$100 Laptops Fetch $600 on eBay

US consumers go nuts over discount charity laptop

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 25, 2007 11:11 AM CST

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$100 Laptops Fetch $600 on eBay — Renzo, 8, reads on his laptop in Arahuay, an Andean hilltop village in Peru, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2007. Doubts about the One Laptop Per Child project evaporate about as quickly as the morning dew in this Andean hilltop village where 50 primary school students have spent six months with the little green... (Associated Press)

The $100 laptop is turning into the $600 laptop on eBay, reports the San Jose Mercury News, sealing the novelty value of the computer aimed at children in developing countries. Nonprofit One Laptop Per Child is also hawking the laptops through year's end, but many shoppers shelled out extra in private auctions to ensure Christmas delivery.

Buying from OLPC is better for your wallet and conscience. The $425 buys two laptops—one for you, and one for a needy child. Many eBay scalpers promise to donate to OLPC, but few do. But other desperate eBayers may just want a second, since the machines network with each other. (More One Laptop Per Child stories.)

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