So, the time had come for me to swap out my 2011 MacBook Air for a newer model, whilst the old one still had some value. Usually, I buy from the Apple refurbished store and sell on eBay.
Refurbished versions of the current generation models seem to become available about three months after the release date and are discounted by approximately 15%. At the moment, the refurbished machines haven’t shown up in the UK store, although they are out in the US, so I decided to see what was available on eBay.
I was surprised at just how many people were selling new and sealed current generation machines, with some sellers having multiple items for sale.
I decided to follow three sellers, all of whom had good feedback and had sold several current generation MacBooks. The machines were all designated as B/A models, which I believe indicates that they are UK spec, or had pictures showing that they came with UK keyboards.
The average selling price, including postage costs, showed a discount on Apple’s retail prices of 29.5%. Out of this, the sellers would have to pay postage costs, eBay business seller’s fees and Paypal business charges, which I calculated at approximately 3.4% of the selling price.
This would mean that the sellers would have to be purchasing the goods at 68% of retail price to break even and presumably much less than this to make a profit.
For example, one seller sold six base model MacBook Pro Retina 13 inch’s for £720. These have a retail price of £1,099. To make a profit the seller must be buying these for less than around £696, which is actually 63% of retail price.
Even if these were grey imports, I would’t have thought that there was sufficient margin to sell at those prices and still make a reasonable profit?
I am of course assuming that these were all purchased legitimately in the first place, but there seems to be plenty of stock. I have no desire to purchase stolen goods, no matter how cheap.
I do wonder where the stock is coming from? Could it be businesses selling off surplus stock? Apple’s price remain high, could they be selling stock through alternative channels, rather than reducing their retail prices?
Refurbished versions of the current generation models seem to become available about three months after the release date and are discounted by approximately 15%. At the moment, the refurbished machines haven’t shown up in the UK store, although they are out in the US, so I decided to see what was available on eBay.
I was surprised at just how many people were selling new and sealed current generation machines, with some sellers having multiple items for sale.
I decided to follow three sellers, all of whom had good feedback and had sold several current generation MacBooks. The machines were all designated as B/A models, which I believe indicates that they are UK spec, or had pictures showing that they came with UK keyboards.
The average selling price, including postage costs, showed a discount on Apple’s retail prices of 29.5%. Out of this, the sellers would have to pay postage costs, eBay business seller’s fees and Paypal business charges, which I calculated at approximately 3.4% of the selling price.
This would mean that the sellers would have to be purchasing the goods at 68% of retail price to break even and presumably much less than this to make a profit.
For example, one seller sold six base model MacBook Pro Retina 13 inch’s for £720. These have a retail price of £1,099. To make a profit the seller must be buying these for less than around £696, which is actually 63% of retail price.
Even if these were grey imports, I would’t have thought that there was sufficient margin to sell at those prices and still make a reasonable profit?
I am of course assuming that these were all purchased legitimately in the first place, but there seems to be plenty of stock. I have no desire to purchase stolen goods, no matter how cheap.
I do wonder where the stock is coming from? Could it be businesses selling off surplus stock? Apple’s price remain high, could they be selling stock through alternative channels, rather than reducing their retail prices?
