A working laptop with its charger has the most places to go: a retailer’s trade-in, a specialist buyer, CeX, or a private sale on eBay or Facebook Marketplace. A broken one has far fewer, because the big retail schemes only take laptops that switch on. Below is what each route pays in, how fast, and what it refuses, from each buyer’s own site, checked in late September and October 2026.
When we priced one laptop at eleven UK buyers on 24 September 2026 (an HP EliteBook 840 G8 with an 11th-generation Core i5, working, with its charger), the offers for a used one ran from £1.50 to £138, using the nearest model where a buyer didn’t list that exact one. The two highest, CeX and Laptops Direct, wouldn’t have taken it broken. So get more than one quote, and check what each buyer refuses before you compare the figures.
The main routes, one by one
Currys trade-in
Currys values a laptop online in a few questions. Finish online and it sends a free postage label or arranges a collection, checks the laptop when it arrives, and pays by bank transfer, which Currys says takes 3 to 5 days to reach you. In a Currys store you’re paid on the spot. That’s an eGift card, not cash. Currys holds a quote for 14 days.
Currys won’t accept a laptop that doesn’t power on or has no working battery or power adapter, or one with a cracked screen or liquid damage, or one more than 7 years old.
musicMagpie
musicMagpie gives an instant price, lets you send the laptop free, and pays by bank transfer on the day its checks are done. It promises to pay the first price it offered or send the laptop back free. It prices by exact model, so look yours up by name.
CeX
CeX buys in its shops and online. It offers two figures: cash, or a voucher worth more. Its terms ask for the essential accessories with every hardware item, the charger included, and there’s no option for a faulty laptop.
Back Market
Back Market is a large marketplace for refurbished laptops, so its trade-in comes up in searches. Its UK trade-in takes phones, tablets, MacBooks, headphones, speakers and consoles. Windows laptops aren’t on the list.
Selling it yourself
eBay and Facebook Marketplace make you the most on a recent, clean laptop, because you’re selling to the person who’ll use it. You also do the work: photos, a description that names the processor and its condition, answering questions, and either posting it or meeting a stranger. On Marketplace, take payment in person or wait until a bank transfer has landed in your own account (a screenshot or an email saying it’s been paid isn’t money), and don’t post a laptop to a buyer you haven’t been paid by. For an older or damaged laptop the work stays the same while the price falls.
Us
We buy Windows laptops only, working or not. The quote comes from the processor and its generation, the brand, the screen size and the condition, and we hold it for 14 days. A quote over £20 gets a free DPD collection on a weekday you choose, and the driver brings a padded box, so you don’t need to pack anything or print a label. Quotes of £10 to £20 go to a DPD shop drop-off, and under £10 you post it yourself.
We check the laptop against the condition you chose within 24 hours of it arriving on a working day, and pay you by bank transfer the day we check it. If it’s in worse shape than you said, you get a revised offer before anything happens, and if you turn it down we send it back at our cost. Lost the charger? The grade stays as it is, and an Excellent laptop without one is £10 less (£75 for a gaming or workstation laptop).
Cash or a voucher
A voucher or gift card is worth having only if you were going to spend that money there anyway. CeX’s voucher price beats its cash price. Currys pays in store with a gift card. If you’re not buying from them, compare the cash figures.
If it’s broken
This is where the list gets short. Currys refuses a laptop that won’t power on, a cracked screen and liquid damage, and CeX has no faulty option. We buy all three as Faulty, along with keyboard faults, dead pixels and a battery that won’t charge, and the price comes from the processor inside. A Faulty 15.6-inch HP with an 11th-generation Core i5 is worth £34.50 to us. The faults we take, and how we grade them, are on our page about selling a broken laptop.
What moves the price, whoever you sell to
Whoever you sell to, the processor sets most of the price, whether the buyer asks for it or works it out from the model name. An 11th-generation Core i5 is worth more than an 8th. Condition comes next, then the charger, which several buyers count against you if it’s missing or isn’t the original. With us, a 15.6-inch HP with an 11th-generation Core i5 fetches £115 in Excellent condition and £80.50 in Good. If you’re not sure which processor yours has, find your processor before you fill in any form.
We can’t tell you which buyer pays most for your laptop this week. Prices move, each buyer weights condition differently, and the only way to know is to put the same details into two or three forms.
Before it goes, wherever it goes
Back up what you want to keep, sign out of your Microsoft account, then reset Windows with the option that cleans the drive. Our guide to wiping a laptop before you sell it covers Windows 11 and 10.
Our form takes about a minute and shows our figure before you commit to anything, so it’s a quick way to get one of your quotes when you sell your laptop.
