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Sell it, or move it 5000 miles?

M

MlleJules

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 28, 2014
8
0
Hiya everyone,

Within a few weeks I'll be moving from the UK to San Francisco. I have a rough plan for most of my belongings, but my iMac has me stumped.

Having taken advice from people and another forum (britishexpats.com), I've determined that I should either [a] FedEx my iMac in its original box (about £200 or more) or sell it here and buy a new machine in the US.

My iMac is a 21.5" mid 2011 model, and was upgraded to the 2.7 GHz i5, 2 TB HDD, 8 GB RAM. It runs beautifully still and is in great condition externally.

In order to decide what to do, as I'm quite tight on money, I need to know what the resale value is of my iMac. Any ideas? If it's enough, then the sale price combined with the saving on shipping might make a new iMac feasible (especially considering how much cheaper they are in the US).

I have done quite a lot of searching for typical resale prices but haven't reached a conclusion. It seems that 8GB + 2 TB isn't a very common combination and I don't know what value this adds per se.

Thanks in advance for your help. :)
 
We had a similar situation only that mine was a 21.5 inch 2010 iMac. My recommendation is to sell it and upgrade to a new one, unless you'll just stay in SF for a few months.

Despite iMac's reputation of longevity, it'll be tough to upgrade its hardware as time goes on. You'll be bogged down by lack of memory, hard disk failure and such.

Transportation is another case. You also need to purchase insurance for any unexpected damage/lost that might occur during its transportation.

For me, it boils down to the condition of the iMac. If it is slowing my work down, I'd rather get an entry level iMac as a replacement. No hassles, no worries if your iMac will be stolen, damaged, etc.
 
Had this same issue about 6 months ago with a 27 inch iMac. We just checked it on the plane and it arrived in perfect condition. No extra shipping costs!
 
RVijay007 said:
Had this same issue about 6 months ago with a 27 inch iMac. We just checked it on the plane and it arrived in perfect condition. No extra shipping costs!
Click to expand...

Within the country or out? Because if you will transport it, you also need to pay import tax, not to mention, the risk of damaging it due to mishandling.
 
Sell it, no doubts about it. The prices in the UK are much higher, so you should easily be able to get a newer, better iMac in the US.
 
Bubble wrap the iMac stuff it in a case and take it with you on the plane. Simple
 
Having moved a lot in my life, and leaned the meaning of the term less is more, I went for a Mac Mini. It travels easily (to work for a day, or to a new location) and is about as quick to set up with a monitor or projector and other peripherals as a laptop.

Don't get attached to your processions. Quit what you have where you are, and get what suits your needs when you get to where you are going.

If you foresee more relocations, consider a Mini. Tricked out the Mini's specs and performance is not much below an iMac, and is probably all that many, if not most people need.

Bear in mind that quoted UK prices are inclusive of VAT. Quoted Stateside prices are before tax.
 
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