How To Save Money When Buying A Computer
March 3, 2008 – 8:24 pmBuying a computer can become one of the most expensive purchases you’ll make in the course of a year but it doesn’t have to be too painful.
I work on the Internet and our house currently has 5 computers (I’m expecting a new one soon too) yet I haven’t paid over $700 a single one.
What’s more, they’re not old, decrepid computers either. They’re new, with decent software, large memories and so on.
So what’s the trick?
Well firstly I would say to *not* go for loans or hire purchase - sure it may make buying a computer easier to swallow but it certainly won’t make it any cheaper. Quite the reverse in the end.
No, instead I have taken to buying my computers from one of two sources - computer resellers and Ebay.
Let’s take a close look at both of these options.
Computer Resellers
These suppliers can be a little hard to track down but essentially their business is dealing with large companies who replace their computer systems on a regular basis. These resellers will buy up the lot - hundreds, sometimes thousands, of computers at a time and then sell them on to you and me at a mega discount.
Appreciate that these computers are likely to have had a hard life but may well only be a year or two old. You can often pick up a real bargain here for quite a recent model.
Ebay
Not only can you sometimes find computer resellers as above on Ebay but you will also find small businesses (sometimes one-man units) who build brand new computers from scratch - and charge next to nothing. The PC I am currently writing this blog post on was bought in this way for less than $600 all in - flat screen monitor, 80Gig of Ram, mouse, keyboard the works.
To find a good deal don’t just base your decision on price but look also at the seller’s feedback. You want someone who has dozens, if not hundreds, of satisfied clients. When you find someone like that, *then* see what they have for sale.
Lastly, Ebay can be a great place to look for software (make sure it’s legitimate though!) or else over the coming months we are going to be covering quite a few pieces of free software that you can make use of (and will likely save you quite a bit of money).
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