How to value a macbook pro?

[bsurb]

I'm looking at a couple different Pro's on craiglist and I was wondering if there is an online guide like KBB for cars that will tell you how much you should pay for a Macbook.

I found a couple mid 13 inch 2012's for the $500-$550 range and a 2011 Pro for $400.

I actually purchased a 2015 13 inch pro with retina and flash storage but I don't use anything on it besides the internet. So I was going to sell that and get most of my money back and buy a mid 2012/2013 and use that.

What exactly should I be looking for when checking out a used mac? Condition, make sure it charges, check the battery cycle for laptops health? Anything else.?

What would you pay for a mid 2012 macbook?

 

[keysofanxiety]

In all honesty I'd stick with what you've got. The 2012s are very slow due to not having an SSD. Of course you can throw an aftermarket SSD in there but the read/write speeds won't get close to the 2015 model. And of course it just means more money to pay. Plus going from a Retina to a non-Retina screen will be nothing but a disappointment.

Furthermore when buying a computer you also have to remember that you're buying liability on it. If it fails it's going to be out-of-warranty, and you're going to have to pay a lot to get that repaired. You have no knowledge of its usage and what's happened on it - it could have been beautifully looked after, or had water spilt on it (and no problems detected).

If you've got your heart set on it, things to check would be:

- Charger: ensure it's working, there aren't any signs of damage, and that it's an official charger
- HDD: check the SMART data to see if there are any corruptions. I use SMART Utility: http://cloudfront.volitans-software.com/smartutility314.zip

In all honesty though you've got a great computer and I'd argue that taking a step down to the 13" cMBP won't be a nice experience for you. It has a worse GPU, worse display, less RAM, slower RAM, it's thicker, heavier, has 3 hours less battery life, a standard HDD rather than an SSD and doesn't have a Force Touch trackpad. I really am conscious that you'd be very disappointed, even if there weren't any issues with your used MBP.

 

[z31fanatic]

Unless you absolutely need the money right now, keep the 2015 you bought. Going to a 2012 cMBP is like going from a Ferrari to a Kia.

 

[davidvan]

You'd better keep the 2015. If you sell the device to get a 2012, you need to spare a lot of time on a used Mac and have to face the condition that the used one is out of warranty. So as a old device, it is easier to get damaged and can't find the right parts for repair.

All in all, it's fine to sell the 2015 out for a used one if you need money in desperate. Otherwise, you'd better keep it.

 

[sartrekid]

I'd pay around $500-600 for a mid-2012 Macbook Pro 13" and roughly $900-1,100 max for a 15" Retina model with i7 processor and a 250GB SSD of the same year.

The Macbook Pro Retina mid-2012 15" model is really, really good and very fast. I have the i7, SSD, with the dedicated NVIDIDA GeForce GT 650M graphics card. It's one heck of a computer, certainly not as fast or impressive as the 2015 models, but far from obsolete for at least a few years to come. In Germany, you can get these used and in good condition for around €1000 (+/- 200) which currently translates to roughly 1,085 USD. I think it's a relatively decent price for the machine, in case you're contemplating the 15" mid-2012 Retina version.