I vote ebay on that one my friend....

Anandtech FS forums,just stick with the established members,they use HEATWARE for feedback ,if you need help or questions about a seller let me know I have been there for a couple years now.

Lots of good deals to be had but stay away from the too good to be true as there are less than honest folks out there..

Also local craigslist is good too..

I don't care how good someone said they took care of it: I wouldn't buy a used laptop, TV, monitor, OR hard disk. Go to Dell'* website and spend another $100 and get a NEW laptop. The Vostro 1000 starts at $429 with free shipping and handling.

A good article on 10 things not to buy used: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...erBuyUsed.aspx

I've had good luck with used laptops off ebay. It is riskier, as already mentioned - looking in the local paper or craigslist would be the same thing except you could inspect it before buying it.

try usanotebooks.com. my work buys from them and out of 50 laptops we have purchased used only one was sent back.

$320 was the cheapest, but this is an option.
http://www.geeks.com/products.asp?cat=NBB

i was looking for a cheap one also but around here they go for about 300$ and they need more often a 100$ battery so i bought a new one for 550$

I just spec'd out an Inspiron 1501, Athlon 64 XP Dual Core TK-55, 1GB RAM, 120 GB HDD, 9 Cel battery for $442 shipped, with a $50 Dell gift card. It pays to be a Dell member

Hey big_news_1, not sure if you bought anything yet, but though i would let you know that if you use your PayPal account to buy a Dell, you should be able to get $50 credited to your PayPal account

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/*...=19&l=en&*=dhs

(the order I spec'd out about was too good of a deal to pass up. Essentially got a laptop for $361 shipped if you count the $50 Dell gift card and $50 PayPal cash back. Initially thought it would be $442, but they split my discount and I have to pay tax on a portion before discount)

EDIT: Well, almost! Be aware that $50 is the MAX you will receive for ALL PayPal purchases... my wife apparently "used" $14 of this with a Toys R Us purchase today.