I've owned many Apple products over the years and have generally done well selling older products to trade up to newer ones. I traded in my 2009 13" MBP for a 2010 11" MBA. I was able to sell my MBP for only $200 less than I paid for it. I was ecstatic.
Unfortunately, I'm not having the same luck as I consider trading the 2010 MBA for a 2012 MBA.
The 11" MBA has a huge price range depending on options. Its generally not a lower price machine than a bigger machine. To some extent you're paying extra for the smaller size and portability.
But the resale market doesn't seem to appreciate that.
The base 2010 model with 2GB RAM and 64GB SSD sold for $999. It always seems an unusable limited machine to me. On the other hand, the ultimate configuration with 4GB RAM, 128SSD and faster CPU is a very powerful useful workhorse in a tiny package. The ultimate sold for $1400, 40% more than the base.
Here we are less than 2 years later, and the 2010 ultimate is only getting $600-650 on eBay. Thats a huge almost 60% discount over its price less than 2 years ago.
Yet the base model is selling for only $100 less. The $400 in upgrades are only worth 25% of their original retail cost.
Even more amazing, I look on eBay and find 2009 13" Macbook Pros like the one I trade in, selling for almost the same as I sold mine for 2 years ago. Some are fetching $700.
So a much cheaper, old machine is getting as high a price as a newer, sleek, fully upgrade machine.
What gives?
Are 11" Macbook Airs exceptionally bad investments? I get the impression that maybe people think of them as toys, suitable only for college students or light web browsing. Nice netbooks. But an inferior 13" Macbook Pro somehow sounds like more of a real machine.
If so, it may provide a reason to wait to buy a new 13" macbook pro retina over a 11" Macbook Air.
Any other comments or personal experiences? Am I interpretting the completed sales on eBay incorrectly?
Unfortunately, I'm not having the same luck as I consider trading the 2010 MBA for a 2012 MBA.
The 11" MBA has a huge price range depending on options. Its generally not a lower price machine than a bigger machine. To some extent you're paying extra for the smaller size and portability.
But the resale market doesn't seem to appreciate that.
The base 2010 model with 2GB RAM and 64GB SSD sold for $999. It always seems an unusable limited machine to me. On the other hand, the ultimate configuration with 4GB RAM, 128SSD and faster CPU is a very powerful useful workhorse in a tiny package. The ultimate sold for $1400, 40% more than the base.
Here we are less than 2 years later, and the 2010 ultimate is only getting $600-650 on eBay. Thats a huge almost 60% discount over its price less than 2 years ago.
Yet the base model is selling for only $100 less. The $400 in upgrades are only worth 25% of their original retail cost.
Even more amazing, I look on eBay and find 2009 13" Macbook Pros like the one I trade in, selling for almost the same as I sold mine for 2 years ago. Some are fetching $700.
So a much cheaper, old machine is getting as high a price as a newer, sleek, fully upgrade machine.
What gives?
Are 11" Macbook Airs exceptionally bad investments? I get the impression that maybe people think of them as toys, suitable only for college students or light web browsing. Nice netbooks. But an inferior 13" Macbook Pro somehow sounds like more of a real machine.
If so, it may provide a reason to wait to buy a new 13" macbook pro retina over a 11" Macbook Air.
Any other comments or personal experiences? Am I interpretting the completed sales on eBay incorrectly?