Who Buys Cheap Laptops

Cheap laptops are such a gamble. 

I have one friend that swears by cheap laptops.  I think that it is because he was extremely fortunate the first time he purchased one.  He didn’t really notice just how bad some of the other cheap laptops were.

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I have another friend that has bad luck with cheap laptops.  She refuses to spend enough on a computer.  She is almost always in the middle of some type of crisis involving one of her cheap laptops.  I am pretty sure that she has spent enough on cheap laptops since I’ve known her to buy two top of the line models.

I’ve been looking for an IBM Thinkpad.  I looked through and found some with a search for cheap laptops on eBay.  I am just a little suspicious with the disparity in costs between a used laptop and a new one.  I really don’t like overpaying for technology, I don’t think anybody does.

I think that there really are a lot of hidden costs for cheap laptops.  They cost you worry and time and sometimes the cost of another computer.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there selling broken laptops disguised as cheap laptops.  This secondary market will continue to flourish as more and more laptops are produced and purchased.

Cheap laptops aren’t for everyone.  My father just bought a laptop from Dell that cost $2300.  He is extremely thrilled with his purchase.  I can’t imagine paying that much for a laptop.  I would rather stay with cheap laptops because if something in my computer screwed up and I had paid that much for it, I might have a heart attack.

As with all technology and consumer items, cheap laptops have a very specific market that is different than the market that uses the Dell catalog.  The people that buy cheap laptops will likely never be fully persuaded to pay full price for any cutting edge or top of the line item.  The only way they are changing sides is by winning the lottery.

There are some people that really desire the newer laptops and end up buying cheap laptops strictly because of budgetary concerns.  Dell offers a laptop at $1000 that is great and not too much.  If someone can save or finance, this is a better deal than the cheap laptops for half that price.