Driven By a Little Old Nerd on Sundays
Buying used computers can make sense
Gateway 2000 sells refurbished notebooks and desktops at three of its Gateway Country stores in South Dakota and Kansas and also by phone. IBM's Internet-based Refurbished PC Warehouse sells current and older models.
Buying refurbished means taking what you can get because the stock changes constantly. If you're interested in a specific brand, ask the company if it sells refurbished items and what's available.
Refurbished and discontinued models are also available through dealers. Mail-order-house Damark devotes a section of its catalogs of electronic goods to factory-serviced computer items. Recently included were a low-end Canon color inkjet printer for $120 and an Iomega external Zip drive for $100.
Another specialist in refurbished and clearance items is Surplus Direct. Its recent flier, for example, included scanners and digital cameras in addition to other typical PC fare. Jem Computers adds a touch of auction fever by putting an assortment of refurbished products into a Web site "basement," where prices drop 10 percent a week until the stock is cleared out. Jem handles equipment from such firms as Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, AST, and others. A desirable IBM Thinkpad laptop with a Pentium 166 MMX processor was recently being sold at $3,599--about $1,000 below the model's current new price--and scheduled to drop 10 percent a week until all five of the units were gone.
Traditional retail stores are tapping into the demand, too. Some CompUSA outlets occasionally have refurbished PCs on sale. The Computer Renaissance chain, which assembles custom-made new computers at its franchise stores, makes a specialty out of also selling refurbished and used computers and peripherals. There are now some 170 U.S. and Canadian stores in the chain and an additional 80 or so are scheduled to open within the next year. These outlets will also buy old gear or take it in trade. If you have access to the Web, you can go to the firm's site at [http://www.cr1.com] to check the location of stores. As retail and factory outlets proliferate, it can only get easier to buy reliable secondhand machines.
Dropping values
Computers can work fine a long time, but their worth soon tanks
YEAR SOLD MODEL NEW PRICE USED PRICE
DESKTOPS
1996 Micron Pentium 200 with 15" monitor $2,890 $1,460
1995 Gateway Pentium 100 with 15" monitor $2,390 $635
1993 IBM 486-SX/33 with 14" monitor $2,050 $295
LAPTOPS
1996 Toshiba Pentium 90 with CD-ROM $4,390 $955
1995 Texas Instruments 486-DX2/50 $3,990 $580
Note: Used prices are estimates and will vary depending on precise configuration, warranty, and rapidly fluctuating market conditions.
Source: Orion Research Corp.
Where to find computer deals Most sellers of refurbished computer gear and excess inventory also deal via the Internet. Go to the U.S. News site at usnews.com for direct links to their Web sites. Several have factory outlets. Here's how to reach many of the sellers by phone:
MANUFACTURERS: Packard Bell-NEC: 888-474-6772; PC Factory Outlet store in Sacramento, Calif. IBM: 800-426-5440; no store, but its Refurbished PC Warehouse is on the Web Compaq: 888-215-8864; Compaq Works outlet store in Houston Gateway 2000: 800-846-3614; also at Gateway Country Stores in North Sioux City and Sioux Falls, S.D., and Overland Park, Kan. Dell Computer: 888-274-4366; outlet store in Austin, Texas Micron Electronics: 800-730-0932; outlet stores in Boise, Idaho; Salt Lake City, and Minneapolis Acer: 800-767-0334; outlet store in San Jose, Calif.
RETAILERS: Damark: 800-729-9000 Surplus Direct: 800-753-7877 Jem Computers: 800-536-2037 To reach Orion Research, publisher of the Blue Book of used computer values: 602-951-1114 or E-mail orion@bluebook.com
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