Expanding from local sales into Ebay over the last couple of months

We have been having a lot of success lately with our eScrap venture and sometimes have too much to sell than the local market supports. For smaller items <$100 I have been posting on ebay with pretty good luck - the only real problem I have had is a couple winners that didn't pay. So far I haven't had any scams or items stolen.

I'm looking into selling laptops ($350-800) since I have quite a few extra right now but I'm really cautious because of what I've read on this forum, I really don't want to send a $500 laptop and have the customer say that I sent an empty box. I'll be reading up on tips from you guys on how to protect myself as best I can from that kind of situation.

I figure I'll throw a couple of my auctions up in case you need some RAM, hard drives or other misc.

160GB Western Digital Blue SATA

2GB DDR2 SO-DIMM

Core 2 Duo 2.93Ghz

For computers, make sure that Windows is licensed properly. Microsoft comes down hard on piracy (As they should). Spend some time reading into that before you sell PCs, or just sell them with Linux or no operating system if you want to avoid that minefield completely....

I cover the Windows COA number in the photos to prevent someone using it to activate another computer by just reading it off the listing. Mike

anything over $100 i send insured. Then you dont have to worry about the empty box.

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Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper

anything over $100 i send insured. Then you dont have to worry about the empty box.

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How many packages did you ship in the past 12 months with Insurance?
How much did you spend on Insurance and how much did you receive in payouts during that same time frame?
I self Insure and am way ahead of the game

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Originally Posted by 4barrel

the only real problem I have had is a couple winners that didn't pay.

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Be sure to open unpaid item dispute as soon as you can >> at the 48 hour mark
Close as soon as you can >> 4 days later
At that point >> Buyer will get an unpaid item strike >> Be sure to have your blocks set to prevent ID's with 2 or more strikes from bidding on your items
Add that ID to your Blocked Bidder list

A couple of Samsung S4's with broken screens if anyone wants to repair them:

Samsung S4 Verizon

Samsung S4 US Cellular


I got about 10 of those in and they sold like mad at first, seems to be slowing down now that the S6 is out.

For unpaying buyers, you can make your BIN listings (Buy It Now) require immediate payment. This way, the item isn't sold until your paid. I've yet to have a non-paying buyer that way. ;)

A decent Dell E6500 - includes an 80GB blank hard drive. Vista code is legible under the battery.

Nice Dell Latitude E6500 15 4" Notebook Core 2 Duo 2 66GHz 4GB 80GB DVD RW | eBay

Have you considered re-installing Vista with all its updates? If not why not? Mike

If he's wiped the hard drive so the factory recovery partition is gone, or if he doesn't have the re-installation media that came with the computer, he would be in violation of software piracy laws by just reinstalling it with the key on the COA.

He would need to get re-installation media from Dell if they'll provide it (Unlikely), or he would have to purchase a license for the computer.

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Originally Posted by matador

If he's wiped the hard drive so the factory recovery partition is gone, or if he doesn't have the re-installation media that came with the computer, he would be in violation of software piracy laws by just reinstalling it with the key on the COA.

He would need to get re-installation media from Dell if they'll provide it (Unlikely), or he would have to purchase a license for the computer.

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I feel you are much more likely qualified to know what you have stated to be true but let me ask you a question.

If I have to replace my broken hard drive I am allowed to reinstall Windows as per the COA and the additional drivers can be downloaded from the computer manufacture?

My belief is that the COA is for that computer not that hard drive. Thanks, Mike

For your own use, yes you can do that. When reselling though, you have to use the original install media (Either via recovery partition on the HDD or via CD/DVD). Licensing is a very tricky, complex thing. Basically, though, it's harder to license for resale than for your own use.

The COA isn't actually a license in Microsoft speak, it's proof of a license. A lot of computers are refurbished by Microsoft Registered Refurbishers, who will purchase a new license for that computer.

I am going to try and move these vista machines without operating systems at this point, make sure they boot up to BIOS and that everything seems to be working. I have quite a few newer machines I need to get hard drives and power adapters for, so making 40-60 per laptop is going to fund the parts account.

As far as Matador's points on copyright policy, I would really not want to get in trouble on that side of things. I don't know how the guys that list 5-10 machines at a time do it unless they are just trying to make the sales and hope they stay under the radar.

I would really like to get moving on selling laptops on ebay with operating system - I'll do some more research in the next couple of weeks and see what I can find.

A lot of the "big guys" will be set up with Microsoft so that they can relicense the machines with a new operating system (Such as Win. 7 or 8.1). They're completely legal, but they have to move volume to make it pay off. The ones that sell 2-3 laptops per month on eBay won't usually be that far ahead, but if you sell 5-10 per day, working with Microsoft to become a Registered or Authorized refurbisher can be well worth it.

A lot of the online computer sellers do sell pirated software, sadly. For them, it always ends the same way....

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Originally Posted by 4barrel

I am going to try and move these vista machines without operating systems at this point, make sure they boot up to BIOS and that everything seems to be working. I have quite a few newer machines I need to get hard drives and power adapters for, so making 40-60 per laptop is going to fund the parts account.

As far as Matador's points on copyright policy, I would really not want to get in trouble on that side of things. I don't know how the guys that list 5-10 machines at a time do it unless they are just trying to make the sales and hope they stay under the radar.

I would really like to get moving on selling laptops on ebay with operating system - I'll do some more research in the next couple of weeks and see what I can find.

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An alternative is to install Ubuntu, which I do to test machines I get that don't have hard drives. Mike

I would advise to at least test them with a Linux live CD to make sure that there are no overheating/freezing issues. On eBay, though, a Linux machine won't bring much more money (If any) than a machine without an OS. If I were to spend that time testing with Linux, I would probably do the install anyways....