Resale value

[Ncuk]

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I've never had a mac before but the features of the system appeal to me som I'm ready to take the plunge and purchase and iMac.

If I purchased the 2011 base iMac, what could I expect to sell it for in two years time?

If I bought the top 27" iMac, how much would I expect to sell it for in three years time?

I say this because I do enjoy gaming on the occasion. I'm just unsure of the best option here. If you enjoyed games but wanted the functionality of a mac, what would you do? Replace the base iMac after two years or the top end iMac after three?

 

[Ncuk]

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Forgive the typos, Wimbledon's a distraction!

 

[soco]

The market for re-sale is too difficult to guage accurately. It's easier to assume the worst out of the gate and hope you get more for your money when the time actually comes.

I like to assume that every year you lose 33% of your value. So 33% of 1,000 is about 700 > of 700 is about 525 > and so on.

It's a depressing game, but always keep in mind, you're making something back. It's not all that bad.

PS. I'm terrible at math, don't judge me!

 

[philipma1957]

The market for re-sale is too difficult to guage accurately. It's easier to assume the worst out of the gate and hope you get more for your money when the time actually comes.

I like to assume that every year you lose 33% of your value. So 33% of 1,000 is about 700 > of 700 is about 525 > and so on.

It's a depressing game, but always keep in mind, you're making something back. It's not all that bad.

PS. I'm terrible at math, don't judge me!

no need for math!

my 2009 iMac a c2d 3.06Ghz 1tb would get me an 871 gift card from usa based poweron see screen shot. give me a few minutes and I will find out what I paid for it. I purchased it feb 2010 so I have owned it for 16 months. now my buyers price includes"

a government discount


sales tax

the better gpu . the discount was about the gpu upgrade price so the 1855 is close to the standard price with tax.




so 1855 then is 871 now.. close to half price 16 months old. I think I could argue for 900 to 925 as it has the better gpu/

 

[mrfoof82]

Go to eBay. Search for used iMacs. Look at the Completed Listings of auctions that actually had bids. Compare that to what they cost originally.

That's the best gauge.

 

[Norne]

If you enjoyed games but wanted the functionality of a mac, what would you do? Replace the base iMac after two years or the top end iMac after three?

While I'm not offering any insight into any second-hand iMac market prices, let me offer this trade-off:

For the price delta you need to cover going from base (21.5" i5) to top (27" i7, with probable HD or even SSD upgrade) you may consider adding a Windows tower with a screaming graphics card that can be kept up-to-date, more or less.

The nag nowadays is that you cannot easily use the present iMacs as monitors (need TB out on pc, and also 27" if I'm not confused), which might be exactly what Apple wanted to block.

Then again it depends on your kinds of gaming- for myself, I trust the current top iMac can deal with Diablo 3 and later expansions as well as Civ 5 that I currently enjoy at times.

But I won't rule out that I might get a winbox to satisfy my son ( 10 years now) a couple of years down the line.

 

[philipma1957]

Go to eBay. Search for used iMacs. Look at the Completed Listings of auctions that actually had bids. Compare that to what they cost originally.

That's the best gauge.

auctions will tend to be a little lower and buy it now a little higher. as you can see my imac is roughly half price in 16 months of use. I believe my machine can get 1100 to 1150 on ebay it has 20 months of apple care on it and it has the better gpu. but ebay fee shipping fee and paypal fee will be about 120 to 150.

clock this machine it is my machine with 11 months on warranty that can be boosted to 35 months with applecare. has lesser gpu then mine and 8gb ram. It should go around 12 or 13 hundred. assuming he is an honest seller. after fees he would clear about 11 hundred.



http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Apple-27-in...e_Desktops&hash=item3368f5e0e6#ht_2022wt_1019

 

[mrfoof82]

Well, the other thing to keep in mind is iMacs have the highest depreciation rate of any Mac because of the whole "display included" thing. As a result, they're not cheap to ship either (basically as much as it is to ship a Mac Pro). Mac Minis seem to fare the best by a large margin.

 

[Ncuk]

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Thanks for the replies. The price of the iMac 27 isn't so bad for a student so I may just plump for that. If I could sell it for £500 in 3 years time then I'd be happy. If not, it'll look like an extravagant gift for my parents. I will do a bit of eBay browsing. Perhaps a 2008 model is a fair indicator.

Norne: I did consider purchasing a mighty gaming pc but gaming is my secondary need and I couldn't justify it. The games I enjoy are similar; I'm still astounded by some of the ps3 graphics so I guess I'll be fine with the graphics in an iMac.

 

[kfscoll]

I bought a late '09 27" iMac with a 1TB hard drive, 4GB RAM, and the 2.8GHz Core i7 processor brand-new for $2079 in October 2009. I added another 4GB RAM for around $70 and AppleCare for $120 so the grand total was $2269...this included the government/military discount from the Apple Store.

I just sold this computer yesterday on eBay for $1575, so I got just shy of 70% of its purchase price back after ~20 months of use. Not too bad!

 

[Lagmonster]

Buy Apple Care. Sell after 24 months. That seems to be the "sweet spot" and what I plan to do.

 

[dh2005]

Buy Apple Care. Sell after 24 months. That seems to be the "sweet spot" and what I plan to do.

Actually, if the OP is a UK student, which he seems to be, he won't need AppleCare. The three-year warranty comes as standard.

 

[Ncuk]

That's very encouraging kfscoll, thanks for your input. And yes, I'm a UK student so they 3 years warranty is a given, thankfully.

 

[philipma1957]

That's very encouraging kfscoll, thanks for your input. And yes, I'm a UK student so they 3 years warranty is a given, thankfully.

check and be sure it will transfer to the next buyer if not buy applecare. imacs are hard to sell out of warranty.