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Buy mid-2011 now, and sell when 2012 comes out - how much would I lose?
- Thread starter imacericg
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More than that. The most comparable change I can think of is the previous one -- the TB capability was a significant differentiator, even if most folks weren't likely to use it soon. Had you loaded up a 2010 iMac just outside the return period before that and had to resell it, you'd have taken a stomach punch to the tune of $900-$1200 depending on how you count ancillary costs like eBay fees and the variability of the buyer's market. Buying a 2011 Mac Mini would only leave you taking a ~$100-$120 haircut on a flip when the 2012/2013 iMac comes out, but buying a 2011 iMac, even a base model, exposes you to a much greater degree.
To buy a 2011 iMac right now, I'd have to see a discount of 30% to be comfortable. Maybe 25% from a good source.
I'd guess you'd lose maybe $200-400 depending on the condition of the iMac; how much left you had on the factory warranty and/or AppleCare. If you gave it a wipe and reloaded it with an installation of Mountain Lion and the latest iLife apps, it is possible that you could lose much closer to $200 than $400.
A friend of mine and I recently did the math and found that if you were to buy a MacBook Pro and then, when a new refresh came out, sell yours and buy the new models, over the same 4-6 year period of owning the original machine and naturally upgrading, you'd save around $1000. Mind you, you need to have the cost of the second machine if you are to have both machines co-existing for long enough to run the Migration Assistant, and if you don't, you need to clone your internal drive(s) to an external drive, which is either a financial burden or a pain in the ass (or both depending on how you choose to look at it). But still, for $1000 saved over that same period of time; it's worth considering. It's not for me, but if you have the patience, it makes sense. It also mostly removes the need to ever buy AppleCare yourself (unless Apple takes longer than a year to do an update to the line). Again, that math applied to MacBook Pros; but I see no reason as to why it shouldn't apply to iMacs given that the two lines are priced fairly similarly and are, with the exception of this current rev., updated just as frequently.
Just do what I did and buy a base mac mini. I bought it with corporate discount of 6% and on tax free weekend (7.5%)... Upgraded memory for $40 to 8GB.
Should be able to get all of my money back when the new iMac comes out, if I'm lucky I might even make a profit.
Should be able to get all of my money back when the new iMac comes out, if I'm lucky I might even make a profit.
I was literally thinking about doing the exact same thing earlier today. Possibly buying a refurbished one and seeing if I could turn it around as soon as the new ones come out.
I decided against it because bottom line, if you can wait just wait. I'm drawing a line at the end of october though. If we don't see a new one by halloween, I'm going for a 2011 refurb....
I decided against it because bottom line, if you can wait just wait. I'm drawing a line at the end of october though. If we don't see a new one by halloween, I'm going for a 2011 refurb....
If you were to do this, I wouldn't go with a spec'd out model if you are planning on just turning around and selling it in a month or two. Most people looking to buy used Macs don't know the first thing about upgrades and only see the end price. So yours would end up going head to head with say a base 27" because the average joe doesn't care if it has a 2.7ghz or 3.4ghz processor in it. Both are more than "good enough" for them.... In the end you will most likely lose all of the money you dumped in as upgrades.
In my case, my iMac died so I had no choice in the matter. If I had a working computer, I would have just waited.
