One of my favorite auction houses recently publicized that it would be selling laptops from a bankrupted company at its next auction. Pre-publicity always brings out the high bidders, and I knew this would be no different. Hordes of people = $$$$.
At auction, about 50 to 60 laptops (and maybe even more) were stacked on a table at the back of one of the rooms where box lots are sold. This is the junk room, where items in boxes or trays can go for as little as $2 for a large lot (it’s also where you can find a few treasures).
The laptops were silver and black Dell Inspiron 1501 and Dell Vostro, which I was unfamiliar with. Cosmetically, most of them looked to be in good condition. Atop each stack were sheets of white paper with handwritten notes on the condition of the machines:
– Tested and working (with battery, no power cord).
– No battery or power cord.
– Not working (for parts only).
– No memory.
Stickers on the machines showed that they had AMD processors and Windows Vista (I’m sure the machines had been cleaned of software and other data). They also had DVD players and four USB slots. One person in the crowd guessed that they had 1GB of RAM (memory).
One of the auction staffers said he believed the laptops had belonged to an insurance company that went out of business. Also on sale were about 10 desktop monitors and CPUs, all of which were filthy with dust. I don’t believe these were part of the bankruptcy lot.
I was only interested in a laptop that worked (and at the right price). I always check out items before I buy, and I wanted to make sure these computers were operable. I pressed the ON button on one of the “tested and working,” but it wouldn’t awaken. A light came on, but the screen remained black. A weak battery or a dead battery?
Bidding on the laptops began around noon or so. Chatter among the bidders got lively. Everyone around me seemed to have an opinion, which was more like a guess. One woman standing atop a chair kept repeating that she could buy a new laptop online (or maybe at Walmart) for $600 with free shipping. Someone else said the battery alone would cost $60.
Being regulars, we were all of the same mind on one thing: We weren’t spending more than $100 for a “tested and working.”
I was thinking that even at $100, one of those laptops would be a bargain. At regular auctions, I have seen laptops go for $50. A few weeks earlier, a complete HP desktop – keyboard, monitor, CPU – in good cosmetic condition sold for about $100. I didn’t bid because I hadn’t seen it earlier and didn’t get a chance to test it.
The bidding started on the laptops, and a stack of about five without battery and power cord went for $300. One bidder took several of those stacks and others that were not working, along with the dusty desktop monitors and CPUs. He apparently knew something that we didn’t.
The “tested and working” laptops were sold last and individually. The price went way past $100, up to $270. Near the end of the bidding, a handful were left and the bidding had slowed. “You can buy now for $280,” the auctioneer said. He wouldn’t go any lower, there were no takers and the auction was over.
The auctioneer resumed selling the cheap items on tables in the room. Back to reality.
Did the buyers get a bargain? You know me, I Googled Inspiron 1501 when I got home.
The Inspiron 1501 series was introduced by Dell in 2006 and like Vostro was sold as a small business laptop. The Inspiron sold for $500 to $800, and Vostro, for $300 to $500. Dell no longer produces the Inspiron 1501. (My desktop computer at home is an Inspiron 530 that I bought about a year ago, and my laptop is an XPS M140, purchased a couple years ago.)
This week, used 1501’s with the AMD processor were selling on Ebay at various prices (I can’t make true comparisons because I don’t have all the specifics of the Dells sold at auction):
– Laptop with 1GB RAM – $237 (shipping $15).
– Laptop with 2GB RAM – $600, another sold for $270.
– Laptop with 1000MB RAM – $300 (with Windows XP, which is very popular compared to Windows Vista).
– Laptop for repair or parts: $68 to $150.
Amazon was selling one with 2GB RAM for $1,000 and 1GB for $699.
I also checked the cost to replace the battery and power cord, and add memory:
Battery: $10 to $80 ($155 at Dell website). Power cord/adapter: $20 to $70. 1 GB memory: $30. You can find bargains for each of these on the web.
I obviously didn’t bid on a laptop. Like everything else at auction, they’ll come around again. And next time, the crowd will be at home.
