Would you buy a PC off eBay?

[Loony BoB]

I'm looking for a second PC, and keep having trouble finding a decent price for the kind of stuff that I'm after. So, out of curiosity more than anything (I'd already checked dozens of sites), I looked at eBay.

The PC's, home-made for the most part, are selling at around half the price of normal PC's. The only difference is that they are personally built (and this can actually be a good thing if they do it well, and it looks like some advertise testing of PC's before shipping). They have technical support and warranties, although it looks as though you have to ship the PC - but I don't have a problem with that as I can get help from my friends to fix anything.

Otherwise, the sellers generally have 99-100% feedback and have been around for a while. The prices are insanely low in comparison to the prices you'd get at your local major electronics or computer store. So, would you buy a PC from eBay?

Note: I'm talking mainly to the UK people here, I haven't checked the US pricings. UK pricings are generally a bit heftier after you convert them over, we have to shell out a bit more on retail items.

[TasteyPies]

No way, there are so many advantages of buying one from a store.

[Del Murder]

I'm not in your country but I bought my laptop off of Ubid.com. It's all refurbished stuff and they guarantee it's workability. Cheap too. We've got a couple PCs from there and have no complaints.

[Lordofsomething]

I don't know, can those people be trusted?

[Yamaneko]

My PC is custom built from a company in Baldwin Park (20-30 minute drive from my house). I've had trouble with my power and reset button. I sent it in, they replaced it and sent it back to me for free. Of course the warranty expires in two years, but I got a good deal. What's really a price killer for many big name companies like Dell, HP, and IBM (especially IBM), is that you have to purchase the WinXP license with the computer, which adds about $200 to the cost. I had a clean HD when I got my PC.

Oh, and I would never buy a computer from ebay.

[Shlup]

I would buy a PC off eBay. But, then again, I'm stupid.

[TasteyPies]

I'm stupid.

Let me just save that

[Loony BoB]

I don't know, can those people be trusted?

Judging by their feedback, they definitely deliver operating PC's in good time. What I can't judge is how long they're good for, but yeah, if Del says he got his off an auction site I can't see how it would be that different.

[Lordofsomething]

You could get a box of rocks from someone so...

[Loony BoB]

I could, but then they'd be kicked off eBay and lose the 99-100% satisfaction over 2-4 years that they've worked up, which is invaluable. In other words, that's not the bit I'm worrying about. If 99% of over 1,000 people have had these PC's send and delivered without even the tiniest bit of trouble, well, that's better than HP or Dell could say (and I know this 'cause I've seen the failure/DOA percentage for them since I work in the industry). xD

[Del Murder]

It's different because Ubid guarantees their product. Buying it from a person (ie eBay) is more risky and I don't recommend it.

[Eien]

I'd buy parts for a PC over Ebay but not a whole computer. I could probably make one better then what I could get off there.

[Loony BoB]

It's different because Ubid guarantees their product. Buying it from a person (ie eBay) is more risky and I don't recommend it.

What if you had it confirmed that the person selling to you has had 2105 buyers give positive feedback and only 12 giving negative feedback? Usually the people are saying it's not as described, but that's probably just them misunderstanding something like an XP motherboard not having Windows XP on it.

[Del Murder]

Check out the people who give positive feedback. Sometimes they create other accounts and make dummy purchases just to boost feedback. Otherwise, yeah that sounds ok. If the price and specs were right I might consider buying one.

[Loony BoB]

For people who know UK prices, the stuff I'm looking at includes this, this and this. Mainly the middle one. Notably they come without an OS and the first two come without monitors etc, but looking at the prices available on that stuff I'm not bothered at all.

I have loads of time anyway, there are enough of the things available.