Anyone have any experience buying computers on eBay?

[TheOrangePeanut]

I was going to build a computer in the next couple of weeks, but I'm looking at computers on eBay and I just can't compete with the prices. Take a look at this one, for example. e7200, 4 gigs of ram, a free PCI-E slot so I can upgrade the video card later on, all for around 400 dollars. I can't beat that... but is it too good to be true? Anyone have any experience with this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Intel-Core-2-Duo-E7200-2-53Ghz-4GB-320GB-20X-DVDRW_W0QQitemZ130252305658QQihZ003QQcategoryZ179Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[smoker]

the guy's a power seller, so obviously he's got some happy customers, but bear in mind the components maybe the cheapest available.

if you haven't built your own machine before, why not now, even if it works out a little more costly, the satisfaction of knowing you've built it yourself is priceless, and you never know, maybe a friend will want you to build one for them, and adding a bit on top to build theirs may make your machine less pricey!

[NovaAesa]

I have never actually gotten an entire computer off ebay, but I have gotten lots of upgrades from there. 2 monitors, RAM, disc drives, hard drive, and a video card. Never had any problems with any of them.

[ronnielsen1]

Just pay attention to responses. If there's alot of negatives. . .

[TheOrangePeanut]

Thanks for the replies. I typically do build my own systems (and have for years) but thought I might get a good deal on something like this. I ended up Newegg'ing the parts and he does use the cheapest parts possible. I guess I'll end up building this system too :)

[Chianti]

Well... from my experience it's always a risk. But if you are careful, in the worst situation you're gonna get your money back

I've build 2 desktops buying hardware only on eBay and bought one laptop from the US even if I am in Europe. I didn't have any major problems.

Until... last time I did a deal with a shop (is a power seller on eBay) because I needed a big number of the same product for me and my friends. The deal had been made through e-mail. I found it strange that the seller agreed to a very interesting price + shipping easily... In the end, I didn't received the product and I had to ask my money back from paypal. Until now I received only half of the amount...

The general rules are:

1. Power Sellers are low risk but in huge e-shops **** can happen because of the huge amount of buyers/products they have to deal with.

2. The bigger is the shop, the more clients they have, the worse the communication will be.

3. Paypal seems to be the more secure method and you must always consider it if the amount you're paying is high enough (and you 're not rich). Watch out for the deadlines and use all the possibilities it gives you if something goes wrong.

[gn2]

I've only ever bought cheap second user PC's and laptops from ebay.
I got a Dell Optiplex SFF P3 desktop PC for £10 a while back and it's now a dedicated music jukebox.

For new hardware I buy from my local shop or a mainstream e-tailer like www.ebuyer.com