Looking for used Macbook

[monkeybongo]

Hello,

I ended up coming across a late-2008 unibody MB 13" that is still new brand in the box. I negotiated to $520 but before I finalize I want to check if this is a good deal or not as I would have preferred a MBP with the sealed battery but I've seen those go in the $600-700 range.

Specs: 2.4 GHZ C2D, 2GB RAM, 250GB HD, Nvidia 9400M, no firewire.

Any advice is appreciated! I'm trying to consolidate from a 15" MBP 2.0 CD and a black MB 2.0 C2D as we have multiple iPads in the house now.

 

[maflynn]

a 3 year old computer still new in the box, while possible. That raises some red flags.

The price seems a little low but I could be wrong on that too.

 

[0007776]

a 3 year old computer still new in the box, while possible. That raises some red flags.

The price seems a little low but I could be wrong on that too.

It seems a little low to me as well. But then I haven't been paying close attention to the prices I'd recommend the OP go and look at finished auctions on eBay to get a better idea of current prices.

 

[clyde2801]

It's the Macbook CE-collector's edition. (Only Macbook with a lighted keyboard.) Basically, its the predecessor to the 13" macbook pro, and was discontinued for two reasons. The first was lack of firewire, the second I'll get to in a second.

Capable little machine that can go up to 6 gigs of ram. Can also stick in a 7200 rpm hard drive or sata II ssd with little trouble.

The second issue many people had was Apple put in some crappy screens in some of them. I sent at least two back because of horrid viewing angles and washed out dark colors. (Though, I was spending a premium on it, roughly three times as much as you.)

Unless you're running some high end software on it, and can live with the display (apple always cheaps out on macbook displays, ugh) it should be just dandy, especially at that price. And it doesn't have the newer macbook's battery life, but I can generally get 3 1/2 hours on a full charge at 1/2 brightness and wifi if I'm not watching movies or video.

I have thought about going to a MBA due to the lightness and longer battery life, but I really don't want to give up the lighted keyboard; I've grown too used to it.

 

[monkeybongo]

Thanks for the posts. It should be trustworthy as it's a friend of a friend. Apparently, he got as a gift but as a PC guy he never opened it and when I heard that I got his email and asked to sell it to me.

I didn't know about the screen quality issue, would it have been comparable to the previous black Macbook or worst? Also, did they improve the quality during the manufacturing run?