hope you and yours had a good Christmas!
re: laptop
that is one thing that I would NOT buy on ebay; simply due to the number of things that can either BE wrong or GO wrong....
If you are not a computer whiz (and I count myself in that group too
) why not get one where they will give you a 1 yr warranty (or more?) and you have confidence in them backing up the product. That way you will have some comfort level in what you get.
I say that because SO many things can be 'sporadic' problems. I have exactly that right now; a CD ROM that is ok....MOST of the time. but now and then it skips. Prior to my last hard drive crash my computer started taking occasional 'time outs' just to 'think' I guess.... and maybe that was my warning; I didn't know. Thing is, you may not see this stuff on a computer that you get used; ie to try out for 5 minutes; and the famous ebay disclaimer is that "but it worked fine when I sent it; must have been dropped during shipping!" (which of course could be true too...)
ARe you up on the features and characteristics and what is proven technology and what is new technology etc when it comes to laptops? (maybe new isn't necessarily better?)
Some company like Dell should prob be reasonable to deal with I would guess? I think IBM is either getting out of PC's or IS out already.
a few thoughts; hope you don't mind. Good luck with it
gp