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Mildredop

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 14, 2013
2,478
1,510
I'm about to put my old 40GB Apple TV on eBay. It appears to be worth around £50, but jailbroken ones seem to go for £250-300.

What's the deal?! Why are jailbroken ones so much more value. Should I jailbreak mine before sale?
 

dgalvan123

macrumors 6502a
Feb 16, 2008
684
22
I'm about to put my old 40GB Apple TV on eBay. It appears to be worth around £50, but jailbroken ones seem to go for £250-300.

What's the deal?! Why are jailbroken ones so much more value. Should I jailbreak mine before sale?

Yes, you should jailbreak. And sell. You will come out way ahead.

There is a community of people out there who will pay top $ for a jailbroken Apple TV because jail breaking allows them to install other apps on it like XBMC which open up lots of possibilities. Also, your original-style Apple TV has built-in storage, which hobbyists like.

Personally, I have sold a jailbroken Apple TV 2 (no storage) for $270 on ebay. Keep in mind I originally purchased that Apple TV 2 refurbished from Apple.com for $92 ($85 + tax). So selling it net me a profit of $178. Well more than needed to cover the cost of the Apple TV3 I replaced it with, which you can get for $75 refurbished from Apple. Because of that one sale the three Apple TV units I have purchased (one of which was the one I sold) over the past 5 years have been almost free. (paid a total of $108 and $92 for two ATV2's, then paid $82 for an Apple TV 3, total outlay: $282. Then sold that one ATV2 for $270. So my net outlay for using three different ATV's over a period of 5 years has been $12.)

These days the jailbroken Apple TV2 goes for ~$150 (rarely above $200) on ebay. Note that the Apple TV 3 (Current model) cannot be jailbroken.
 

Mildredop

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 14, 2013
2,478
1,510
Yes, you should jailbreak. And sell. You will come out way ahead.

There is a community of people out there who will pay top $ for a jailbroken Apple TV because jail breaking allows them to install other apps on it like XBMC which open up lots of possibilities. Also, your original-style Apple TV has built-in storage, which hobbyists like.

Personally, I have sold a jailbroken Apple TV 2 (no storage) for $270 on ebay. Keep in mind I originally purchased that Apple TV 2 refurbished from Apple.com for $92 ($85 + tax). So selling it net me a profit of $178. Well more than needed to cover the cost of the Apple TV3 I replaced it with, which you can get for $75 refurbished from Apple. Because of that one sale the three Apple TV units I have purchased (one of which was the one I sold) over the past 5 years have been almost free. (paid a total of $108 and $92 for two ATV2's, then paid $82 for an Apple TV 3, total outlay: $282. Then sold that one ATV2 for $270. So my net outlay for using three different ATV's over a period of 5 years has been $12.)

These days the jailbroken Apple TV2 goes for ~$150 (rarely above $200) on ebay. Note that the Apple TV 3 (Current model) cannot be jailbroken.

So why would someone pay £200 more to buy a jailbroken one rather than just jailbreaking it themself? (I've never jailbroken or even looked into how to do it).
 

StinDaWg

macrumors 6502
Apr 5, 2012
295
0
Paying $250 for a jailbroken apple tv is insane. You could build a capable Windows pc for that much.
 

roidy

macrumors 65816
Dec 30, 2008
1,027
22
Nottingham, UK
I'm about to put my old 40GB Apple TV on eBay. It appears to be worth around £50, but jailbroken ones seem to go for £250-300.

What's the deal?! Why are jailbroken ones so much more value. Should I jailbreak mine before sale?

If it's a 40gb model then it's a first generation aTV... even jailbroken they go for no where near that much on ebay, I found one that went for £170 and the rest went for about £80 to £110.

Now if it was a jailbroken aTV 2 then you've hit the jackpot, they do go for silly money :)
 

Mildredop

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 14, 2013
2,478
1,510
If it's a 40gb model then it's a first generation aTV... even jailbroken they go for no where near that much on ebay, I found one that went for £170 and the rest went for about £80 to £110.

Now if it was a jailbroken aTV 2 then you've hit the jackpot, they do go for silly money :)

Oh, right. That's maybe where I'm getting confused.
 

VoR

macrumors 6502a
Sep 8, 2008
917
15
UK
xbmc are dropping support for atv2 soon.
There's infinitely better hardware for much less money so if you can sell at a large profit, better to do it soon!
 

JackieInCo

Suspended
Jul 18, 2013
5,178
1,601
Colorado
If it's a 40gb model then it's a first generation aTV... even jailbroken they go for no where near that much on ebay, I found one that went for £170 and the rest went for about £80 to £110.

Now if it was a jailbroken aTV 2 then you've hit the jackpot, they do go for silly money :)

Last time I checked, ATV2s that were jailbroken were going for about $100-$150 or so. The price seemed to drop from what they were previously at about $200-$250.
 

ixxx69

macrumors 65816
Jul 31, 2009
1,294
878
United States
When I got my ATV3, shortly after its release, I shipped my ATV2 to friends (who don't know that jailbreaking even exists), not realizing that it was a hot commodity. If I'd know, I would have done the jailbreaking thing and sale on ebay, bought them a brand new ATV3, and pocketed the extra $100 or so. :mad:

After reading about it, I told another friend who had an ATV2 about it, and he did do the jailbreaking/ebay thing, and got a couple hundred bucks for it. I kind of had my doubts, but it's for real - people do buy them for that kind of money. I do sometimes wonder if those people buying them have any regrets after a few months. It seems like there are better devices out there for XMBC, etc.
 

VoR

macrumors 6502a
Sep 8, 2008
917
15
UK
It seems like there are better devices out there for XMBC, etc.

I wonder if there's a high traffic blog site or something because it really does beggar belief.
There's always been much better (performance, cost, no messing about, etc) solutions and now, you'd be crazy to even consider getting one over the multitude of alternatives.
 

mellofello

macrumors 65816
Feb 1, 2011
1,257
556
I could almost understand it 5 years ago, but now why not just get a chrome cast or Roku?
 

Ryanhdd

macrumors regular
Nov 1, 2007
243
33
Virginia Beach, Virginia
I could almost understand it 5 years ago, but now why not just get a chrome cast or Roku?

agreed I like my rook 3 much better than my apple tv 2 and 3.

its just a better user experience. I don't understand why apple has waited soon long to open up the iTunes store and 3rd party apps for apple tv. I guess they are waiting for the home kit stuff. They are behind the times on the apple tv.
 

Quirinus

macrumors member
Mar 12, 2012
69
23
Just sold my ATV2 on ebay for 150, bought me a new ATV3 for 99. Since i started using Netflix i have no use for the jailbroken ATV. I can still airplay other stuff if needed.
 

roidy

macrumors 65816
Dec 30, 2008
1,027
22
Nottingham, UK
Last time I checked, ATV2s that were jailbroken were going for about $100-$150 or so. The price seemed to drop from what they were previously at about $200-$250.

Sure, maybe in your US dollars... but the OP is talking UK pounds and on ebay UK some jailbroken aTV 2's are still going for between £200-250, that's about $300+.
 
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