LCD monitors

[John Foust]

At 02:32 PM 4/23/2005, Eric Smith wrote:
>I've seen that good laptop LCD panels often sell for more than the price
>of a new laptop equipped with a similar panel.  I've never understood this.

Are there that many places that actually repair laptops these days
that would drive an eager market for replacement exact-model LCD panels?

After all, when the whole laptop is sold, the seller rarely specifies
the exact model of the panel inside - but a repairer in need could either
assume the panel is the same model and buy the whole for less than the
panel sold-separately but knowing which model it was.

And why would someone who owned a broken laptop pay someone's labor
plus markup on a replacement panel, when they could get the similar
laptop for the price of the panel?  Why wouldn't the repairer just
buy the used similar-model laptop and swap the hard disk?

As for flat panel monitors with stuck pixels, if I could buy
them at a discount, I could use a half-dozen for tasks around
the office to replace bulkier monitors in non-critical tasks.

A friend in Mexico called me the other day, looking for a source
of inexpensive laptops.  He said there's quite a booming market
for used laptops down there.  Many people would prefer a small 
laptop over a full desktop for their home system.  He thought
that even if he had a source of $300-400 200-500 Mhz systems
that he could mark them up 30%.

- John