We recently had a laptop battery go dead (well, it wouldn’t hold a charge for over 10 minutes) on us and needed a replacement. The laptop (a Dell), itself is about 3 year old but running like a champ (knock on wood). So we call up Dell and find out the battery will cost over $300 and wouldn’t ship for over a month… seriously.
No thanks we said and went over to eBay and found the exact same part number, brand new, for $80. We placed the order and the part shipped the next day. A 375+% savings isn’t bad at all.
So the next time you need a part for something off-warranty, consider eBay. There are tons of surplus resellers which are running constant “Buy It Now” auctions so you can get exactly what you need.
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Jason Faulkner is the man who brings you our daily tips. He is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
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lespaul20 said:
5/15/2008 5:58 pm
Be careful thought. Most of the batteries are not OEM but generic batteries built to fit. I wouldn’t doubt they work but they may not last as long an OEM both runtime and overall batter life. But they are a lot cheaper and are probably worth it.
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redandy_99 said:
5/16/2008 2:10 pm
Wow, a savings of 375+%! Not often does a company pay you back more than triple what you paid
Just being a wisenheimer of course, but your savings was ~73%… nothing to sneeze at.
($300 - $80) / $300 = 0.7333
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