Rescuing Old Laptops

It's recently become a hobby of mine to surf Craigslist for people trying to get rid of old laptops. I generally search in the < $50 range when looking for a new project as it's likely that the machine will be donated, either to a friend or otherwise if I don't need a new laptop for anything. I recently found a lady selling an IBM T40 that she claimed did not work during one such search a few weeks ago. I picked it up for $25 and quickly found that it definitely had some issues. A few days later a coworker, after seeing my post on G+ regarding the previously mentioned laptop, informed me that there were two T42s in his garage which he believed were also broken and asked me if I could try to get them working for him. I got the laptops from him and both of them were completely dead as well. The interesting thing about the IBM laptops, however, is that a lot of parts were shared among the model families. Since all three laptops I now had were T4x series laptops I was finally able to, after several hours of trouble shooting and testing out each part, able to piece together a working T40/42 hybrid laptop utilizing the screen from one of the T42s and the body and keyboard from the T40. I've since installed Slackware 13.37 and ordered a new battery and charger on Amazon for it (oh how I love you Amazon Prime) and am using it on a regular basis as my new primary laptop. A few minor issues with Slackware aside and I would say I'm really pretty happy with it too. I do wish it had a slightly higher resolution but I can certainly live with 1024x768 for $25.