What I have noticed......duh
 

Well u don't have to be a rocket scientist to have noticed that to replace a battery in a basic laptop is about 25% of the cost of a cheap laptop or to replace the glasstop on an electric stove is $500 versus a new stove about $700 on sale.
Where do u draw the line between buying another say laptop vs. buying a replacement battery?

Get on ebay, chances are you can find a battery for $30-50....


It's just a battery, not rocket science

I buy replacement batteries on eBay and they are significantly less than the manufacturer's website prices. AC adapters are really cheap, too. I just paid less than $20 for an AC adapter for a laptop that never gets used away from the outlet...

Just bought a replacement battery on Amazon with 1 year warranty for $25 for a Toshiba Satellite.

I hear you on the glass stove though. Wife broke the last new one I bought and it makes way more sense to buy another new one at $462 than replace the glass in the broken one.

BAtteriesPlus also has good deals on laptop batteries. I've bought several laptop batteries through there for less than the cost from the laptop manufacturer.

Batteries Plus battery store - All your battery needs for Laptop, camera, cell phone, camcorder, SLA, batteries recycling and much more

whenever I am faced with a repair or replace decision I also consider how long the repair is likely to last before needing to be repeated.

The issue is retail vs. what you can find on the internet. A new battery can be found much cheaper than retail. A new glass top can be had from a parts wholesaler for far cheaper than $500.

Look around. That is what search engines are for...

Many modern products are designed to be disposable. Sad but true. If I'm looking at 1/2 the price to repair vs replace, I'll start thinking really hard about just replacing it.

I'm with Matt on this. When you factor in the warrantee that a new item comes with it is hard to justify the time/price of working on the replacement.