eBay MSI notebook barebones

I found eBay has good price on MSI notebook barebones. It's like $275-$350 for a 15 inch or 17 inch with nVidia chips. Normal MSI resellers will ask for $650. Any insights on how they can sell so cheap?

 

No idea as well... but you should be wary... for example one of them listed the MS 1651 as WSXGA+ on the auction title, only to list it as WXGA in the auction description. If a buyer is careless enough not to read the item descriptions, he/she may be duped in thinking that he/she has gotten a WSXGA+, instead of a WXGA.

The same thing is happening with the 17" MS 1722. Sellers are listing the WSXGA+ screen as having both the WUXGA and WSXGA.

The dishonesty is why i hate buying items @ ebay at times

 

Totally agreed. Someone in the forum is selling 1651 for $350 as well as eBay. Some member built a machine for $550 so I think there is a legitimate side of it. I was wondering what's the story behind the scene.

 

I just got one of the 1651's off ebay for $260. It was a WXGA, but for that price that's no big deal. I was able to put it together for about $400, or will when I track down the optical drive.

 

yeah i purchased one too and it was fine. just make sure you check feedback. i got mine with the optical drive for 310. Seems like they're going around a lot. I've seen many on craigslist too. I think MSI is going to discontinue it or something and make a new line

 

Make sure you can get the right ODD with a bezel that will fit the 1722. Most places are sold out and they are special made to fit the MS-1722.

 

the reason why those ones are ebay are cheap is because of low res and no optical drive. i bought my 1651 on here with WSXGA+ and super-multi drive for 350 it was worth the money. especially if you want the higher res, like i did.

 

All the 1722's on eBay are SXGA+ and no ODD for what is now averaging about $250-300/ea.

All other big vendors still selling that exact same model still want ~$800+ for it.

It's a great deal.

But yeah, the big problem is tracking down an Super Drive (ODD) for it.

I would almost bet with the next revisions (GX725), that is why there are so many of the SXGA+ models being dumped. Good time to snatch up a dirt cheap barebones. You can always do a USB install.

 

$400 is very impressive. I'd like that to be the budget of my first diy notebook. From my research, CPU is the most expensive item on the list. The Morem core CPU works for me as well but won't sit on this platform. Any recommendation on where to shop a good OEM Pxxxx?

 

I have wondered if MSI had a fire sale or if a container came up missing at the dock.

 

I was wondering the same thing. Don't know where these barebones came from. If this keeps this way, how could resellers survive?

 

Well, either way, legit resellers with inventory are probably getting hosed right now unless MSI is taking care of them.

 

Do you mean WSXGA+? I thought the only options on the MS-1722 for display were WUXGA(1920x1200) or WSXGA+(1680x1050)?

I'm still waiting for mine to arrive, was hoping for the WUXGA model but considering I got it for $222 with free shipping I'm not going to complain if it's not.

Rather than look for an optical drive, I'm thinking about seeing if I can stick a second hard drive in the optical drive slot.

 

no way they're going to arrive wuxga. what i mean is that the description given is somewhat vague and misleading. I mean you cant have an OR in an item description. It must be stated as a WUXGA if it is, and a wsxga+ if it is.

 

Most of them have been listing a part number which tells all on screen res.

937-172226-010 WSXGA+ glare
937-172226-003 WUXGA non-glare

 

Look here, this is why it is so cheep on ebay:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4478514&postcount=2

 

Dont believe everything you read online...

For one if there was such a heist there should be at least some news. Especially with so many on sale on Ebay they have to be idiots not to realize that the ones being sold are stolen units. For two the Ebay sellers are all well established. You would think if they need to have their intelligence checked if they are selling stolen units with their real addresses listed. For three I called MSI a few days ago about CPU compatibility. They told me that there were a good number of calls recently about the notebooks. If there was a large number of them stolen they would have at least mentioned something.

Now a more likely scenario is liquidation.

 

To stick within my budget I ended up going with a T5550 for now, which I got for $35 from a user here on the forum. So far I'm up to a total of $360, and I figure the optical drive will cost me another $50-60 more, so not bad all around. I did get the HDD 2nd hand too, but you gotta save money somewhere.

 

Heh, yeah, forgot the W....

 

If there's any question about the legitimacy of an auction, ebay usually takes it down right away. If MSI had gotten robbed, I'd think that by now they would have contacted the authorities, and ebay would be taking down these auctions for liability reasons.

There would be a warning about these stolen laptops on MSI's site if their factory got robbed. Most manufacturers will not honor warrantees unless the item is bought through a licensed dealer. Most of the people on ebay are not licensed dealers.

That's also not true. If you buy stolen property, you are liable for possessing stolen property. No manufacturer would ever honor a warranty on stolen product, especially if it was stolen directly from their factory!(If it were stolen from a retailer, the manufacturer has already been paid, but the retailer likely has to report the serial numbers of stolen items to be able to claim it on their insurance or write it off, so it's still not likely that they would honor a warranty).

Much more likely. If they're getting ready to launch a newer, better laptop then they don't want the old inventory hanging around, the retail price of the new one is probably the same or maybe even less than the current models... So they write the remaining stock off as a loss and liquidate it.

 

liquidation? I think not. Resellers/whitebooks are still paying way more than what's being offered on ebay. What makes the ebay sellers so special?

 

It is not uncommon for companies to dump inventory even undercutting their VARs to pad the bottom line, close out the books and/or make way for new models.

 

Well, after sitting on hold for like 25 mins...
i got through and said about the cheap bare bones and specific models and prices, and the guy said "i don't know how they can be that cheap, but if you see they have good ratings, then they should be legit"

so, no robbery here...

 

Hmmm.... Isn't circuit city going out of business? Maybe this liquidation is coming from a failing major retailer's inventory. When a company that big folds, they will often liquidate items at less than cost just to get something back for them. If it's costing them thousands of dollars a month to store the stuff, they figure it's easier to get rid of the inventory than to hang on to it.

 

i do not believe CC sold barebones

 

LOL @ the robbery claims if it's cheap and you like it. Go and Buy it, it's simple. A big heist would be in the news (at least when you google it)

 

I just find it peculiar someone new out of the blue claims they were stolen with no real concrete evidence....

no links, no real copy/paste, nada, zilch.

but of course if it is posted on teh Internetz it must be true....

"Elmer FUD....line 1...."

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=354907 Please read this thread.