low ballers, but once they're out of the way, you can find some genuinely interested people.

Meet in a public place (I used a Starbucks) and bring along a friend.
 
MacFanJeff said:
That another reason I don't use craigslist.com, I don't want strangers showing up to my home. Also, I don't have a large enough population to draw any interest anyway. That is why eBay was always best for me until this year.
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NEVER meet at buyers/sellers home. You should always meet in public places like gas station or cafe.

eBay is the best place, the safest and biggest amount of buyers. Is there someone in your family (family member's friend) who needs a computer? You could try selling it to them
 
Hellhammer said:
NEVER meet at buyers/sellers home. You should always meet in public places like gas station or cafe.

eBay is the best place, the safest and biggest amount of buyers. Is there someone in your family (family member's friend) who needs a computer? You could try selling it to them
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Meeting at Starbucks to sell craigslist items works just fine. As long as you meet in public, it will be safe. If someone insists on coming to your house, or theirs, just move on. Something likely isn't right.

eBay satifies the introverts who don't want face to face meetings, but this makes fraud so much easier. Every electronic item I've ever purchased on eBay was misrepresented to some degree -- some by accident, some on purpose. If people know that they have to meet you in person and let you inspect the item before purchasing, they are less likely to cheat you, IMO.
 
dacreativeguy said:
Meeting at Starbucks to sell craigslist items works just fine. As long as you meet in public, it will be safe. If someone insists on coming to your house, or theirs, just move on. Something likely isn't right.

eBay satifies the introverts who don't want face to face meetings, but this makes fraud so much easier. Every electronic item I've ever purchased on eBay was misrepresented to some degree -- some by accident, some on purpose. If people know that they have to meet you in person and let you inspect the item before purchasing, they are less likely to cheat you, IMO.
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That's true. I never use places like eBay to buy or sell major things like computers, I only buy and sell cheap and easily sendable things like games.

But yea meeting at Starbucks about 6PM and nothing can go wrong. Also, accept only cash, no bank transfer after the deal or checks.
 
I sold a computer on Craigslist right before Christmas. Worked great. Like others have said, meet in a public place, ask for cash, and bring someone with you.
 
Craigslist works fine. Why don't you try different sites including CL, and actually figure it out, before making baseless assumptions?

Why don't you actually search? Plenty of threads on selling through ebay or CL.
 
Hellhammer said:
That's true. I never use places like eBay to buy or sell major things like computers, I only buy and sell cheap and easily sendable things like games.

But yea meeting at Starbucks about 6PM and nothing can go wrong. Also, accept only cash, no bank transfer after the deal or checks.
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I completely agree. Ebay for small items (i sold my whole xbox 360 game collection individually on ebay over a few months and ended up last month with $350 i was quite pleased. But I sold a laptop last year on craigslist and it was fine. I met a couple at food court at my local mall and had my best buddy with me and they paid cash so i was happy. $400 big ones in my hand. I then headed over to Best Buy and bought a new PC (BAD IDEA) that broke so now I have my Macbook Pro :D:D Soooo Happy
 
I've used Craigslist to sell 4 or 5 Macs and have had success. Sometimes you won't get as much as you want, but it sure beats giving eBay and PayPal all of their fees then having to ship it.

As other people have mentioned, beware of people wanting to give you extra to ship it and pay by Paypal. I just sold my 15" MBP on CL and for fun sold it a couple of extra times to Nigerian scammers. Lots of fun screwing with them.:D
 
Not sure if you want to sell the computers outright or if you are interested in trading them in for a new machine, but I have recently used Powermax's trade in program and found it to be wonderful. I was more than happy with the service I received from them. http://www.powermax.com/ in case you are interested in checking it out.
 
Dig into the community here and meet the Marketplace requirements. One of the best places to sell your used Mac equipment.
 
iMav said:
Dig into the community here and meet the Marketplace requirements. One of the best places to sell your used Mac equipment.
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I would, but the requirements is a bit high I think to post in the sellers area. While I like this site, I simply don't have time with my day job, family, etc. to worry about some rules for posting. Besides, I could post blah, blah, blah just to rack up my 250 post count and it wouldn't help anyone else or be something that would help me. That is why I think "rules" like this site have are pretty useless and lame when the quality of what information you need or want should count more.
 
As I said in my OP, I don't use Craigslist for several reasons. Even if I was OK with selling in public, I don't live anywhere close to a large city and there is little market in our area. That is why I try to sell nationally for a wider audience. People would have to drive at least 2-3 hours to meet in most cases and that is not going to happen.

Some mentioned the problems with eBay, but until my sells dropped this year it was the best place to sell items. I send out smaller items like movies, games, etc. via Priority Mail, insured, with delivery confirmation. Larger items I ship via insured UPS.

I have sold items on eBay ranging from $20 to over $5,000. The key is to setup your auction rules and say you only accept bids from pre-approved bidders and/or look for users that have been around for at least 5+ years with more than 100 positive feedbacks and a rating of at least 97% or better. State this in your ad rules and cancel bids you feel are from users with little feedback. Also blocking those that don't have a Paypal account, selling in the USA to a street address that is "confirmed", blocking those with 2 or more bid retractions, etc. avoids much problems. Doing this I have sold high-end computers, electronics, etc.

If you know what to look for, rather buyer or seller, you can have a great transaction. In fact, there are a select few people that have great equipment that is high-end they just want to upgrade or get something else. You learn to build a network of those users and look for ads from them again. I also do not mind eBay's new policies they have put in place the last two years. It has helped to drop the scammers a great deal and leaves more good sellers/buyers to look for.

In regard to Paypal someone mentioned taking the 3% fee, if it is a nice item for $1,000 or more and you are selling it at about 50% cost or so then many are willing to pay the 3% Paypal fee but you MUST state that in your ads so the buyer knows up front.

I was just hoping someone knew of another site like eBay that had more traffic to sell, but even ubid.com and overstock.com seem to be having trouble. Maybe it's just the economy too.

Thanks for the replies, I will try here when and if I ever get the 250 post "rule".
 
I've sold on craigslist quite a few times. As others have pointed out, use some caution and use precautions.

I made sure I met during the day, in a public place and with someone else. In my case, it was at a local coffee shop where I know the workers and I had a guy friend with me.

Worked well: no ebay fees, paypal cuts or shipping.
 
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