One word: Classifieds

[epbrown@enteract.com (epbrown)]

	Remember the thread we had awhile back about selling through the
classifieds rather than the net?  I recently bought another 701 to get a
DX4-75 and a larger drive.  I posted an article in misc.forsale..portables
asking $1200 for my old DX2-50 with 12MB of RAM last week.  Withing ten
minutes I got an offer of $1000, and before the day was out generous souls
were undercuting that, advising me that this system was only a 486, the model
was discontinued, it had the NiCad battery, blah, blah, blah.
	I mentioned to one guy that IBM wanted more than a $1000 for the *active
matrix display* alone, hard drives and their caddies are in demand (hell,
*I'm* looking for one!), and I was sure I could sell the RAM, battery, and
manuals and still come out ahead.  Parted out, I could get $1200.  The guy
sent back an email explaining I was somewhat naive about the laptop market.
Right.
	Another guy mentioned that I probably wouldn't get more than a grand,
considering I still had the system THREE DAYS after posting without someone
meeting my price. Oooh.
	Today was the 1st day my classified was printed.  A CEO for a stock trading
co. called me at 8:30am and asked if I could come by around noon and let him
see the system.  The guy ran the diagnostics and gave me $1200 cash (the new
hundreds look like play money, don't they?) on the spot.  I got the impression
I'd *underpriced* the system, especially considering I've gotten about 12
calls this evening. (I'll be taking calls for a while, the Trib says it's too
late to stop the Saturday and Sunday runs).
	I paid $1500 for the DX4, so I managed to upgrade my processor, hard drive
(my old one was 360, the new 540MB), and memory (4MB more base RAM and I
already had a 16MB chip) for three hundred bucks.  
	By the way, IBM's policy on transferring the warranty is like this:  If you
have a receipt, they will honor the warranty from the date of original
purchase.  If you don't get the receipt for the used system, they will honor
the warranty for 3 years from the date of the system's release (in my case May
1995).  If you complain, which I didn't, they'll go so far as to check the
serial # and see when the system came off the line and go with that date.
Thought some of you'd be interested in that.
	epbrown
epbrown@enteract.com
Laptop Central
http://www.enteract.com/~epbrown