MBP/MB Resale Value: Ridiculously High

[vant]

Since you travel to buy stuff to Portland, you must live in Washington State. Have you heard about the guy in Washington State who was killed by fake buyers as he was trying to sell diamond ring on CL (also about $1000 worth) a few days ago? Just be careful.

Yup. I never go alone, and I never show them my car.

But, I've also probably made many CL transactions.

 

[Bill Gates]

Since you travel to buy stuff to Portland, you must live in Washington State. Have you heard about the guy in Washington State who was killed by fake buyers as he was trying to sell diamond ring on CL (also about $1000 worth) a few days ago? Just be careful.

That guy and his wife were dumb enough to conduct the sale at their own home. They were practically asking to be robbed and it's unfortunate that it got so far out of hand.

Question for those that have sold on Craigslist: are you requiring cash-only for every transaction?

Absolutely.

 

[tastychicken]

I agree with OP's statement only to a certain point. If you buy a machine Brand New, i don't believe you'll get as much back. I think you'll end up losing more. You probably wont lose as much with low end machines but definitely with the high end. But if you buy clearance or refurbished, you don't take as big of a hit.

I've done this twice so far:
1.) Bought a 2007 SR 2.2 15" MBP on clearance for $1349

I sold it for $1000 after 1 year 4 months usage and w/ expired Apple Care

2.) Bought a (refurbished) Late 2008 Unibody 2.53 15" MBP (this model was originally $2499 brand new) for $1449

I sold it for $1320 after 11 months of usage.

 

[vant]

I agree with OP's statement only to a certain point. If you buy a machine Brand New, i don't believe you'll get as much back. I think you'll end up losing more. You probably wont lose as much with low end machines but definitely with the high end. But if you buy clearance or refurbished, you don't take as big of a hit.

I've done this twice so far:
1.) Bought a 2007 SR 2.2 15" MBP on clearance for $1349

I sold it for $1000 after 1 year 4 months usage and w/ expired Apple Care

2.) Bought a (refurbished) Late 2008 Unibody 2.53 15" MBP (this model was originally $2499 brand new) for $1449

I sold it for $1320 after 11 months of usage.

Very nice sales. The only thing is, with the education discount that students get, it makes more sense to buy new in many cases. In the wanted ad I posted above, that buyer specifically stated he didn't want a refurbished machine, but I'm sure there are many others who don't care.

 

[trondah]

I earned $20 dollars going from a 2.53ghz 2010 13" to a 2.4ghz 2010 model. I use invisibleshield and do this every year 🙂

 

[sjinsjca]

Does anyone know if Applecare adds resale value to a MBP?

Sure. I'm speaking from personal experience, having purchased a used MBP with AppleCare off Craigslist. It's very reassuring to the buyer, which means they'll pay more. And why shouldn't they-- they get more. Just be sure to transfer it to the new owner. Just takes a phone call, but it must be done by the original owner.

 

[minik]

Since you travel to buy stuff to Portland, you must live in Washington State. Have you heard about the guy in Washington State who was killed by fake buyers as he was trying to sell diamond ring on CL (also about $1000 worth) a few days ago? Just be careful.

Living in the Seattle area and sold a couple Macs, camera, iPhones on CL in the past, I always made my transactions inside the local malls or Starbucks.

 

[KandyKane]

I earned $20 dollars going from a 2.53ghz 2010 13" to a 2.4ghz 2010 model. I use invisibleshield and do this every year 🙂

I sold my June 2009 Mbp13" 2.53 with 2 years remaining on AppleCare and got paid $50 more for the 2.4... (plus AppleCare later)

is that lower than normal?
(aud)

 

[SonicBoom1981]

Should we be buying Apple Care with MBPs? It's certainly NOT cheap!!!

 

[HBOC]

i have sold high dollar stuff on CL, and have done most of the sales in Starbucks with no hitch.

 

[macgeek18]

I thought they were, but I wasn't able to get a offer of 800 for my 4 month old MB,I was also including an extra magsafe,the 2 video adapters,and a wireless Mighty Mouse,and I was getting offers of like $500-700 for it. 🙁

 

[Ash9414]

Macbooks also seem to follow an opposite resale model when it comes to "features". The lower end macbooks seem to hold their value really well. Like many have suggested, you may only lose ~10% value over 1-2 years. The high end machines seem to lose closer to 15-20% over the same period of time.

When it comes to buying used cars, the fully loaded models are always the ones which hold their value better. It's a very strange trend.

Would that mean that a 2.4GHz 2010 13" MBP would have a better resale value than a 2.66GHz version of the same model?

 

[mikeo007]

Would that mean that a 2.4GHz 2010 13" MBP would have a better resale value than a 2.66GHz version of the same model?

Well it would retain more of it's original value, so if you paid $1000 for the 2.4 and $1400 for the 2.66, you might sell the 2.4 for $800 and the 2.66 for $1000. In this scenario you still get more for the 2.66, but it's only about 70% of the original value, whereas the 2.4 would sell for 90% of it's original value.

The numbers are pulled out of thin air, but most used mac hardware seems to follow this trend.

 

[kazmac]

I'm seriously thinking about selling my new 2010 MBP

Hi guys,

in a what I thought was a good decision, I bought the new 2010 low end (2.4GhZ) 13" MBP in May. I barely use it: light docs, emailing and occassional surfing.

Cut to this past week:

I'm really not using/liking the feel of the MBP as much as my Mac desktops and am wondering where I should sell it and for how much?

With the above post stating $1000 with the Apple Care does that sound right? I've never used CL, and I really don't want eBay to eat up fees.

And should I keep the Apple Care on it? I know some people have hinted at yes you should keep the Apple Care on it and that I have to transfer the AC over to the new owner with a phone call.

Apple has a new recycle for Apple gift card program, but I did the estimate and there's no way I'm accepting $642 and change for what I paid almost $1400 with Apple Care.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Miss Kaz

 

[mark28]

Yeah, I noticed people are real dumbasses for paying so much for a used computer.

Hence why I'm getting a MBP too 😀 Atleast it's worth something when I buy a new laptop 😛

 

[aethelbert]

And should I keep the Apple Care on it? I know some people have hinted at yes you should keep the Apple Care on it and that I have to transfer the AC over to the new owner with a phone call.

At this point they should give you a pro rata refund, which would be the entire cost since you're still within ninety days. There's a fee of about $30, but the refund would add up to more than the extra amount that you'd get by selling the computer with the warranty.

 

[hippo206]

Whenever I sell stuff, I usually refuse to sell to people that I know because I don't want to deal with any kind of issues that may come up (something suddenly breaking, the person wanting a refund because its not what they expected). Apple products are the only thing that I sell to friends/family because I know if something goes wrong, then Apple will fix it (usually for free or with a replacement).

As for resell value:

08 non-unibody 15 MBP Paided: 1299.00 Sold: 900.00 on CL in 2 hours.
07 non-unibody 17 MBP Paided: 2300.00 Sold: 1150.00 on CL in less than 24 hours
3G iphone Paided: 200.00 Sold: 200.00
3GS iphone Paided : 399.00 Sold: 200.00 to a friend 🙂

vs.

PC gaming rig (built myself) 1.5 years old Paided: 2200.00 Sold: 550.00 - this was after posting on CL for 3 weeks. Had all the best name brand parts.

 

[kazmac]

thanks

At this point they should give you a pro rata refund, which would be the entire cost since you're still within ninety days. There's a fee of about $30, but the refund would add up to more than the extra amount that you'd get by selling the computer with the warranty.

I'm going to take the MBP 13" back to the Apple store where I bought it tomorrow and politely beg the Manager if they will take it back...had I bought it on online they were ready to take it back, but we'll see if this manager really does do everything he can to make me happy. A quote from him the last time I had a question.

Thanks for the info about the AC.

 

[Gavbo]

Depends on how good is the replaced model. Here are my stories.

Story 1) Purchased the Powerbook 17 1.67" new for around 1800 pounds and sold it one year later for 1000 pounds - That's was the market price (because the Intel chip came out) 🙁
*** total lost 800 pounds in 1 year!! that was a heartbreaker

Story 2) Purchased a secondhand two months old Macbook air (rev b) for 750 pounds then brought applecare on ebay for 75 pounds. 13 months on sold the package 700 pounds only two weeks ago.

*** total lost 125 pounds for 13months of computing
===

Advise
Try and make use of student discounts etc, always try to sell your system prior to the replacement comes out, especally if you know the new one is much improved.

 

[Brien]

I sold my broken 2004 iBook for $200-something in 2008. I only paid $1000 for it. Not bad.

 

[kazmac]

🙂

I got the best rate I could all but the restocking fee back. The Manager took the MBP back as a one time only instance. Since I will most likely buy another Mac sometime next year, the 1300 gift card is fine. I doubt I'll have the same problem as earlier this year (I'll just use gift cards to get the next Mac).

Outside of that, I am impressed at the amount of money people got for their MB/MBPs here. 🙂

Not the machines for me, but for many others.

Thanks for the tips guys and gals.

 

[HBOC]

Hi guys,

in a what I thought was a good decision, I bought the new 2010 low end (2.4GhZ) 13" MBP in May. I barely use it: light docs, emailing and occassional surfing.

Cut to this past week:

I'm really not using/liking the feel of the MBP as much as my Mac desktops and am wondering where I should sell it and for how much?

With the above post stating $1000 with the Apple Care does that sound right? I've never used CL, and I really don't want eBay to eat up fees.

And should I keep the Apple Care on it? I know some people have hinted at yes you should keep the Apple Care on it and that I have to transfer the AC over to the new owner with a phone call.

Apple has a new recycle for Apple gift card program, but I did the estimate and there's no way I'm accepting $642 and change for what I paid almost $1400 with Apple Care.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Miss Kaz

That sounds about right. Also look at the refurb site to get a feel for what Apple is pricing them at. I see people on CL pricing a base MBP (13") for $1100, and you can buy the same one at apple.com (refurb) for $849.