I’m writing this column on a refurbished laptop I bought last year for about $250, a great price at that time. I got it from Dell Financial Services, a department of Dell Computers that leases computers and then sells returned units at a discount.
When I bought the laptop, it was already a couple of years old, so it wasn’t state of the art. Its battery life wasn’t optimal, either, and it didn’t come with any software. But it was fine for what I needed: a machine on which to write and connect to the Internet when I traveled. I already had software, and the battery life didn’t matter because I would mostly be using it in places with electric power.
I’m a great believer in buying things used whenever possible. Craigslist, for example, has a furniture selection more suited to my taste then most furniture stores at half the price or less. I’m not afraid of used electronics, especially when I don’t need them to last a long time — and a lot of electronic items will be obsolete before they ever quit working.
Last week, I upgraded my iPod from the first-generation Shuffle to a 120G Classic, big enough to hold all my music, for $189. It isn’t the latest model or even the latest version of the model. But it works for me. I keep my music backed up elsewhere. I bought the iPod from the Apple Store online, which sells refurbished Mac computers, iPods and other Apple products with a one-year warranty.
You have to be careful when you buy used to make sure you’re getting what you expect. The laptop, for example, didn’t come with a power cord, but worked with a cord from an old laptop. It came with a lesser warranty than you’d get with a new machine, but if it quits working in another year, that’s OK. It will probably be time to upgrade anyway.
