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Comment by nowarninglabel | Hacker News Reader

and she’s got a strong case…

Uh, no she doesn't. Buying a working laptop for $60 is going to easily constitute knowing the laptop was being sold for less than true value. Sorry, I don't have the link, but this whole receiving stolen goods knowingly thing was explained fairly well on HN in some comments a couple months back.

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I didn't know how cheaply a laptop could be purchased for so I just checked on Ebay for Used/Refurbished laptops. Currently there are 47 'Buy It Now', nominally complete and working, laptops/netbooks available for $40-60.

They all looked pretty crappy, is it reasonable to assume they are all stolen property on the basis of their price alone?

A good bunch of them, most certainly.

It depends on the type of laptop. Today, a brand new laptop can be had for $350. If this was, say, a 4-year old model with a lot of wear and tear on the surface (possibly, since it was a laptop that was loaned to people), then it's possible that it appeared worth under $100.

The article is not really clear about that, but it sounds like the laptop was broken and had to be fixed.

Given that it’s possible to buy new laptops for $300 it is certainly entirely possible that $60 are a reasonable price.

I think the point was that the laptop wasn't working when she bought it. She had to have it fixed.

Take a look at page 3. She not only didn't but it until it was fixed but she also demanded the original agreement be kept on the price.

http://www.internetcases.com/library/cases/2011-08-22-clemen...

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