I was trying to figure out what my old laptop would fetch, and it's hard, although laptops do hold their resale value better. It's only got a 500mhz proc, but 512mb memory, and it does have XP Pro. The docking station, I figure, is what makes it worth asking $250.

The one that I just sold (with wireless card tossed in) up on eBay a few weeks ago -- 300 Mhz Pentium, not Pentium II or Pentium III, but Pentium -- fetched just over $50.  You'll lose a little, unless it's a local sale, because of the shipping costs you'll need to factor in and including the docking station will work against you in that area (added weight = more shipping costs, which equals lower bids in most cases as people consider total cost and not just their bid amount if you go with eBay).

If you can sell locally (CraigsList type thing) you can probably do a little better.  Pentium III with 512MB should run Ubuntu fairly nicely, or kick the crap out of Win2K.  XP Pro not too bad, but perhaps a tad under performing compared to Win2K with that equipment.  Win98 or Me (fresh OEM load) would blaze on it I'm guessing.

Someone will surely take it off your hands.  Hopefully in the neighborhood (price range) you are looking for.  eBay continues time and again to prove to me that old saying about a fool and their money, or at least that people are more generous with their money when they think someone else may outbid them for something

No, I'm going to post it up at the college. Used electronics aren't a good sell on eBay unless you have a MASSIVE seller rating, in my experience.

As for craigslist, we are too rural. I have not seen a craigslist for our area.

OK, there is a craigslist in Amarillo now (there wasn't, last I checked), but postings are sparse. I could probably come out better selling this through the local computer repair shop on commish.

No, I'm going to post it up at the college. Used electronics aren't a good sell on eBay unless you have a MASSIVE seller rating, in my experience.

Posting around College would seem a good bet though I'd recommend checking sale prices on eBay and using those as a guage as to how much to expect to get, and even then work down a hair assuming that people that might get interested in an item they see posted at College are less motivated buyers than are the ones on eBay.

I think you are right about the seller ratings on eBay though, which is part of why I'm happy mine is well up in the 350+ range (achieved slowly but surely through many, many transactions.  If everyone that I've ever done business with had been nice enough to -- as I have -- leave feedback for me, it'd be in the 400+ range).

Higher ratings = more trust that you aren't selling junk, or at least that you've adequatedly described the junk and that there's still enough value to make it worth bidding on.

Again though, I wish you the best of luck and hope you find someone that offers up a decent price.  Just as a wild guess, I'd think you'd probably see the lower end of numbers you mentioned, and if so, it would probably be a good deal for all involved.

My wife has a Dell - we have had some problems.  A friend just got an Acer from Circuit City.  2gb, Core 2 Duo, and Vista Home.  Not bad the little I have played with it.

I like Dell, but am impressed with this Acer.  I will be keeping an eye on it.  As for your idea of Vista on XP, unless you REALLY have to run Vista all the time, I would go that route.  It is still too flaky to have to run it all the time, while XP has gotten rock solid with SP2.

 

Oh, I've checked baselines on eBay, and my pricing's competitive. I was gonna sell the laptop itself for $200, but since I have no use for the docking station, decided I would bundle them to try to get a better price.

BTW, I was wrong about the proc. It's a 598 Mhz...a little better.

As for eBay, though, there's a high percentage of stolen laptops sold on eBay, and many of the legitimate ones ship either with NO operating system, or in this generation of computers, with Windows 2000 or (gasp!) ME. When they do come loaded with XP (let's face it, most who would be interested in this laptop will be looking for XP!), there's often a WGA issue. None here. I loaded the computer with OpenOffice, AdAware, Spybot, and AVG, so it's ready to go and I will advertise it as such. I don't think I'll have much problem selling it.

It's a good laptop in general. I just need a platform to run Vista, and since I need a laptop for other purposes, it makes sense to go ahead and get the laptop with it rather than upgrading.

Yeah, I think that's what I'm going to end up with. By using VMWare, I can shut down Vista when I don't need it.

Sorry it took so long...been busy.

Screen size on my Toshiba is 15.4 inch wide screen.

Well, if I go for an XP build that narrows the contenders down substantially.

I'll probablyend up finding out Dell is my best deal (because of discounts, etc), but at least I know I've checked around.

for your price range and the requirement for warranty i would take a look at the Asus F5R

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3615

Asus is a high quality boutique laptop manufacturer thats way above most laps you see sold at BestBuy etc.

The best thing about Asus is they actually make their own laptops. Unlike HP and Compac and Dell and others including Apple.
In fact, Asus makes the mac laptops for Apple.

I personally own the Asus G2 and the asus screens are amazing.

My second choice for you would be maybe the Sony Vaio N Series laps. Nicely configured and all under $1000USD and superb screens!!!

good luck

Vaio makes a nice laptop, but they're WAY too proprietary.

Asus is one I'd definitely give a solid look, as I LOVE Asus Mobo's. The only question remaining on that score is if I can get an Xp Pro machine from them.

Great site, btw! I'm only seeing two Asus models for under a grand; one has Xp media center (not my preferred version of XP; true you can join it to a domain, but you have to make registry edits), and the other has Vista. Aaaaahhh, well, I'll give it a hard think; I may settle with Media Center after all (There's only 1GB RAM, but I can correct that easily enough).

theres nothing on a Vaio thats more propriety than any other notebook other than it may have a dedicated Memory Stick reader. Ive owned 2 Vaios prior to my Asus and its has USBs, firewires, DMI outs and all the same ports you'll find in any other laptop.

In fact the most proprietary laptop now is the Apple macs and in my opinion they are over-rated and over-priced.

My Asus G2 came preinstalled with XP Pro SP2 with MCE. The MCE is nice to have if you ever decide to add and external TV Tuner which i just did last weekend.

Ram and HD capacity can always be upgraded in a laptop. Most important aspects is to buy the best CPU, vid card with dedicated vram and the best looking screen u can get for the $1000 you want to spend.

Almost everything else can be added later on.

But ill say again, one look at the Asus notebook and you'll be amazed!
And yes, Asus laps are not usually cheap. Like i said they are a boutique manufacturer that makes their own laps. You wont see Asus laps churned out like Dells or HPs.

Lastly i think you'll be lucky now to get any laptop pre-loaded with XP.
Vista is the norm now so you may have to get your own copy or XP to install.

Yes, the problem isn't right away. When the laptop gets older, though, motherboard drivers, etc, can be a major pain to find. I like Vaio computers, but when I buy something I buy it for the long haul, and Vaios can be a pain once they are old enough that finding replacement parts becomes difficult. I'm also not keen on the Sony brand in general.

I gotta agree with you on the Asus, though. It does look like a sweet machine, and Asus has a very strong reputation. It will give Dell a run for the money (Dell HAS to make my short list, due to a number of reasons, one of those being the discounts I can get). It's a little pricier, but as you and I both know, sometimes it's worth paying extra.

And as for Mac, yup...overpriced, overrated. I'd consider a Linux build before Mac.

Speaking of which, do they make VMWare for linux? THAT might be an idea worth considering!

Well, I dumped nonessential software on the old laptop, and it's running pretty nicely. The main drawback to that machine is that it is limited in the number of processes it can handle. And since I want to work with VMWare and Linux from Scratch, I need to run a number of processes.