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Which MBA at Best Buy to flip in 9 months?

K

kevincha

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 18, 2014
2
0
My 2009 MBP 13" has served me well. But it's heavy (I'm highly mobile during work hours), has a limited battery, and has been dropped twice over the years. The retina MBA 12" sounds like what I'll want when it comes out later this year or early next year, but I'm hungry to start upgrading now.

PLAN: buy a 2014 MBA now and sell it (eBay, CL, whatever) in 6-9 months, once I have the rMBA 12. (Transferrable international Apple warranty is 1 year, I assume.)

I have the coupon for .edu $150 off at Best Buy, and BB is selling at $100 off list through Saturday. BTW I'm out of the US but will be back late next week, so I need to mail order for US delivery (or store pickup) or take my chances that next week's prices won't go back up to last week's.

The ? Which of the four 2014 MBAs do you think will retain the highest percentage of value for, say, March 2015 resale? (Prices I'd pay now are $650-$950 plus NYC sales tax.)

My only guess is that the $650 11"/128gb will retain the most value since the $150 .edu is most potent against the $900 list price. Any other thoughts? Will an 11/256 resell for $200 more? (My guess is no, especially since 3rd party upgrades to 512 or even 1TB SDs will increasingly be an option, especially for year-old MBAs.)

About the size: I think either 11" or 13" would be fine for this short-term purchase--I had a Powerbook 12 for about 5 years and loved it. My eyes are fine, and I read books on my phone. Also, I'm sure I'd appreciate the 256gb SD but could get by for now with just 128.

OK, thanks in advance to posters who kindly apply their crystal ball to this question!

PS The BB coupon says it can't be combined with any other offer, but some posters seem to have combined it successfully with the Post Office's 10% mover's coupon. That would require me to wait till I'm in the US end of next week (to pick up a coupon) and, presumably, require a sales clerk to make a mistake and apply both discounts--right?
 
Last edited:
kevincha said:
My 2009 MBP 13" has served me well. But it's heavy (I'm highly mobile during work hours), has a limited battery, and has been dropped twice over the years. The retina MBA 12" sounds like what I'll want when it comes out later this year or early next year, but I'm hungry to start upgrading now.

PLAN: buy a 2014 MBA now and sell it (eBay, CL, whatever) in 6-9 months, once I have the rMBA 12. (Transferrable international Apple warranty is 1 year, I assume.)

I have the coupon for .edu $150 off at Best Buy, and BB is selling at $100 off list through Saturday. BTW I'm out of the US but will be back late next week, so I need to mail order for US delivery (or store pickup) or take my chances that next week's prices won't go back up to last week's.

The ? Which of the four 2014 MBAs do you think will retain the highest percentage of value for, say, March 2015 resale? (Prices I'd pay now are $650-$950 plus NYC sales tax.)

My only guess is that the $650 11"/128gb will retain the most value since the $150 .edu is most potent against the $900 list price. Any other thoughts? Will an 11/256 resell for $200 more? (My guess is no, especially since 3rd party upgrades to 512 or even 1TB SDs will increasingly be an option, especially for year-old MBAs.)

About the size: I think either 11" or 13" would be fine for this short-term purchase--I had a Powerbook 12 for about 5 years and loved it. My eyes are fine, and I read books on my phone. Also, I'm sure I'd appreciate the 256gb SD but could get by for now with just 128.

OK, thanks in advance to posters who kindly apply their crystal ball to this question!

PS The BB coupon says it can't be combined with any other offer, but some posters seem to have combined it successfully with the Post Office's 10% mover's coupon. That would require me to wait till I'm in the US end of next week (to pick up a coupon) and, presumably, require a sales clerk to make a mistake and apply both discounts--right?
Click to expand...

I am toying with the idea of doing something similar. In my opinion, you will not get near the 200 back in resale that you will pay to get a 256 model. I would definitely go with one of the 128 options. I think that just depends on which size your prefer. I think the 100 dollar difference between the 11 and 13 will always remain even in resale down the line.

I am thinking of picking up the 11 for home use, and then sell it for the 12 retina air providing that it is actually coming:) Depending on price of the retina air, I may skip a generation to allow the kinks to be ironed out. Either way you will have a nice machine that will last you as long as you care to keep it.
 
Pharmscott said:
How about just scooping up whatever is in the open box section? You can shop online - it's pretty cool. I bet you'll save more than the $100 off since Best Buy tends to adjust the open box prices relative to the sale prices (or nobody would by open box!).

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...page&ci_src=11138&ref=39&CJPID=3160356&loc=01
Click to expand...

The open box thing is a good idea. They are only available for in store purchase where I live. My local store has a mid 2013 11 inch marked at 629.99. If they'd let me use the student discount, the mover coupon, and about 15 bucks in BB rewards. I could walk out with that unit for about 450 taxes INCLUDED.

They let me use a student discount on my current rMBP even though it was open box. It just depends on the associate checking you out as to whether or not they will let you stack.

Even if not, with the current sale, the new models can still be had for under 7 with taxes.
 
kevincha said:
Which of the four 2014 MBAs do you think will retain the highest percentage of value
Click to expand...

The lowest priced one, naturally.

As to the other stuff, you seem to have a certainty about what Apple will do in several months. Just keep your options open as they tend to do what they feel like rather than adhere to what internet speculation says they will do. Follow MR a while and you'll see that what sometimes seems almost certain turns into a pipe dream.
 
FreakinEurekan said:
Agreed. Extra features like more RAM and storage, and higher end CPUs, don't seem to help on resale value much at all. Base models are going to give you the highest return in resale.
Click to expand...

It depends when you sell it. In a few years 8 GB might become the standard amount of RAM so if you sell it then having the extra RAM will help.
 
Stacked discounts!

Rumoristas--

Thank you for the helpful advice. Here's what I ended up doing:

I waited to buy/order till I got back to the US. On my way from the airport, I stopped by the post office and got a "movers' packet," then I went to a retail store that (according to bb.com) had 2+ of the open box items I wanted and had no new models in stock. (I figured that having no new stock would help me get the .edu discount on an open-box item.) I ended up stacking three discounts: open-box ($727), then $150 off (.edu), then 10% (mover's). After NYC sales tax, I paid around $570. This was, of course, for an MBA 11'/128gb, very much the base model.

Thanks, everyone, for suggesting I try stacking. Though the .edu and mover's coupons said they couldn't be combined or used on open-box items, I had no problem doing so.

Happy discounting!
 
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