Hi all. I'm not sure if you ever get posts like this, I hope I'm not out of line. So here's the deal, I bought a brand new Dell Inspiron 6000 notebook about 3 months ago. And basically I'd like to sell it and buy an iBook (DON'T DO IT - I hear some of you saying, haha). Your feelings for MACS aside, I was wondering if the notebook I bought 3 months ago for about AU$2500 (US$1840) is still worth around the same today? The specs are; Intel Centrino 1.6Ghz 1gb Ram DVD Dual Layer Burner 60GB Hard Drive 15.4 inch wide-screen (All the software disks, xp home, etc) 3 Year Warranty (with accident & theft coverage as well) 9-cell 80whr lithium ion battery (which was an upgrade) And it came with a printer and carry bag. There's some people around this forum who are truly experts with technology, so I was wondering, in your opinion, how much do you think would be reasonable to ask if I wanted to re-sell it? Has it dropped significantly in worth? (haha - maybe I overpaid to begin with). Thanks for any advice.

Let me answer your question with a question: Would you buy a USED laptop for about the same price as a new one??? You can sell a pair of used socks for $100 if you hang around this earth long enough to find the right sucker but if you want to sell it in any reasonable amount of time then you will have to accept a loss of a few hundred dollars. Not withstanding, one of the big things that people look at is speed, and 1.6Ghz isn't that fast by todays standards. I wouldn't even look at a laptop with less than 2.66ghz

You could also check ebay or retail computer sites to see what something similar is selling for. Ebay would be a good start, I am sure someone is selling a used laptop close to your model.

ebay tends to have the highest prices on items, generally. If I was to sell one of mine, that's how I'd go, but I'd sure never pay that kind of money for used gear. Generally the buyer won't or can't guarantee the item, which is worth a LOT of money for a piece of gear like this. One good drop , especially a laptop, can do a lot of damage, if not cosmetically then to the hard drive. There of course is no more factory support for a used laptop. Starting to look pretty bleak, isn't it?

The warranty is transferrable, so if you list it, stress that point. I think you will have to deduct $400-500 for a sale. You can avoid many of these Windows problems with Linux. Linspire eases the transition for new users