Is it a good plan to buy a used laptop? My overall answer is no, obviously this is still opinion based even though I have read up on what many other people have said about this. Every guide on the internet to buying a used laptop is lengthy and has many steps to make sure you get a good one. This is a lot of work and chances are the person who is looking to save money on a cheap laptop is no expert on computers so they are not going to be that great at finding problems on them. But think for a Minuit how long would it take to find a really good computer to buy say you checked three or four before you found a good one. Each one you checked over probably took you a day or so. Imagine if you were paying someone to do this for you how much is that amount of time worth.
Even if you do get a really good laptop it is still going to need some refurbishing which costs money. It is going to be a little slower then a new computer and worse in quite a few different ways. So you are making quite a few sacrifices just to save a little money. Is it really worth the aggravation.
Laptops are not made to last long so why would you buy something that you know is not going to last much longer.
A battery is another reason to not buy a used laptop. Batteries can make up one eighth of the price of a brand new laptop. And maybe halve of an older laptop. In most cases an old battery regardless of what it is in is no good. They only last so long rechargeable or not.
There is only one situation that I can think of that would be worth buying a used laptop for. And that is for parts. If you had a computer of the same make and model as the one that you are buying, and it needs parts that the computer you are buying has. It would probably be worth buying if it means your older laptop will work for a longer period of time.
Kelly green