Is it safe to buy a laptop on international sellers in ebay?

I’m planning to buy a netbook/laptop, its so expensive here in my country. When I searched the net, ebay international sellers sell it so much cheaper even with shipping fee. I badly want a netbook.

I have sold dozens of computers all over the world (I’m from the US).

I will assume you live somewhere in Latin America because of your screen name. Here is what you have to worry about:

1. Make sure the seller is legit. Check their feedback and pay with Paypal.

2. Make sure the charger is 100v-240v. Otherwise, you might have to get a good power converter. You will need a plug socket.

3. If you are buying from a non-Spanish country (like the US, I would assume), you will have a non-Spanish keyboard. That means no “á”, “é”, “í”, “ó”, “ú”, “¿”, “¡”, “ü” or “ñ”.

4. Most countries don’t charge a customs charge for computers, but they do charge VAT (or IVA in Spanish). You can ask your seller to put that its a lower-value item on the declaration (I usually put that they are DVD players with value of $100), but some sellers don’t like to lie on customs declarations. It is very prevalent on ebay. Ask about this before you buy. Customs can always open it and charge you the tax anyways, but chances are small (except in Germany, Belgium and Russia in my experience).

5. Laptop manufacturers, expect Apple, don’t offer international warranties. And 3rd party warranty providers on ebay only offer warranties in the US, Puerto Rico and Canada. So, unless you buy an Apple laptop, you won’t be able to get any warranty on it.

6. Paypal protects you in case the seller never ships the laptop. However, if there is a problem with the laptop not being as described, you might end up paying out of your own pocket to ship it back to the seller.

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