Blackburn Computers ·
How to read a laptop lot spreadsheet before you buy
What each column on a laptop lot spreadsheet tells you, how to count the configurations, and how to turn the sheet into a cost per saleable unit before you buy.
Start with the columns, not the price
A lot price tells you what the whole parcel costs. The spreadsheet tells you what you are actually buying. Before you divide one by the other, scroll across the header row and note which columns the sheet carries. On our lot pages the columns are renamed into plain words, so you will usually see Model, Processor, Memory, Storage, Keyboard and Grade, and, where the sheet records them, Battery, Charger and Notes. The downloadable CSV keeps the original wording for anyone who prefers to work from the raw file.
A missing column is information too. If a sheet has no Battery column, nobody recorded battery condition, and you should price as though some units will need a new one. If there is no Charger column, assume the machines arrive without chargers. Most business lots do.
Treat the summary line at the top of a lot as a summary and nothing more. “Mostly Intel Core i5-1145G7” means most units, not every unit. The sheet is the record, and it is the thing to price from.
Count the configurations
Open the CSV in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets and sort it by Processor. Then insert a pivot table, or use a simple COUNTIF, to count the units for each processor. Do the same for Memory and for Storage. Within a few minutes you know whether a lot of 400 is really 400 of one machine or six different specifications sharing one model name.
This matters because resale prices follow the specification, not the model name. An EliteBook with an i7 and 16GB sells for more than the same chassis with an i5 and 8GB, and your own customers will ask for a specification, not a family. A lot with three tidy configurations is easier to list, photograph and sell than a lot with eleven.
Write the counts down. You will use them again when you price the lot, and again when the stock arrives and you check it against the sheet.
Memory and storage: read the zeros
A memory or storage cell reading 0GB, shown as “none fitted” on our pages, means the unit has no memory module or no drive in it. Corporate fleets often have drives removed for data security before the machines are sold on, and memory is sometimes pulled for reuse. Neither is a fault, but both are a cost you need to carry.
Price those units with the part included. If 120 units in a lot have no drive, the lot needs 120 drives before it is saleable, and the drive type matters: most business laptops of recent generations take an M.2 drive, older or larger models may take a 2.5-inch SATA drive, and some take either. If the sheet does not say, check the service manual for the model.
Watch for soldered memory. Some slim models, convertibles especially, have their memory fixed to the board. On those, the figure on the sheet is what the machine will always have, so an 8GB unit cannot be upgraded later for a customer who wants 16GB.
Keyboards decide where a lot sells
Check the Keyboard column before you buy. A German, Nordic, French or US layout sells well in its own market and slowly in the UK, where most buyers expect a UK layout, with the tall Enter key and the pound sign above the 3.
With a foreign layout you have three options: sell the units into a market that uses that layout, fit replacement UK keyboards, or apply UK keycap stickers and price the units to match. Each costs something in parts or labour, so cost it before you buy rather than after. A lot described as mixed layouts needs counting like any other column.
For exporters the logic runs the other way. A lot of US layouts can suit a buyer abroad far better than a lot of UK ones.
Grades, batteries and notes
The Grade column carries a letter for every unit, A to D. Count the letters the same way you counted processors. The summary line lists which grades are present but not how many of each, and a lot described as B and C can be mostly B or mostly C. Our guide to cosmetic grades explains what each letter means for resale.
Where a Battery column exists, read it closely. It may record a health percentage, a cycle count, a pass or fail, or that the battery is missing altogether. If you sell to the public, a battery much below 70 per cent health is worth budgeting to replace.
The Notes column is where faults and exceptions are written down: a cracked bezel, a missing key, a stated fault, a lock. Units come with no BIOS locks unless the spreadsheet says otherwise, so a lock recorded in Notes is the exception you are being told about. Read every note before you buy, and give any unit with a note its own line in your costing.
Turn the sheet into a cost per saleable unit
Now do the arithmetic. Start with the lot price divided by the quantity: that is the unit price shown beside every lot on the stock list. Then add what each unit needs before you can sell it: memory or a drive where none is fitted, a charger where it shipped without one, keyboard work, a battery, and your own time to clean, test and image the machine. Add the delivery charge, which is shown in the basket before you pay.
Divide the total by the number of units you expect to sell, not the number you are buying. If ten units are grade D and destined for parts, they recover some money but they will not fetch a full resale price. The figure you end with, your landed cost per saleable unit, is the one to compare with what the machines actually sell for in your market.
If something on a sheet is unclear, send the lot number on WhatsApp and ask. It is quicker than guessing, and the answer comes from the same spreadsheet you are reading.