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So this company "Laptop Heaven" will give you quotes for laptops instantly after providing model name and a quick summary of damage (no adapter, no battery, broken screen, bad HD, can't power up) and optical drive option.
My thoroughly shattered last-model iBook G4 would go for $100; with a working LCD, it'd be about $200. This was about in line with my expectations. So I decided to look up my old thinkpad 600 (just a bad HD). I expected around $20, but no. They would pay $2 (and shipping), including the adapter! Two bucks?! That was a bit crazy, so I got a quote for a pristine macbook pro: $550. !!! What kind of idiot?!
Anyway, it reminded me of why these specialized and low-information sites end up becoming exclusively junk shops. Basically, so that they don't get systemically fleeced, they have to low-ball everyone by assuming that anything they don't know, is minimized (least RAM; scratches; missing/stuck keys; &c.). Then again since they are low-balling everyone, most people who resort to their service will have smashed systems. The end result is that you implicitly end up with a trade exclusively in total junkers, which is a small and presumably undesirable chunk of the market.
Here is something interesting, though. When I claim my thinkpad has a broken LCD, the value goes UP to $5. This suggests that they're using an automated valuation system, and not experts. But maybe it does make sense in terms of risk management - a lappy with a broken LCD is more of a "known quantity" than a lappy with none of the 5 damages indicated.
Or maybe it's a mistake. It doesn't matter anyway, I'm just curious how they do their pricing. Maybe someone should mine their website and reveng their pricing.
My thoroughly shattered last-model iBook G4 would go for $100; with a working LCD, it'd be about $200. This was about in line with my expectations. So I decided to look up my old thinkpad 600 (just a bad HD). I expected around $20, but no. They would pay $2 (and shipping), including the adapter! Two bucks?! That was a bit crazy, so I got a quote for a pristine macbook pro: $550. !!! What kind of idiot?!
Anyway, it reminded me of why these specialized and low-information sites end up becoming exclusively junk shops. Basically, so that they don't get systemically fleeced, they have to low-ball everyone by assuming that anything they don't know, is minimized (least RAM; scratches; missing/stuck keys; &c.). Then again since they are low-balling everyone, most people who resort to their service will have smashed systems. The end result is that you implicitly end up with a trade exclusively in total junkers, which is a small and presumably undesirable chunk of the market.
Here is something interesting, though. When I claim my thinkpad has a broken LCD, the value goes UP to $5. This suggests that they're using an automated valuation system, and not experts. But maybe it does make sense in terms of risk management - a lappy with a broken LCD is more of a "known quantity" than a lappy with none of the 5 damages indicated.
Or maybe it's a mistake. It doesn't matter anyway, I'm just curious how they do their pricing. Maybe someone should mine their website and reveng their pricing.
