Selling a Mac Pro that had upgraded processor? (NOT SPAM)

[100Years]

Guys, as I've been doing this processor swapping in my Mac Pro as of late, I got to wondering......

Whether eBay or Craigslist, how difficult is it to sell a Mac Pro that has had the CPU(s) upgraded? Are most Mac Pro buyers weary of buying a tower that has had a mod like that done?

Reason I'm asking is this: now that I have two 2.4GHz chips from my little project, should I sell them? Should I keep them so I can put them back in, if/when I would want to sell this tower?

Please share any thoughts and experiences....

 

[philipma1957]

clock this seller:

http://cgi.ebay.com/2010-Mac-Pro-3-...le_Desktops&hash=item3cb65db105#ht_1618wt_907



http://cgi.ebay.com/2010-Mac-Pro-3-...le_Desktops&hash=item3cb65dad6b#ht_1618wt_907

my opinion is he is asking too much but he is the only seller on ebay with the gear. at least that i can find. also he has had some bad feedback. btw he should send us (macrumors)
a royalty check since he listed the day after i posted my quad to hex upgrade( on this site) .LOL.


personally they will sell better once warranty has expired. so if you hold onto your machine for a year or so People would be more inclined to buy it. of course price drops on an older machine . Right now you won't do well to sell it. people will think you killed the warranty and they will hesitate. also search ebay for mac pro 3.33 you will see a lot of high end new hexs with good prices that don't sell even with perfect feedback sellers.

 

[100Years]

I tend to agree about the warranty; probably an easier sell, once the warranty is gone.

You know, I still see lots of 2006 towers selling really well; those and the 2008 models. Haven't seen too many 2009s.

 

[Altimeter88]

Guys, as I've been doing this processor swapping in my Mac Pro as of late, I got to wondering......

Whether eBay or Craigslist, how difficult is it to sell a Mac Pro that has had the CPU(s) upgraded? Are most Mac Pro buyers weary of buying a tower that has had a mod like that done?

Reason I'm asking is this: now that I have two 2.4GHz chips from my little project, should I sell them? Should I keep them so I can put them back in, if/when I would want to sell this tower?

Please share any thoughts and experiences....

I sold my 2006 Mac Pro 1,1 that had upgraded 2.3Ghz quad cores last August on Craigslist for $1500. I had two full price offers the second day.
I was the original owner and did the upgrades myself back in 2008. I sold the original 2.66 dual core Xeons for more than the newer 2.3Ghz quads cost so I actually made money on the CPU deal.

I did disclose in the listing that it had upgraded CPUs.

So original purchase price in 2006 w/student and developer program discount w/ ATI X1900 XT was under $2500, sold 4+ years later (tower only w/box and manuals) for $1500...try doing that with a Dell or custom built PC

 

[ActionableMango]

Yes Macs have very high resale value which makes for a low total cost of ownership.

I bought a Mac Mini from Woot.com for $404 shipped and sold it three years later for $425. (At some point in those three years I upgraded the memory from 1GB to 2GB, the HDD from 80GB to 250GB, and from Tiger to Snow Leopard.)

The thing was practically free. Incredible really.

 

[sskino]

I sold my 2006 Mac Pro 1,1 that had upgraded 2.3Ghz quad cores last August on Craigslist for $1500. I had two full price offers the second day.
I was the original owner and did the upgrades myself back in 2008. I sold the original 2.66 dual core Xeons for more than the newer 2.3Ghz quads cost so I actually made money on the CPU deal.

I did disclose in the listing that it had upgraded CPUs.

So original purchase price in 2006 w/student and developer program discount w/ ATI X1900 XT was under $2500, sold 4+ years later (tower only w/box and manuals) for $1500...try doing that with a Dell or custom built PC

That's the one nice thing about Macs. Resale value. Honestly, I've never been a Mac person and I've owned nothing but PCs and clones. I've been in IT for over 20 years and the last machine I built, I put together specifically with the purpose of running OSX. It ran great, and still does to this day, but when I was ready to buy a new machine I looked at the Mac Pros. Why? Because I know that when I get ready to sell and upgrade I will have a larger ROI than with any PC.

PCs are a dime a dozen.. Like a brand new car. The minute you take it home you've lost about 20-25% of what you paid. Macs, well only Apple makes and sells them, so as long as they set the price as they have, the value is better.

In either case, an upgraded Mac or OEM original will net you more than any beefed up PC would. But I agree. It may be more attractive when the warranty is up. Selling an upgraded machine while it still has a warranty on it is a flag to a potential buyer that the warranty is questionable.

 

[IceMacMac]

Everyone will have a different opinion.

Me? Even though I'd be interested in a geeked out system...I'd want to do the geeking myself.

I've always heard it this way: If you make all kinds of after-market improvements to a vehicle...you might find they hurt rather than help the re-sale value of the car. Maybe I'm wrong but I suspect the same is true with most things.

People like known. People don't like unknown.

Just my opinion.

 

[Daud]

I got in MP fever once I recently got MP 1,1 2,66HGz from buy.com, refurbished, for $900. By a strange turn of things, I registered with Apple and got a full 1 y warranty. Still, I put in the 5160 3.0GHz Duals for $75 expense, and I still keep the original processor. I got second hand but new 4GB memory ($50) for total of 8GB. I installed a 2TB $70 Hitachi HD in Slot 2.

I should be possibly content with this fast machine (also OWC SSD) but the talk here about no support inn Lion and lust after a 2009 MP 4,1 2,66 GHz closeout for $1799 led me to list it on CL with mentioning the warranty but also the upgrade by myself. I have two serious offers ($1400) and one is coming tonight... Still I am tempted to keep it for $1100 outlay. Decisions..

EDIT: so it sold for the asking price, OP. I feel some emptiness. Shall I go for the 2009 closeout or wait....

 

[bozz2006]

I suppose it depends on the system. Might be harder to sell a brand new machine with an upgraded processor and no warranty. I recently put my Mac Pro Classic up for sale on ebay, upgraded with an Apple branded Radeon 4870 and dual quad-core 2.66GHz processors. I set the reserve at $1500 and had Buy It Now set at $1800, a price I was never expecting to get close to. I was prepared for the auction to close below the reserve price. Aaaaaaaaaand, it sold for the Buy It Now price about 8 hours after the auction started.