The Bizarre Economics of Used Laptops
Let’s talk about used laptops—the Wild West of tech pricing, where logic and reason seem to have packed up and left long ago. It’s a market where nothing makes sense, everything is overpriced, and you wonder if everyone involved is operating under the influence of a coffee-induced haze.
Take, for instance, the MacBook phenomenon. Somehow, a seven-year-old MacBook with a processor that struggles to keep up with Chrome tabs still commands a resale price three times higher than a comparable Windows laptop. Why? Because it’s shiny, has an Apple logo, and probably smells faintly of artisanal coffee. Don’t get me wrong, MacBooks are solid machines, but paying $700 for something that cries at the sight of an iMessage notification? Feels like a choice. (but a MacBook is a very nice machine, especially these new M4 Pro models)
That said, credit where credit is due: Apple clearly did something right. People are still rocking 14+ year-old MacBooks daily, and many of those machines could outlive your average consumer-grade plastic Windows laptop. But whether today’s soldered, glued-together MacBooks will stand the test of time like their aluminum-tank ancestors?
My last laptop—the late, occasionally shocking HP EliteBook 840 G5—deserves a moment of silence. It was a business-grade champ that I got for free because some company thought it was e-waste. Sure, it had some quirks, like zapping me whenever I touched it while charging, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers. And when you’re not paying a cent, you learn to live with the occasional jolt.
Here’s where the used laptop market truly turns bizarre. That same EliteBook, which I grabbed from the trash heap, would sell for $600+ in the refurbished market. How? People pull these laptops from e-waste bins, wipe the drives, maybe slap on a new sticker, and boom—suddenly it’s a “premium enterprise-grade laptop.” And guess what? People actually pay that. Meanwhile, I happily used mine until it fizzled out and probably won't spend more than $100 on an old Chromebook as its replacement.
Speaking about Chromebooks? Another pricing enigma. The same refurbished Chromebook—same model, same year—can range from $100 to $300 depending on which seller feels like cashing in that day. And for what? A machine built to barely survive Google Docs, let alone anything requiring real computational effort. Seeing a $300 price tag on a Chromebook that panics at the sight of a 10MB Excel file feels like satire.
The truth is, the used laptop market runs on vibes and perceived value. MacBooks are seen as luxury items, even when they’re closer to relics. Chromebooks get a pass because people buy into the idea that “simple” equals “affordable.” And enterprise laptops? Well, their reputation for durability and performance gets leveraged into some pretty inflated price tags—despite the fact that many of them come from the IT graveyard (that's why we have no cool ThinkPads to play with for any less than $500 now...).
The smart move? Skip the overpriced “refurbished” listings and go straight to the source. Businesses toss out laptops all the time, and with a bit of hardware know-how you can score yourself a decent machine for free. Sure, it might be a bit battered, and the charger might hum ominously, but hey, that’s just character, right? (seriously, if the charger sounds broken just buy a new one, surely the savings can go towards a $50 replacement charger)
I may not get another laptop as good as that. However if you go hunting around enough, your next “free” laptop might even come without a side of hazard. But let’s not aim too high—that kind of luxury is usually reserved for those $700 MacBooks.