Advice needed

[aminadab]

I'm appealing to the collective wisdom of the group. I realize the nature of this question is more inline with the "marketplace" forum, but I'm not looking to sell something here pre se, rather, I'm asking for advice on how to sell.

Apple is replacing my macbook with a brand new one. It's shipping out to me today. The macbook is really too big for me and I'm holding out for the possible ultra-portable in January. In the meantime, I'm buying an Asus EEE to help me get by with web/email and open office. I figured I'd be able to get more money if the macbook is still sealed, do you agree? Configured on apple.com, the blackbook 2.2 with 160GB/2GB ram is about 1780 shipped (inc. CA tax). Now I'm certainly not looking to get that by selling it on my own, but what do you think a reasonable price would be? I figured I'd put it up on ebay with a buy-it-now option.

 

[eman]

If the macbook is sealed, it will be a little more valuable. The black macbook retails at $1499 and most people will buy the black macbook with a student discount for $1399 (the extra ram would increase the value slightly). I would list this on ebay for $1349 with a "BIN" price and $45 shipping price (including insurance). Sell only to confirmed Paypal addresses and accept Paypal or US postal money order. Someone may offer you cash with local pickup. If someone wants to pay with check or money order, wait till these clear the bank before sending the macbook (about 7-10 days). Just my 2 cents.

 

[ktbubster]

You can probably make the buy it now price over the regular price. A lot of people on ebay actually will pay far over what a computer is worth, it's all about advertising and how you convey the actual value of the computer (the extra ram, NIB, retail price, normal tax price etc). I'd say you could get closer to 1500 for it on ebay, because to the normal consumer who sees the basic price, and the extra ram and no tax, like you said the computer is about 1700, so it's still deal for them.

Put a BIN price a bit higher, market the heck out of it, and start the bidding around 1000, it will rocket towards the end of the auction, just make sure you put a few warnings to foreign bidders and the like (recently there have been a lot of problems with people from areas in africa, specifically Nigeria, hitting buy it now and expecting you to send... this wastes time and forces you to contact ebay and relist so on and so forth.

 

[aminadab]

Thanks very kindly for the replies. I'm wondering, would apple simply take the brand new computer back and give me a store credit? I'll ask them myself when the machine arrives tomorrow, but has anyone else done something like this or heard about it? The machine was actually purchased last year and just replaced with a new 2.2 by applecare.