If you’ve bought enough computers over the years, chances are you’ve had at least a few of them that dropped in value so fast it made your head spin.
Before listing the worst, the best concerning resale value has always been laptops. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Lenovo, Macbook, Dell Inspiron or what-have-you. The laptop will always retain higher value than the desktop PC will. Note however that this is for standard sized laptops and not the smaller netbook format.
The worst concerning resale value however isn’t the desktop computer – although I bet you thought it was.
It’s the gaming console. And yes, that is a computer.
There’s not much that shoots down in value faster in value than gaming consoles and the games themselves that play on them.
To put this in perspective:
You buy a video game system for $250. What’s it worth in six months? About $100. If you can sell it for more, consider yourself lucky you found a sucker to buy it.
That game you bought new for $50? In six months it’s worth $15.
It is routine that gaming consoles and the games will lose 50% or greater (usually greater) of their value in six months or less.
OUCH.
Even cell phones don’t drop in value that fast.
What’s the best way to sell off a used console gaming system?
If it’s in warranty, that’s a huge, huge plus. Mention it in your listing on eBay or craigslist and mention it LOUDLY. This gives the buyer confidence that if the system busts it can at least be fixed for free.
If it’s not in warranty, well.. bundle as many games as you can and take what you can get. But don’t be surprised if what you get is less than half of what you paid for it.
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I have never purchased a computer even considering its retail value. Computers depreciate faster than fresh fish. They depreciate so that are near worthless in three years. Given that, I don’t think it matters which depreciate faster since they all depreciate ridiculously fast.
PCs do depreciate fast but if Windows 7 performance is better than XP (or so I have heard), it would breath some life into some old computers I have. In fact I will install W7 RC on an old Gateway with a 1.4 Ghz PIII processor and 768 MB RAM with the option of an ATI HD2400 AGP videocard. My second option will be a Dell P4 2 Ghz with 1 GB RAM and the same ATI card option.
On a side note I bought an Alienware Laptop for $3000+ and in 6 months they brought out the Core line of processors, I had a Pentium M, and in a year it was a fully functioning (but loud and hot) door stop. At least the Office XP license is still usable (oh wait Open Office works just as well).