Question about selling old Mac for New

I used to have iPhone 3G-iPhone 5. Basically every year before they announced the new iPhone (I would keep up with the rumors and their announcement dates), I would sell my current version about a week or two before the announcement, because as soon as it is announced, the old version (In this case the 5S/C will be the old version once the 6 comes out) drops about $100 or more in value. But if you sell before the announcement, then you can get the new iPhone for about $100-150 difference, then the next year you can do the same thing and start a new contract and MAKE MONEY back. If you keep this up every time a new iPhone comes out, you will always have the newest one, as well as having it under warranty for most of the time.

I'm curious though, does anyone do this with iMacs? I bought the Late 2013 27" i5 3.2GHz iMac w/ 1TB standard HDD, 8 GB DDR3 (now 16GB) of RAM, 1GB GDDR5 RAM.

I would be willing to pay a few hundred dollars extra to get the next iMac 27" assuming it comes with a decent amount of SSD Memory, Thunderbolt 2.0, hopefully more Graphics RAM (If not I may upgrade), and then I will install an External SDHD or HDD for regular space. I can buy a Seagate Backup Plus Desktop because I have a Thunderbolt Adapter and a USB 3.0 Adapter. So I can use the 4TB Seagate Backup Plus Desktop Version w/ Thunderbolt for Streaming, and then have another HDD or another SSD via Thunderbolt and have my streaming HDD via USB 3.0.

Either way it will have to be worth it.

But I am curious if people buy/sell their iMacs (other macs) like this. I know it works with iPhones (which is the biggest downside of me switching to Android). Apple products depreciate in value much slower than their android counterparts and PC counterparts. I had a Samsung S4 and was planning to do the same thing with the S5 as I did with iPhones, but when the time came I realized I'd have to pay over 200 to get the next version (which I did eventually thank god. The S4 was terribly built, but the S5 is built amazingly well)

So any opinions, experience, anecdotes, etc about selling the previous iMac for the next version?

That makes sense. iPhone upgrades are more of a jump than iMacs from one year to the next, plus the fact that iPhone's require contracts usually, that helps keep the price up. I think I will sell my Samsung Galaxy S5 soon and upgrade to a 5S or 5C then do it. It might be a lot more money than going from iPhone to iPhone, but if I can get a new iPhone each year for a few hundred, and then every other year get paid for getting a new one, then it's worth it. The only downside is I've gotten used to having a 16GB Internal memory with 64GB Micro SD Card. And I am not the type to buy a 128GB iPhone. I'll probably stick with a 32 or possibly a 64 if the prices change for the iPhone 6. That would be nice if they only offered 32GB, 64, and 128.

rei101 said:

Switching iPhones or Macs every time is a waste of time. I just get the top of the line and keep it for 6 years at least.

I have an iPhone 5 and looks like new, no need to change it, I even have iOS6 still.

I have 2 iPad 4 and they are fine, no need for new iPads.

I have a 2010 27" iMac that runs just fine and I do video editing and motion graphics with it.

I have a 17" MBP that I am using to type this. Fully loaded... from 2008.

And a Mac Pro from 2008 too with the 30" Cinema Display (that by the way is a 4K monitor too).

Changing machines every year is a waste of time and is just ego, is the money you make out of them that make you smart.

For example, the Mac Pro cost around $800 new, but I did some video editing that took me an hour at the most and then a batch render that would take 3 hours and I am getting paid $500 for it. That separated of my daily routine.

So... that is an smart investment of an equipment that paid itself ages ago and still delivering several years later.

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I understand that point about the Macs, but definitely not iPhones. I've had 4 macs, more than I should have had in the 6-7 years I've been using Macs. First I had a 2007 (i think) MacBook Pro 17" (remember those?) with the full aluminum casing which was such a hassle because Apple voided the warranty if the tiniest dent was in it and it was near impossible not to dent it. It failed after a while (mainly due to negligence, I was only 17 and I took it to school often and it would knock around in my book bag). I remember one winter I slipped on Ice and went head over heels and landed right on my backpack with the MBP. At that point I sold it for what I could and got a 13 or 15" MacBook (the White ones, I think 2009). However, in 2010 my house was robbed [lost my MacBook, Xbox 360 (although the dumbasses took all my game cases an the games were in a CD book although they did get a few games), a 32" LCD TV, an iPhone 3GS, and a bunch of other oddities. All in all it was about 4500-5000 total MSRP. Luckily we have homeowner's and I had renter's insurance (quick tip for those with high insurance, if you buy Renter's insurance which you should have if you don't have some kind of homeowner's insurance. It usually costs less than $100 a year and you usually just make 4 payments a year. If it lowers your car premium, it definitely can't hurt to have it, but either way it's a great investment; i know too many people who got robbed that didn't have insurance, sucks to be them).

This allowed me to get my third mac. They lowered the price on the mid 2010 iMac 21.5" to about the cost I paid for my MPB, so I got that instead and loved it. This Mac DID hold up a good amount of time (I don't think I will get another Mac Laptop again unless I have a lot of extra cash, even then I might just go with a laptop similar in size and format to the MBAir. I was trying to add an internal SSD drive to my iMac mid 2010 and I had all the right parts but iFixit had the wrong damn guide up so by time I took the optical drive out and broke one of the LCD cables I was livid. Luckily I was able to replace the cable and get my LCD back on and running, but the Optical Drive was scrap, and I couldn't get the SSD in. It was running at full fan speed constantly (even with smcfancontrol and HDD Fan Control which worked BEFORE I took it apart. I think I must've knocked a temp. sensor loose. Either way I felt it was time to upgrade as I had extra money and I could sell the 2010 iMac for parts (got about 450), and a MacMini (which I got about 350 for with a monitor), so I really only had to pay about 900 (I got it on Amazon, which charges like $120 less than Apple and no tax or shipping cost, and 2 day shipping with prime).

I wouldn't mind having a Windows Laptop anyways, especially if it has an SSD (for gaming and whatnot). But I have a lot of mobile devices (PS Vita, Samsung Galaxy S5; I guess just those two, but that's really enough. I plan to get rid of my S5 soon and buy a 5S and pay the difference to get the iPhone 6 when that comes out. I realize I will be paying a decent amount but I miss iPhone (I had 3G-5 before I tried Android with Galaxy S4 which was a terribly built phone, however the S5 is wonderfully built). I just want to get an iPhone to connect my Mac devices easier, and get the upgrades every year at a premium (except the first year which will probably run me about 250-300 total to go from S5>5S>6 5.5"...sorry I got off on a tangent but it let's you know why I want to switch back. Basically Apple device fall in value much slower than Android phones, so I can't sell and upgrade as easily as with an iPhone, which I explain here how it's done:

IMPORTANT: YOU MUST SELL YOUR IPHONE BEFORE THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE NEXT FOR YOU TO GET THE BEST VALUE.

If you do it right, you can upgrade each release, pay a difference of about $75-$150 (year 1), then the next year you will be due for an upgrade (year 2), so you sell your iPhone before the next is announced and then upgrade, and you make money (more than the $75-150 you spent the year before). The next year you sell it, pay $75-150 (year 3) (or if you want to get more space you can always pay another 100, either way it's an upgrade and if the person gets a larger version, they will be able to sell it for more before the next iPhone comes out (at which point one would be able to get a fourth iPhone (year 4) under contract and make money off the previous one again! It's not like we NEED a new iPhone and new specs, but what computer techie nerd wouldn't want an upgrade, especially when it pays for itself ever other year plus some.

Keep in mind this really only works if you sell your iPhone BEFORE the announcement of a new one. Of course there's tons of rumor sites and it's obvious when Apple will announce it eventually because they will set aside a date for a presentation. For people like us who keep up with iPhones and Macs, this may seem like common knowledge, but to the regular person on the street, they don't know when Apple's press releases and announcements are going out. Of course some do, but eBay will take care of that because only people willing to bid are probably unaware of a new iPhone (or if they are they are trying to get a cheaper one; although they'd be better off waiting until the next one comes out because the price of the previous iPhone drops about 100-150 dollars in value from it's value pre-announcement).

That's what allows us to get a new iPhone each year. Of course it's unnecessary but it doesn't hurt to have the newest model each year and every other year get paid to get the new model. Just get a warranty to protect it in case of dropping or anything, that way when you need to sell it, it's in tip-top shape. In fact you could probably take it to the Apple Store and say your reception cuts out way more than it should or some manufacturing problem that they would rather do a swap and look at the phone later, allowing you to get a refurbished version, making selling much easier.

It's not JUST about getting the newest phone each year, but if you do the math, you actually make money in the long run doing this (assuming you get a contract each 2 years which I do because of the upgrade prices and because I will always need a cell phone).

Sorry bud but I think you got the wrong idea of how this works, which is why I thought I would try to explain it better in more detail.

thedeske said:

True - Check going price on matching or close spec models in play and then go well below for a realistic estimate. Add auction fees, etc. and realize the buyers willing to pay top dollar are gone before you get yours up for sale (in most cases) The things you think are worth money, like extra ram or updated processor might not matter. You see a Mac that just like yours getting high bids, but yours never gets close.
It can get ugly

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I usually base my price point off auctions ending within a few second to a few hours. The end price is usually the eBay value of that particular item. I usually start the auction lower than that, and make the buy it now around the standard ending price with a discount for using Buy It Now (like if I sell my Samsung Galaxy S5 I could include a 32GB MicroSD or something), or any extra peripherals.

That said, you aren't completely wrong. It's definitely a thing that needs to be done at THE RIGHT TIME, too soon or too late and it can be messed up. But either way, every other year you do get that money back (and usually plus some) when you start a new contract for a new iPhone. So if you sell a 5S and then pay 150-250 extra to get the 6, it might be more than what I said, but still, the next year when you sell it you will only have to pay about 200 (let's say 250 for the sake of argument) for the iPhone 6, but as long as you do the same thing for the 6S/7 (or whatever the next iteration will be, let's call it 7), you will get more than enough money from the 6 to pay for the contract fee to upgrade with an iPhone 7 and then have more than 250 leftover. So either it pays for itself at the least, or you make money off the transaction every two years assuming you get a new contract. If you don't get a new contract then this upgrade process doesn't work really, or I guess it could but you would have to pay the full price for the phone (meaning you would still have to dish out more money, and you wouldn't make money off the upgrade).