A Comprehensive Guide to Computer Purchase: 10 - Getting More Value for Your Money

This article is a transcript of a video that you can watch by clicking the thumbnail below. Hence, certain statements may not make sense in this text form, and watching the video instead is recommended.

Introduction

We all love to pay less for more. While buying computers, there are several ways that I have learned how you can do just that. Some of these are pretty obvious, while the others occurred to me only after some experimentation. Let's talk about some of my secrets of squeezing a little more out of the money I spend.

A Few Obvious Ways

Let us start with the obvious ways that most of us know:

1. We already did talk about buying pre-owned computers and how it can get you more for less, or have you spend less for more, whichever way you’d like to look at it.
2. Dropping down on features you do not need can help you save some money that might have been spent on something that you might have not even used during the entire duration of your ownership.
3. Shop across platforms and do not place your offer on the first listing you come across. Some effort and a lot of patience can do wonders here.

A Few Non-obvious Ways

Now that we have the obvious methods out of the way, let us look at the rest:

1. Unless you’re very specific about the model year you’re looking for, try looking for models with low demand. These are usually better machines than the rest that will be within your reach given your budget, but won’t be priced as high as they are not so much sought after. For example, laptop computers with Intel Core series processors were only equipped with a dual-core processor before 2018, so that makes anything from 2017 and earlier a little less attractive at least to enthusiasts. Another example is that if you’re OK to carry a proprietary charger for your machine instead of being able to charge it with the same USB charger as your mobile phone, you can beat some competition there. I’m not saying this would make so much of a difference, but these are just a few ideas.
2. Sticking to listings with free shipping could save you money that would’ve been otherwise not spent on the machine. I’d rather buy something a little more expensive for free shipping than spend that money on postal fees.
3. If free shipping isn’t an option, some sellers let you pick it up in person. You might just have to drive to their location and back, and depending on how far they’re located, or how good of a deal it is, it could be worth the effort.

Coming Up Next…

OK, we almost have everything covered. In the next video, we’ll talk about the pros and cons of buying online or in-person.