Apple Ups Mac Trade-In Prices Following M3 MacBook Air Launch

I whine about the trade-ins too, but then when you take the eBay haircut for selling fees, it gets a lot closer, WITHOUT the headache of setting up the sale, dealing with bottom feeder offers, and sometimes getting scammed (I sold a computer with a no overseas buyer restriction, and the buyer used a Florida drop shipper to send overseas and claim he never got it - after a couple of months eBay finally made me whole).

So yes, Apple gets you coming and going, but they KNOW we like it...:oops:

As a LONG TIME Windows users and new Mac convert, the key for me is realizing my bought used 2+ year old M1 Max MacBook Pro is far from out of breath...
 
If you have a base model laptop, then the trade-in values are ok (case by case basis), compared to Ebay / Swappa (less fees), and then cost of time + risk of some kind of fraud - scammer edge case where Ebay or Swappa sides with the buyer instead of you.

As others have mentioned, if you have a BTO model (more memory or storage), it makes less sense given Apple has the same trade-in value. (Note, it's the same with iPhones - same Apple trade-in whether you have base 128gb or upgrade 256gb / 512gb). I feel like in general, if you have a BTO model, rule of thumb is it's worth trying to sell on secondary market. If you have a base model, you should take a look and see if after factoring in selling fees / fraud risk / time, whether trade-in makes sense.
 
P
dalestrauss said:
I whine about the trade-ins too, but then when you take the eBay haircut for selling fees, it gets a lot closer, WITHOUT the headache of setting up the sale, dealing with bottom feeder offers, and sometimes getting scammed (I sold a computer with a no overseas buyer restriction, and the buyer used a Florida drop shipper to send overseas and claim he never got it - after a couple of months eBay finally made me whole).

So yes, Apple gets you coming and going, but they KNOW we like it...:oops:

As a LONG TIME Windows users and new Mac convert, the key for me is realizing my bought used 2+ year old M1 Max MacBook Pro is far from out of breath...
Click to expand...
Crunch the numbers. I’ve sold locally, I’ve sold on eBay, I’ve traded in to Apple. If trade in with Apple is within a couple hundred of selling on eBay including fees, I’ve gone that route to not have to deal with potential problematic buyers.

It’s usually best to sell, unless your time isn’t worth the minor hassle.
 
turbineseaplane said:
I just don't know how they can basically not account for it at all on trade ins.

When they go to sell them as Refurbs, they certainly are charging more for more RAM...but they didn't pay anymore for that RAM to the person who traded it in.

It's like -- how many times and people can they overcharge for the same RAM sticks!?
It's really just ... crummy
Click to expand...

They probably yank off the extra ram and nands off and slap it in a refurb at a premium. Acquired for $0 additional cash outlay or trade credit towards the customer.

lmao
 
TMRJIJ said:
$555 for my M1 MacBook Pro (8C GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD),... nah, I'm good.
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Same, plus I'm apparently one of the few people on Earth who actually likes the Magic Bar. Also not at all a fan of the notch, especially now that it's a floating island on their phones.
 
Traded in a M1 MBP last week for $810. Got a refurb M3 Pro MBP with the military discount for $1600. After crunching the numbers, I probably would’ve got a little under $1000ish after fees when selling the M1 on eBay, Swappa, etc.

I’ll take the slightly lesser value to *not* deal with lowballers and potential scammers 10 times out of 10. Sometimes trade-ins work depending on your situation and risk aversion.
 
chrono1081 said:
I got $770 for my air trade in (M2 Air, 16 gigs ram, whatever the highest graphics core was, 1TB drive) last week. I thought it was good deal for a nearly 2 year old heavily used computer.
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I sold mine last week on OfferUp for 1175. Same specs except it was 512GB SSD 🤷‍♂️
 
thadoggfather said:
They probably yank off the extra ram and nands off and slap it in a refurb at a premium. Acquired for $0 additional cash outlay or trade credit towards the customer.

lmao
Click to expand...
Why move it to another machine? Wouldn't they just sell the machine traded in at a premium for the additional RAM? Anyway, it is outrageous if they do not pay more for extra RAM computers traded in, but charge more when they sell them. I suppose their beancounters have worked out that they should be paying almost nothing for buying RAM. However, when they sell, that's a totally different story.
 
No major changes in trade in values. Always good to sell the computers somewhere else to get much better prices.
 
Wow. I could now get $1,000 for my M1 Ultra Mac Studio with 128GB of ram and 8TB SSD that with military discount cost $7,199.00 before Apple Care and sales tax (purchased on 8 July 2022). The Apple refurbished price is $6,659.00 today (or $5,993.10 after military discount).

I would expect their trade in offer to decrease when the M3 Ultra is released. Over 85% depreciation in less than two years is unacceptable.

I will be keeping this unit for many more years as loading up to max both memory and SSD at purchase will allow for this unit to operate even past the last supported MacOS.
 
I am trading in my M2 15" MacBook Air with 8GB ram and 512 hard drive for an M3 15" Macbook Air with 16GB ram and 512 hard drive. Trade in credit from Apple was $890. I also have the educator discount ($50). Final purchase price is $709. I am happy as I need the extra ram and this is cheaper than what I would pay down the road with a trade in. Best Buy is giving a $900+ trade in credit right now but the final purchase price is higher than Apple's ($955).

I didn't want to do the online selling route--eBay is nothing but scammers. I doubt I would have gotten $890 with Facebook sale locally.
 
Do your bending exercises before going to an Apple store so you can more easily bend over during the purchase process.
 
ldenning said:
My M1 Max MacBook Pro with 64G, 4 tb drive dropped from $1540 to $1455, since yesterday.
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I looked and mine had gone down as well ($1335 vs $1225 M1 Max, 24c, 32gb ram, 2tb ssd). My real question, however, is when is an upgrade even warranted now that we are in the M series processors? Other than raytracing and even more power than I use, why should I shelve the M1 Max? It still runs circles around every Windows laptop I've ever owned, and I'd bet I can't reach 65% of its potential power/speed with my workload (I'm not a gamer).

Kind of a "What me worry?" moment.
 
Trading in old Mac's to Apple is super-easy and they pay more then at other places.
Sure they charge some more too for new devices too. But the usual higher professionality is more then worth it to me.
Selling old Mac's myself, a big no thanks to that today.
I let Apple send me the trade-in box, and then return the sum to the same card I use for my Apple transactions.
I'm not so picky with smaller/cheaper Apple stuff though. I can buy or trade in them in a lot of places these days. But I usually keep old iPads, they are usefull to many things, so they just get downgraded in the device hierarchy here.
 
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