Dented my rMPB! - Fair resale price?

[The Carny]

Well, I contrived a way to fall asleep with my three week old MBP resting on the arm of the sofa a couple of nights ago. Lo and behold / duh! it was knocked off and I discovered in the morning that it was sporting a shiner.

Everything works perfectly, the fall would've been two feet at most, I've given it some pretty robust tests, the hinge is fine, the fans are fine, the battery's fine and so on and so forth but the cosmetic damage is a pungent, unclearable fart as far as I'm concerned, so I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get rid of it. There were a couple of tiny chips / scuffs out of the box so I can live with things to a certain extent, but this is over the border.

The most galling thing is that I've NEVER dropped a laptop before - iPhone, iPad, they've taken the occasional tumble, but never a cheap one, definitely never a MacBook and certainly not this one.

It's the top stock model (512 ssd, 2.6ghz i7) I'll pay the price by downgrading to the 256 SSD / 2.3ghz i7 and let that reduction be my punishment for getting complacent with something I previously treated with an unprecedented amount of reverence for a gadget.

So my question is, just how much should I be looking to chop off to make this one a viable sale? For reference, I'm in England.

Pictoral evidence of my stupidity:

Top -

http://flic.kr/p/cFAm6S

A look at the dent from on top -

http://flic.kr/p/cFAvsC

From behind:

http://flic.kr/p/cFAbH1

 

[Dragoro]

OMG thats nothing. I sure wouldnt sell it and downgrade just cause of that!

 

[Freida]

Why on earth would you sell it? The punishment should be that you keep it. Or are you that spoilt that this warrants a new unit? Get a grip, keep it and live with it. It's nothing!

 

[leenak]

Sorry to see that happen. Your primary issues in resale value hits is that most people will view the upgrade to 2.7GHZ and 768GB as overpriced. So you'd have to find someone who would want these things but cant quite afford them OR drop it down to the level that would make it desirable pricing for someone who would be looking for more than 256GB.

Your other option is to see if you could get it repaired and if you bought with a credit card, see if your credit card has any kind of warranty on new purchases.

 

[Xikum]

Cant believe you would sacrifice the laptop just for that. I couldnt even see it until the last photo. If you didnt tell me, I'm sure I would never have realised. When the laptop is open as well, you wouldnt know, and I'm assuming that when the laptop is closed you wouldnt even be with it; Id urge you to swallow your pride and keep the laptop!

 

[Puevlo]

You couldn't pay me enough to take that thing off your hands. It's practically totaled.

 

[The Carny]

Why on earth would you sell it? The punishment should be that you keep it. Or are you that spoilt that this warrants a new unit? Get a grip, keep it and live with it. It's nothing!

Not spoilt, but (obviously!) with pretty bad OCD and the fact that I was careless enough bothers me no end. I'm completely open to and deserving of ridicule for wanting to change it, but that's me...unfortunately.

 

[clownie]

Resale?

My friend damaged his macbook much worse than that. He belatedly bought a shell and used it for many years...

 

[The Carny]

Sorry to see that happen. Your primary issues in resale value hits is that most people will view the upgrade to 2.7GHZ and 768GB as overpriced. So you'd have to find someone who would want these things but cant quite afford them OR drop it down to the level that would make it desirable pricing for someone who would be looking for more than 256GB.

Your other option is to see if you could get it repaired and if you bought with a credit card, see if your credit card has any kind of warranty on new purchases.

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately it wasn't a credit card purchase. To be honest, if I can keep the loss off of purchase price to around £400, I'll be happy enough. At least with the replacement I'll know for certain that my warranty won't be void.

 

[OllyW]

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately it wasn't a credit card purchase. To be honest, if I can keep the loss off of purchase price to around £400, I'll be happy enough.

Have you got accidental cover on your home insurance?

I would get a quote for the repairs from Apple.

They usually refuse warranty repairs when the case is damaged so you will be lucky if you get away with such a small loss in it's present condition.

 

[The Carny]

Have you got accidental cover on your home insurance?

I would get a quote for the repairs from Apple.

They usually refuse warranty repairs when the case is damaged so you will be lucky if you get away with such a small loss in it's present condition.

I do have accidental, but this wouldn't be something I could claim on.

I'm guessing the Apple repair would be out of my price range, given that they'd have to tear the screen out.

Sub-£400 would be optimistic, I know. To be quite honest, if someone came along and waved £1800 in my face, I'd snatch it from them in a heartbeat.

 

[leenak]

So you paid 3000 for it, only willing to pay 400 for repairs but would take a 1200+ hit if someone gave you 1800 for it?

 

[Freida]

Not spoilt, but (obviously!) with pretty bad OCD and the fact that I was careless enough bothers me no end. I'm completely open to and deserving of ridicule for wanting to change it, but that's me...unfortunately.

I'm sorry but for me that is the same. Or have we reached the stage where little thing like this warrants a new product? I understand that you have OCD and I have friends like that so I can relate but at the end of the day are you really going to justify this? Get case that covers it (incase, speck) and get on with it. If you have money to blow and you don't know what to do with it then donate it to charity of your choice. I'm sure that would serve better purpose than this.

 

[The Carny]

So you paid 3000 for it, only willing to pay 400 for repairs but would take a 1200+ hit if someone gave you 1800 for it?

No, I'm in the UK and would, ideally, like to lose less than £400.

The price is £2,299, so in an ideal world I would not sell for less than £1,900 but I recognise that is, in reality, unrealistic.

As for the repair, I'll be trading down to the lower spec model, so there's little if any cash loss involved. Given the nature of the rMBP, I very much doubt there's any way that Apple are repairing this thing for less than £500 and I'd rather not spend that sort of money if I can avoid doing so.

----------

I'm sorry but for me that is the same. Or have we reached the stage where little thing like this warrants a new product? I understand that you have OCD and I have friends like that so I can relate but at the end of the day are you really going to justify this? Get case that covers it (incase, speck) and get on with it. If you have money to blow and you don't know what to do with it then donate it to charity of your choice. I'm sure that would serve better purpose than this.

There's not really going to be much of a money differential involved! Someone else gets a cheaper dented 512 / 2.6 rMBP, I use the money to buy a non-dented 256 / 2.3 rMBP.

 

[G-Mo]

Just have the display clamshell replaced, it's CA$720 plus local labour costs.

 

[leenak]

No, I'm in the UK and would, ideally, like to lose less than £400.

The price is £2,299, so in an ideal world I would not sell for less than £1,900 but I recognise that is, in reality, unrealistic.

As for the repair, I'll be trading down to the lower spec model, so there's little if any cash loss involved. Given the nature of the rMBP, I very much doubt there's any way that Apple are repairing this thing for less than £500 and I'd rather not spend that sort of money if I can avoid doing so.

Oh, I misread your initial post, I thought you had the 2.7/768/16. So I went to price it on the UK apple website.

I'd definitely ask Apple about it though.

 

[wordoflife]

I've had that but apple still replaced the display due the dead pixels on mine. Don't think they even noticed the slight dent my laptop had.

 

[specik]

I very much doubt there's any way that Apple are repairing this thing for less than £500 and I'd rather not spend that sort of money if I can avoid doing so.

This hearsay speculation as to how much Apple is charging for repairs and people's fear of just getting a quote from them is crazy. Happens on so many threads on this forum. As an educated consumer, why wouldn't you visit your local Apple Store and actually get factual data about how much it would cost to fix? Before assuming anything?

Maybe you'll be surprised and find out it'd be free. Sure, physical damage isn't covered, but this machine is so new... do you have dead pixels or anything else that you can claim as the reason for your seeking a repair? I wouldn't even point out the dent honestly since it's so minor.

I think this makes more sense than jumping to rash decisions like trying to sell it and downgrade, etc.

 

[snberk103]

My MBP, more than 3 years old has several dents. A few scratches. And a loose hinge. I like it that way....I call it Butch (reference to Stuart McLean) and I figure it adds character. Makes my laptop look tough. The other laptops won't threaten it for its lunch money. Sometimes though, I have to admit, I'll clean the keyboard and screen. I like to eat my morning cereal while reading the news and I can occasionally splash some breakfast.

Any with OCD probably stopped reading at the 1st sentence....

 

[GoreVidal]

Not spoilt, but (obviously!) with pretty bad OCD and the fact that I was careless enough bothers me no end. I'm completely open to and deserving of ridicule for wanting to change it, but that's me...unfortunately.

Take a Xanax and move on with your life.

 

[FranksWildYears]

This hearsay speculation as to how much Apple is charging for repairs and people's fear of just getting a quote from them is crazy. Happens on so many threads on this forum. As an educated consumer, why wouldn't you visit your local Apple Store and actually get factual data about how much it would cost to fix? Before assuming anything?

Maybe you'll be surprised and find out it'd be free. Sure, physical damage isn't covered, but this machine is so new... do you have dead pixels or anything else that you can claim as the reason for your seeking a repair? I wouldn't even point out the dent honestly since it's so minor.

I think this makes more sense than jumping to rash decisions like trying to sell it and downgrade, etc.

It's the best part of two hours to the nearest Apple Store, hence trying to gauge opinion here. If it was less of a journey I'd probably have gone in and owned up, see what they had to say.

I may try to now anyway. Other than a couple of almost imperceptible out-of-the-box superficial flaws, the machine is otherwise great; runs perfectly, screen has no image retention issues. There's a little nick on the MagSafe cable which was there when I bought it, so I'd prefer to get that swapped. Maybe I'll make a dual-purpose visit.

Edit: Just noticed that I still have access to my original account on my iPhone. I thought this was lost after stupidly logging out on my Mac earlier (forgotten password / linked to closed email account). Have sent an admin message; no big deal as I'm not a hugely regular poster, but I'd rather keep this one for consistency.

 

[alexiszorba]

Character

I also think it gives character to the laptop. The design is still amazing and the functionality as well. Plus your mac is now UNIQUE !

Not that I would intentionally give character to my rMBP by dropping it off or something, it has to come naturally. But when it does come, I am of those who will welcome it, even if it feels unpleasant on the first moment.

Learning to love that dent is much more gratifying than spending your energy on getting a new spec'd down one. Look at that dent and feel good about it. If you cannot, it can be a great self-growth process.
Maybe you can find these reactions in yourself that force you to feel bad about the imperfect appearance of your "baby"...

Life could send you more difficult tests, like some non-repairable body injuries. If you cannot accept a dent on your laptop for a few years how will you deal with permanent "dents" on your body or that of a loved one ?
Will you switch for a new wife if yours gets injured ?

Life is not sending us small tests for nothing. Life keeps challenging us and unless you take the challenges and work on yourself you will suffer.

Yeah I know, this post was not intended for psychological or spiritual counseling but about valuation of a dent on a laptop. However, the poster shared some informations about his internal state and attitude towards the object/event which triggered my wish to reply in such a way.
Please ignore rather than react negatively or with irritation.

 

[FranksWildYears]

I also think it gives character to the laptop. The design is still amazing and the functionality as well. Plus your mac is now UNIQUE !

Not that I would intentionally give character to my rMBP by dropping it off or something, it has to come naturally. But when it does come, I am of those who will welcome it, even if it feels unpleasant on the first moment.

Learning to love that dent is much more gratifying than spending your energy on getting a new spec'd down one. Look at that dent and feel good about it. If you cannot, it can be a great self-growth process.
Maybe you can find these reactions in yourself that force you to feel bad about the imperfect appearance of your "baby"...

Life could send you more difficult tests, like some non-repairable body injuries. If you cannot accept a dent on your laptop for a few years how will you deal with permanent "dents" on your body or that of a loved one ?
Will you switch for a new wife if yours gets injured ?

Life is not sending us small tests for nothing. Life keeps challenging us and unless you take the challenges and work on yourself you will suffer.

Yeah I know, this post was not intended for psychological or spiritual counseling but about valuation of a dent on a laptop. However, the poster shared some informations about his internal state and attitude towards the object/event which triggered my wish to reply in such a way.
Please ignore rather than react negatively or with irritation.

It's fine, honestly. I welcome any comment, I'm not going get especially perturbed unless met with outright nastiness.

I've had plenty of 'dents' in life's other compartments, the difference with this is that it's easily replaceable - it needn't be something that bothers me at all. I'm not going to drop dead if I don't switch it, but I would prefer to given that I can. It also helps with the future resale value.

 

[cecildk9999]

Loved this post

I also think it gives character to the laptop. The design is still amazing and the functionality as well. Plus your mac is now UNIQUE !

...

Learning to love that dent is much more gratifying than spending your energy on getting a new spec'd down one. Look at that dent and feel good about it. If you cannot, it can be a great self-growth process.
Maybe you can find these reactions in yourself that force you to feel bad about the imperfect appearance of your "baby"...

...

Life is not sending us small tests for nothing. Life keeps challenging us and unless you take the challenges and work on yourself you will suffer.

I remember when one of the hinges on my old Titanium Powerbook broke, and I had to balance the screen on the metal to keep it open. That, plus the monster dent it sported from an unfortunate run-in with the wall and a broken RAM casing from a fall at the airport, made it a truly unique machine. I was proud to display that sucker in my grad classes next to the new MBPs that were released when Apple switched to Intel. That said, I've been nicer to my new machine, but I agree that the dent is not excessive and the internals of the machine are still intact, so give it some time!

 

[7thMac]

Just use the computer and enjoy it. Any loss in market value as compared to a similar used model will become smaller the longer you own the computer.