Reselling Macs & licensing conundrum

[opti]

I am buying used/broken MacBooks, with the aim of fixing them up and reselling them. Most of them would have originally shipped with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and iLife '06, but unfortunately they rarely come with restore discs. This presents a bit of a conundrum with reselling; it seems I am stuck with a number of bad options:

- Resell laptop with Mac OS X install as-is, perhaps with a bit of cleaning up. Easiest, but not desirable. Clean install would be better for the buyer.

- Buy copies of Leopard/iLife '08 and install. Adds a lot of value to the computer, but I don't think it can be justified considering the going rates for said software.

- Get a set of restore discs and use for all laptops. Doable, and perfectly legal as far as I can tell -- the license is bound to the laptop, not the restore disc. But MacBooks were paired up with different versions of Mac OS X and iLife, depending on when they shipped. So I may have to get several different restore discs. And how do I even tell what's licensed to a given MacBook?

- Procure new restore discs to send with each MacBook. Nice inclusion for the buyer, but these can still be a bit pricey on eBay. Aside from that, suffers from same versioning problem mentioned in the previous option.

So which would you choose? Is there something I'm missing that would make the choice easier?


(This continues the topic of a recent thread I posted, but with more specificity)

 

[Macky-Mac]

I am buying used/broken MacBooks, with the aim of fixing them up and reselling them. Most of them would have originally shipped with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and iLife '06, but unfortunately they rarely come with restore discs. This presents a bit of a conundrum with reselling; it seems I am stuck with a number of bad options:

.....

- Get a set of restore discs and use for all laptops. Doable, and perfectly legal as far as I can tell -- the license is bound to the laptop, not the restore disc. But MacBooks were paired up with different versions of Mac OS X and iLife, depending on when they shipped. So I may have to get several different restore discs. And how do I even tell what's licensed to a given MacBook?

it's the other way around.....the license is tied to the copy of OSX that's on the restore disk and not to the laptop. Check the license and you'll see that you're not allowed to have the software installed on more than one computer at a time and that when you transfer ownership you're supposed to include the original media (the restore disk in this case)

 

[kolax]

it's the other way around.....the license is tied to the copy of OSX that's on the restore disk and not to the laptop. Check the license and you'll see that you're not allowed to have the software installed on more than one computer at a time and that when you transfer ownership you're supposed to include the original media (the restore disk in this case)

The OS X discs that come with any Mac are restricted to working just on that Mac. They won't work on any other Mac.

 

[r0k]

I would call Apple Care on this one. They should sell replacement disks for considerably less than retail. Give them the serial numbers of the affected machine(s) and see how much they want for replacement media.

Dell and HP will sell you replacement media for their machines. I called Apple about this question the other day when somebody said they lost their restore cd. At first, they said I had to buy a new retail copy. When I said that seemed a little unreasonable, they suggested I call AppleCare instead and they implied there is some possibility of getting replacement disks.

 

[sickmacdoc]

I would call Apple Care on this one. They should sell replacement disks for considerably less than retail. Give them the serial numbers of the affected machine(s) and see how much they want for replacement media.

Dell and HP will sell you replacement media for their machines. I called Apple about this question the other day when somebody said they lost their restore cd. At first, they said I had to buy a new retail copy. When I said that seemed a little unreasonable, they suggested I call AppleCare instead and they implied there is some possibility of getting replacement disks.

That is correct- calling AppleCare and telling them that you need what they refer to as "Fulfillment Disks" and providing you with the serial number of the machine in question will allow you to purchase a replacement set of disks equivalent to what shipped with the particular Mac.

I recently did that to get a set of disks for my Dual 2.7 G5 before I eBay it since I recently moved and did not want to dig through a BUNCH of boxes to find the pair and that pair of disks cost $32 including shipping. They arrived within about three days and work fine. Note- they will indeed be copies of the ones that shipped with the particular Mac, so if shipped with Tiger so they will be, etc.

 

[opti]

it's the other way around.....the license is tied to the copy of OSX that's on the restore disk and not to the laptop. Check the license and you'll see that you're not allowed to have the software installed on more than one computer at a time and that when you transfer ownership you're supposed to include the original media (the restore disk in this case)

I think you're wrong about that. I haven't seen an official answer, but see discussion here.

It makes more sense to assume that the license follows the computer, not the media, as (a) the software comes preinstalled on the computer, and (b) The discs are labeled as being part of a hardware bundle, and not to be sold separately.

 

[opti]

That is correct- calling AppleCare and telling them that you need what they refer to as "Fulfillment Disks" and providing you with the serial number of the machine in question will allow you to purchase a replacement set of disks equivalent to what shipped with the particular Mac.

I recently did that to get a set of disks for my Dual 2.7 G5 before I eBay it since I recently moved and did not want to dig through a BUNCH of boxes to find the pair and that pair of disks cost $32 including shipping. They arrived within about three days and work fine. Note- they will indeed be copies of the ones that shipped with the particular Mac, so if shipped with Tiger so they will be, etc.

Good to know. I saw some mention of this before, but no word on how much it would cost.

$32 is more than I'd like to pay, but perhaps worth it. I wonder if it will really add $30+ to bid prices though...

 

[sickmacdoc]

Good to know. I saw some mention of this before, but no word on how much it would cost.

$32 is more than I'd like to pay, but perhaps worth it. I wonder if it will really add $30+ to bid prices though...

I really don't know if they are all priced the same- I have heard different numbers too, but never from anyone that actually called and ordered them like I did. Who knows- some model's disks may actually cost less so it is certainly worth a call to nail that down ahead of time to see how the price would fit your plan.

That is an interesting question about the amount that it might add to a bid (or subtract if not included). If it were an unexperienced user bidding on the machine it probably would not as they would not realize what a help it is to have the disks, but more experienced folks would consider the machine incomplete without the disks it shipped with. I decided to get them as I preferred to offer a "complete" package and made note of the fact that it comes with them in the description (as well as pointing out that others listed may not include them! ). Time will tell I suppose, but if the type you are seeking are available cheaper than mine it might help you make the decision as I sure don't think having them can be anything but a positive feature in your auctions.

 

[KingYaba]

The OS X discs that come with any Mac are restricted to working just on that Mac. They won't work on any other Mac.

Nonsense. From personal experience, it's the second gray disk that is machine specific. The first gray disk is simply the OS which installed on many of my Mac. PPC by the way. Not sure about the Intel ones.

 

[opti]

I really don't know if they are all priced the same- I have heard different numbers too, but never from anyone that actually called and ordered them like I did. Who knows- some model's disks may actually cost less so it is certainly worth a call to nail that down ahead of time to see how the price would fit your plan.

That is an interesting question about the amount that it might add to a bid (or subtract if not included). If it were an unexperienced user bidding on the machine it probably would not as they would not realize what a help it is to have the disks, but more experienced folks would consider the machine incomplete without the disks it shipped with. I decided to get them as I preferred to offer a "complete" package and made note of the fact that it comes with them in the description (as well as pointing out that others listed may not include them! ). Time will tell I suppose, but if the type you are seeking are available cheaper than mine it might help you make the decision as I sure don't think having them can be anything but a positive feature in your auctions.

In general I think the more complete the package, the higher the bids, though it's hard to know how far to take that. Remote? Paperwork? Original box? Another guy I saw fixing up MacBooks was actually buying empty boxes to include them with his MacBook sales.

For the MacBooks I'm bidding on, I'm lucky if they include all internals, a battery and charger. So anything beyond that usually has to be bought separately.