MacBook Air - best upgrades for resale?

[pooksie]

hi all, I've been waiting for the new haswell MacBook Pro for a while now and I've come to the conclusion I need to buy a laptop within the next couple of weeks... if the haswell rmbp doesn't come out by then I'm gonna buy a 13" MacBook Air and potentially resell it once the rmbp comes out...

so what are the upgrades I should get in order to maximize my resale value to get as much of what I paid back?

my guess is the base 256 HD with the ram upgrade... anybody have experience with this?

thank you!

 

[keystothecity]

Don't bother with upgrades, as you'll have trouble recovering any of the extra funds spent over and above the base model.

In my experience the base model is going to have the best resale value, just because it appeals to the broadest segment of consumers. An argument can be made that 8gb of ram is a good investment, as many people look for this when shopping for used MacBook Airs. Hope that helps!

 

[pooksie]

by base do you mean the cheapest 13" air? how about AppleCare? does that boost the resale value?

 

[keystothecity]

By base, I mean the lowest spec model, which is the cheapest. This is going to provide you with the highest return on what you originally paid if you sell within 1 year or so.

Any upgrades other than RAM will not actually help your resale value...so don't bother with them unless you want them for your own personal use. Apple Care will not increase the resale value.

I think you should understand that no upgrade is going to increase the value of your Air by more than the incremental cost of the upgrade.

 

[sonicrobby]

I agree, the base model is probably the easiest to sell to get most of your money back. Applecare wont really matter unless you actually plan on keeping it for 365 days. Make sure you keep the original box and keep it as scratch free as possible.

 

[pooksie]

okay, good to hear one last question then...

there is a base 13" MacBook Air from June 2012 on the refurb store for ony $850 (education) vs the new haswell base 13" for $1050...

which would you say will offer me the closest to my purchase cost in October?

 

[Lakailb87]

If you're basing your Mac buying on how much money you can get for it later on you're going to have a bad time. Get whatever configuration will make the laptop work for you and sell it for what you can get for it when the time comes. Is $100 in 3 years going to make a huge difference?

 

[Jefe's MacAir]

Base + 8G.

YOU'LL appreciate the 8G more than it's resale value but it won't hurt either.

 

[pooksie]

If you're basing your Mac buying on how much money you can get for it later on you're going to have a bad time. Get whatever configuration will make the laptop work for you and sell it for what you can get for it when the time comes. Is $100 in 3 years going to make a huge difference?

normally I would agree with you, but it's not over three years. I'm trying to buy and resell within 2 months so if I can save the 100$ it's worth it for me.

 

[Lakailb87]

normally I would agree with you, but it's not over three years. I'm trying to buy and resell within 2 months so if I can save the 100$ it's worth it for me.

Why would you buy a laptop and sell it 2 months later? You're going to take a hit financially for no reason. A newer generation won't even be out for another year, either wait the 2 months or hold on to it longer.

 

[vincenz]

I'd say the base model would be the easiest to sell and also give you the lowest loss. An upgrade to 8 GB would probably be wise, will probably broaden the buyers market and make the machine more appealing. Wouldn't upgrade beyond that, to be honest, if you're buying just to sell 2 months later.

 

[jedolley]

IMO, you should buy what you want/can afford and don't worry about resale.

I'm gonna buy a 13" MacBook Air and potentially resell it once the rmbp comes out...

If you know someone that is a Best Buy Silver Member, you could see if they would buy it for you since they get 60 day returns... Not saying the new rMBP comes out in 60 days, but if it does you could do an exchange/pay the difference instead.

 

[pooksie]

Why would you buy a laptop and sell it 2 months later? You're going to take a hit financially for no reason. A newer generation won't even be out for another year, either wait the 2 months or hold on to it longer.

that's also something I agree with, but please bear with me on my reasoning

I don't really need a MacBook Air. my work requires me to do complicated design work using photoshop, autocad, Lightroom, you name it... so I need something with far more processing power and more graphical performance. what I really need is a MacBook Pro, but I don't want to purchase the current generation (ivy bridge) MacBook Pro because I am expecting it to be refreshed in two months. I could purchase it and resell it, but my guess is I would lose a lot more money on reselling it than a MacBook Air.

I can make do with an air for two months since I have a desktop I can use to edit, but on days where I'm offsite presenting I want the ability to have a powerful laptop I can make last minute edits with on the go. the MacBook Air isn't bad, but the resolution and the pixel count isn't ideal for my industry. so my plan is to make do with an air for two months, take the 50-100$ loss from selling it, and purchase a rmbp in October when it releases

 

[Lakailb87]

that's also something I agree with, but please bear with me on my reasoning

I don't really need a MacBook Air. my work requires me to do complicated design work using photoshop, autocad, Lightroom, you name it... so I need something with far more processing power and more graphical performance. what I really need is a MacBook Pro, but I don't want to purchase the current generation (ivy bridge) MacBook Pro because I am expecting it to be refreshed in two months. I could purchase it and resell it, but my guess is I would lose a lot more money on reselling it than a MacBook Air.

I can make do with an air for two months since I have a desktop I can use to edit, but on days where I'm offsite presenting I want the ability to have a powerful laptop I can make last minute edits with on the go. the MacBook Air isn't bad, but the resolution and the pixel count isn't ideal for my industry. so my plan is to make do with an air for two months, take the 50-100$ loss from selling it, and purchase a rmbp in October when it releases

If that is the case then my best recommendation is to buy a used 2011 or 2012 model. You skip out on the tax hit and the resell in 2 months on these will be almost exactly the same as when you buy it now. Power wise they are almost the same with the 2013 being slightly more powerful. The only thing you take a hit on is battery life but the 13" still gets very respectable time.

 

[cedwhatev]

If you get the 2013, the battery life itself will make the resale value. BUT, from experience, and as an avid eBay watcher, people seem to go for the 8/256 configuration a lot, with the next most popular being the base model.

 

[Dhodeltoro]

Note: I can't figure out how to delete this but I asked in the MBP forum after realizing this is the wrong place.

Hey everyone,

I have a similar question to that of the OP, except I am looking to buy a 13" MBP and resale is a much more minor consideration (I think I may have to sell this in a year or two, not a month).

If you were buying a MBP today, what upgrades would you go for? Is 16gb of ram excessive? I store most of my music and photos in the cloud, but 128gb hd strikes me as small..how have others found it? I could max my entire budget and get both upgrades, or find plenty of other ways to use the money if the upgrades are excessive.

Thanks for your help!

 

[shenan1982]

Base + 8G.

YOU'LL appreciate the 8G more than it's resale value but it won't hurt either.

Totally worth it. I've always done built to order in 2011, 2012, and 2013 for my MBA. 2011 and 2012 I got mine with 8GB ram. The 2013 came out and I was giddy to get it, so I just got it in the store (4GB). I don't use it as a primary computer, but I avoid using it because 4GB blows for a laptop. You DO notice it when watching videos HD takes longer to skip through because there's no space for it to buffer, windows in a VM often runs out of RAM (since I can only spare to feed the VM 2GB), and when I'm running flash I totally feel it because flash loads into RAM.

It wouldn't be such a big deal if the machine had a dedicated video card, but it doesn't, so right off the bat you're losing a huge chunk of the RAM to video usage.

There are tons of naysayers on here that swear 4GB is enough, and it may be enough, but it's certainly not optimal. We all are protective of our purchasing choices, so it's natural to be defensive of not waiting for a 8GB CTO to deliver, but anyone who legitimately thinks 8GB isn't worth an extra 10% in price over the 4GB is delusional.