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Resell Value/Where To Sell

U

unloader

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 25, 2013
6
0
Total noob to these forums, so my apologies if this is in the wrong section.

I purchased a 13" Macbook Air last year and I'm thinking about getting a Macbook Pro. I've read in a lot of posts you guys talk about resale value, etc. I'm curious to know where you sell your old mac hardware? Do you just list it on ebay, craigslist, sell to a friend or what?

I'd like to think my 13" i7 is worth more than a $100 bucks, but I don't know much about apple resale values. Any help you can provide would be great! Thanks
 
Where to sell

You can get idea's of what your system is worth based on what a refurbished model of the same configuration would go for on Apples refurbished site. If you have Applecare that would be a plus.

When listing your MBA, complete configuration, pictures, how many cycles does the battery have. Just think of what you would ask if you were in the market for a used MBA and go from there. Keep in mind what you may think it's worth does not mean that other's will agree with you

As for selling on here I believe you'd have to have access to the marketplace forum, eBay , Craigslist "watch out for the obvious"
 
When I go about selling my Macs, I list them here in the marketplace forum (you need to be a member for 6+ months and have 250 posts) and craiglist.

I tend to avoid eBay though I may opt for that the next time. Every option has its own set of pitfalls. eBay has its fees, and scammers. Craiglist has its spam and scammers, plus its a smaller audience, i.e., you're executing a local sale.

The marketplace is good but the audience is much much smaller so you may have a harder time moving.

I list it both in CR and MacRumors Marketplace at the same time and that seems to work well enough.
 
eBay and Craigslist will get you more money, but I just don't want to mess around with either one. I have become completely disenchanted with eBay for anything of any value any more.

You won't get near the money as eBay or CL, but I have been selling my used Macs on Gazelle. You just enter what model you have and they make you an offer. If you like the offer, just accept it and they pay shipping. Once they receive your Mac and it passes inspection, they send you your money. Hassle free.
 
unloader said:
Total noob to these forums, so my apologies if this is in the wrong section.

I purchased a 13" Macbook Air last year and I'm thinking about getting a Macbook Pro. I've read in a lot of posts you guys talk about resale value, etc. I'm curious to know where you sell your old mac hardware? Do you just list it on ebay, craigslist, sell to a friend or what?

I'd like to think my 13" i7 is worth more than a $100 bucks, but I don't know much about apple resale values. Any help you can provide would be great! Thanks
Click to expand...

I'll give you $101.00 :)
 
Weaselboy said:
eBay and Craigslist will get you more money, but I just don't want to mess around with either one. I have become completely disenchanted with eBay for anything of any value any more.

You won't get near the money as eBay or CL, but I have been selling my used Macs on Gazelle. You just enter what model you have and they make you an offer. If you like the offer, just accept it and they pay shipping. Once they receive your Mac and it passes inspection, they send you your money. Hassle free.
Click to expand...

Next time you want to sell your Mac I will make you a better offer than Gazelle and will gladly pay shipping! ;)
 
I usually sell my items on Amazon for now. Like oldhifi said your price has to be perfect on Amazon.

But as soon as I get 250 posts, I'll post my items on MacRumors and Amazon
 
In case its about Canada, I sold my 2010 13" MBP through kijiji.ca

Speaking of resale value, I got about 45% of the original cost back on that 3.5 year old laptop.
 
Amazon, eBay or Craigslist.

For craigslist take great pictures and talk it up big time. I almost always get the price I paid for items by having a great description and if you have a price stick to it. I have post for 2-3 months and don't cave on a price and I get it at that price
 
Craigslist is the easiest to get top dollar. But it can take time, luck (especially depending on where you live), and you have to be armed with common sense and be willing to conduct business face to face with complete strangers.
 
Weaselboy said:
eBay and Craigslist will get you more money, but I just don't want to mess around with either one. I have become completely disenchanted with eBay for anything of any value any more.

You won't get near the money as eBay or CL, but I have been selling my used Macs on Gazelle. You just enter what model you have and they make you an offer. If you like the offer, just accept it and they pay shipping. Once they receive your Mac and it passes inspection, they send you your money. Hassle free.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but Gazelle offers about 50% of what a used Mac is worth. You would be just as well served to donate and to claim it as an itemized deduction on your taxes.
 
Naimfan said:
I'm sorry, but Gazelle offers about 50% of what a used Mac is worth. You would be just as well served to donate and to claim it as an itemized deduction on your taxes.
Click to expand...

I am not making any claim Gazelle or similar services are the best price. I am simply saying for me, it is worth the somewhat reduced price not to screw around with it.

I have a 2013 MBA that is going for average $775 on eBay right now. A tax deduction for a $775 donation would net me about $258, so no, not a better option.

I just checked and Gazelle will give me $463 for my MBA. Add 5% to that if I agree to accept an Amazon credit as payment, but I won't include that here.

So we have eBay at $775 - $77 in fees and $20 in shipping for a net of $678.

Nothing like your 50% number.

So to me it is well worth the ~$200 hit not to mess around with it and deal with eBay buyers and their BS. Last Mac I sold on eBay I messed around for three days emailing the buyer back and forth explaining how to set it up with him threatening to return it as defective when he just did not know what he was doing. Never again.

Same with Craigslist. Did it once. Never again. Every scammer on the planet was emailing me with ridiculous offers.

So like I said, a couple hundred dollars every two years or so when I upgrade is just not worth the hassle to me.
 
weaselboy, good price analysis of resale values.

Noodle654, to me, is not exactly a random person. He is a member of a peer-reviewed forum since mid 2000's. A lot of issues you mentioned would be mitigated selling to a person here. Just my opinion.

craigslist does change. i recall days when straight up african princesses would offer +50% over my asking price for something.

The other days I had students lowballing and many many offers for trade-ins.

If there was a business that bought MacBooks at very high resale values, flipped them, and sold them at exceptional prices. I could see it being a good business model for a company that already is profitable, wants a good name, and can use the small margins/losses as tax write-offs.

David
 
Weaselboy said:
a couple hundred dollars every two years or so when I upgrade is just not worth the hassle to me.
Click to expand...

The last Mac I sold was an original base 15" rMBP. Gazelle offered $739, I sold it for $1450 on Craigslist. Since I tend to swap computers more, Gazelle's offer was (and is) laughable.

Put another way, a one hour investment of time netted $711 over what Gazelle offered. Since that exceeds my firm's billing rate, that's well worth it. If you're not seeing that kind of difference, then I might suggest you look at how you've marketed on CL or eBay.
 
Naimfan said:
The last Mac I sold was an original base 15" rMBP. Gazelle offered $739, I sold it for $1450 on Craigslist. Since I tend to swap computers more, Gazelle's offer was (and is) laughable.

Put another way, a one hour investment of time netted $711 over what Gazelle offered. Since that exceeds my firm's billing rate, that's well worth it. If you're not seeing that kind of difference, then I might suggest you look at how you've marketed on CL or eBay.
Click to expand...

Well good for you. But it has nothing to do with how I "market" on eBay. I just gave you a real example of real eBay average sales that have nothing to do with me. I get it, you don't want to sell your stuff on Gazelle and I'm not trying to convince you to.

I just have better things to do than trying to sell my used computers on the Internet to save myself $200. I don't want or need the hassle and frustration of dealing with this. Not quite sure why this is so hard for you to comprehend.
 
Weaselboy said:
Well good for you. But it has nothing to do with how I "market" on eBay. I just gave you a real example of real eBay average sales that have nothing to do with me. I get it, you don't want to sell your stuff on Gazelle and I'm not trying to convince you to.

I just have better things to do than trying to sell my used computers on the Internet to save myself $200. I don't want or need the hassle and frustration of dealing with this. Not quite sure why this is so hard for you to comprehend.
Click to expand...

And you, in turn, miss the point. If you prefer to leave a significant amount of money on the table, so be it.
 
Naimfan said:
And you, in turn, miss the point. If you prefer to leave a significant amount of money on the table, so be it.
Click to expand...

I completely understand your point. Do whatever you want. To me, $200 is not a significant amount of money and not worth the hassle.
 
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