What price to sell broken laptop?

Question

I have a 2003 Dell Latitude D600 that one day stopped working. It would not charge and would not turn on. We tried straight out-of-the-box new chargers and batteries, so that is not the problem.

I bought a new laptop and was hoping to sell this old one to someone who might like to buy old ones and fix them and re-sell them. It is most likely just the motherboard that needs to be fixed. There is no major appearance damages. It worked amazingly fine before that day it shut off without notice.

How much do you think I could price it for?

Please be reasonable. No answers about how I shouldn't have bought a Dell (It was a 2003 and I bought it used in late 2007, and for cheap, so really I did great with it), or I should sell it for 50 cents, or those spammers saying I can answer questions and get a bunch of free laptops. Just serious answers, please. Someone told me $100, but I'm not sure if I could get that much.

Thanks :)

Answer 1

I'd suspect the power-board on it (where the power button is)...try pressing down near the capslock/numlock/scrollock lights (next to the power button) and turning it on...if that works, you may be able to get it fixed cheap if that's the case, and then you could sell it for a lot more...or keep it.  This computer should have a little button on the battery too, that tells you how full the battery is.  If the battery has power and my suggestion doesn't work, it's probably the mainboard but the rest of it is good for parts.

This model (and all other Dells with the same power plug) have a bad rep for breaking so they can't turn on.

Look at eBay for a good idea of the going rate...this is basically the same as the Dell Inspiron 600m (I know, I got eBayed D600 parts to fix my 600m) so there's a good market for both parts and computers.  As someone else said, you could either sell it for parts (probabley about $100) or have someone take it apart and sell the individual pieces for more (as said, $75 for LCD, $50 for inverter, $150 for the top-panel including the screen, hinges, etc).

***IMPORTANT***:

If you had files on there, either don't sell the hard-drive or have it erased by a computer-shop first - it's easy to recover all the data even if the computer won't work.  Ask how much your local computer shop (probably mom&pop shops will be cheaper than best-buy or circuit-cit) would charge to remove, recover, and erase a laptop hard-drive.

EDIT:

If you do sell it as-is, you have to disclose what happened to it...even if there isn't some sort of law regulating this, it's just unethical.  I know when I was looking for parts I tried to bid $50 on a broken 600m for parts but was outbid...

http://cgi.ebay.com/DELL-LATITUDE-D600-B...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Inspiron-600m-l...

Answer 2

if the laptop is broken i wouldn't sell it because its broken of cause!

if you do want to sell it sell it for a maximum of $80 then someone will buy it because it has a good price (don't tell them it's broken though)!!!!!

Answer 3

most common is the charging port / socket is damaged. you verified the charging brick is not the problem. make sure you connect the laptop up to a monitor and your screen is not dead. if you plug in the laptop and the plug feels loose. you can get it repaired or sell it on e-bay. del has not seen it though thay know the power socket is a good start. though it could be time to go. check out circuit city and ask them how much to check a laptops power socket. you can get one off of e-bay and have them replace it.

Answer 4

This is likely to be  a motherboard failure, in which case the cost of a spare would be more than the machine is worth, maybe more than a new machine. It is worth nothing.

Answer 5

$100 would be about right.

One thing to consider is selling parts.  The LCD alone would probably get you $100 and the inverter would be another $50-100 depending.

You should check out ebay.com or craigslist.org to see if anyone else is looking for a broken laptop for parts...