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Should I bite?

T

Tydog07

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 10, 2011
454
2
Ann Arbor, Mi
Here is an ad I saw on Craigslist:


15" Hi-red glossy display
2.2 i7
128Gigabyte SSD
4GB RAM


He also included 2 pictures, one of the laptop and one of the about screen, which I know can be facismile. It has the hi-res glossy screen I want and an 128GB SSD, from Apple! I like the price, $2,000. The Macbook Pro I wanted from Apple was $2,215 but that includes a free ipod and printer. I'm torn because although this one is used (but looks/sounds to be in good shape), it has the screen I want and has an 128SSD, which I could move into an opti-bay setup and put in a bigger HDD. Thoughts?
 
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I would just buy new then again saving sales tax is pretty nice maybe buy AppleCare with the money you save though
 
I can understand the desire to buy new (biggest reason holding me up), but the savings of cost is pretty good here, and I get an SSD!


I did some math:

His MBP would cost $2,000

His setup at the Apple Store will cost me $2060 (That is brand new, with 6% sales tax and $250 taken out from selling ipod touch and printer, I took average selling prices from ebay)

My configured setup (same everything except 500GB 7200RPM HDD) will cost me $1965 (That is brand new, with 6% sales tax and $250 taken out from selling ipod touch and printer, I took average selling prices from ebay)


So the question is would it be worth it to save $60 and not have to deal with the hassle of the Ipod and Printer selling but have to get a used laptop? He sent me multiple pictures and the only blemishes are very minor on the bottom. I have a 500GB external that I could use for all my video and picture needs, but I will need to have my 16GB music library on hand at all times and he told me that the OS takes up 5GB. I'd only spend $95 more in the end if I bought his setup brand new, but I might need to buy an internal HDD ($75 for 500GB 7200RPM) so my cost could be $165 more than my original idea. Thoughts again?
 
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So after I read that thread a couple days ago about that poor guy who got scammed because the seller he dealt with on Craigslist changed the about this mac page on the computer, so I asked my guy to send me a picture of the underside of the mac, including the serial/model number. Model is an A1286, which with a simple Google search makes this laptop appear to be a late 2008 uni-body instead of a 2011. Can anyone verify for me, I don't want to call this guy a liar if he isn't one.

EDIT: A reverse phone look up on the ad states that it is a land-line, but is located in the area he is from, his ad said to call/text that number.

Also, I changed my original post so that he couldn't google his ad and find me/this thread. Sorry that it doesn't include the text from the original ad.
 

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What I'm curious about is how you're figuring in the iPod into the price (Back to School promotion), which WASN'T announced today... Do you know something we don't, or are you just assuming it will be announced sooner or later and will wait accordingly?
 
i wouldn't do it, just buy new with a high-res anti-glare instead, unless you prefer glossy. buy new either way.
 
The serial and model number check out fine, but bigger picture, if you can't make the decision when the difference between your options is ~$60 as you wrote, I think there are other items to tackle.
 
illucent17 said:
What I'm curious about is how you're figuring in the iPod into the price (Back to School promotion), which WASN'T announced today... Do you know something we don't, or are you just assuming it will be announced sooner or later and will wait accordingly?
Click to expand...

They do it every year, no worries.

Archlord said:
i wouldn't do it, just buy new with a high-res anti-glare instead, unless you prefer glossy. buy new either way.
Click to expand...

I prefer glossy.

jenzjen said:
The serial and model number check out fine, but bigger picture, if you can't make the decision when the difference between your options is ~$60 as you wrote, I think there are other items to tackle.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by other items to tackle?
 
jenzjen said:
Decision making, understanding risk vs reward, etc ... for about 3% of the purchase price, you're torn on whether to go used or not.
Click to expand...

Well I guess the question is now whether or not I can live with a 128GB main drive. Can I do an optibay setup even though the factory drive is a SSD?
 
yes absolutely thats what i have 128gb ssd in the main bay and 750gb in the optibay
 
gmans46 said:
yes absolutely thats what i have 128gb ssd in the main bay and 750gb in the optibay
Click to expand...

See I don't know about taking the optical drive out, what I really want to know is if I would be fine with a 128GB SSD and a 500GB External that wasn't always connected.
 
Tydog07 said:
So after I read that thread a couple days ago about that poor guy who got scammed because the seller he dealt with on Craigslist changed the about this mac page on the computer, so I asked my guy to send me a picture of the underside of the mac, including the serial/model number. Model is an A1286, which with a simple Google search makes this laptop appear to be a late 2008 uni-body instead of a 2011. Can anyone verify for me, I don't want to call this guy a liar if he isn't one.

EDIT: A reverse phone look up on the ad states that it is a land-line, but is located in the area he is from, his ad said to call/text that number.
Click to expand...

No, it doesn't appear to be an early 08
Put the serial number in http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php
and you'll see that it states it's a mid '11 model.
Also, check the warranty from Apple here.
 
Tydog07 said:
But can I live on 128GB SSD for most of the time?
Click to expand...

I would definitely hesitate to go SSD. I have 100 gig of stuff and if I bought one of Apple's SSD models, I'd have to go on a serious data diet. I recently upgraded a 5400 RPM HDD to a 7200 RPM 500 Gig/4 Gig SSD hybrid. It's the Seagate Momentus and so far I love it. At just over 100 bucks there is no way I would spend a lot more for less space. I've had it under a week and it seems to already have "learned" my favorite programs which are cached in the 4 Gig SSD and pop up almost as quick as iPad apps. And the boot time is less than half what I was getting before. I have an early 2008 Penryn white Macbook. BTW, I also popped in 4 gig of RAM. No more beachballs around here! Well I also deleted firefox. That made a huge difference as well.
 
$60 savings on $2000 from new and used isn't worth it. If you could knock 10% off or more, then sure, but $60 just isn't enough to deal with craigslist.
 
r0k said:
I would definitely hesitate to go SSD. I have 100 gig of stuff and if I bought one of Apple's SSD models, I'd have to go on a serious data diet. I recently upgraded a 5400 RPM HDD to a 7200 RPM 500 Gig/4 Gig SSD hybrid. It's the Seagate Momentus and so far I love it. At just over 100 bucks there is no way I would spend a lot more for less space. I've had it under a week and it seems to already have "learned" my favorite programs which are cached in the 4 Gig SSD and pop up almost as quick as iPad apps. And the boot time is less than half what I was getting before. I have an early 2008 Penryn white Macbook. BTW, I also popped in 4 gig of RAM. No more beachballs around here! Well I also deleted firefox. That made a huge difference as well.
Click to expand...

I've seen those drives, and I should research them more, I like the thought of an SSD, but a 128GB diet is pretty considerable, although right now I'm using a 60GB laptop and have a 250GB desktop. I realize that I have about 12GB in music, and only about 2GB in pictures, and I don't really use many other programs, but I plan to have FCP and Aperture installed on my new MBP. I'd keep any other movies/tv on my external, but still, would I have enough? Will the prices of SSD's go down in about 2 years? Oh, and I like the ram idea too! :D

gameface said:
$60 savings on $2000 from new and used isn't worth it. If you could knock 10% off or more, then sure, but $60 just isn't enough to deal with craigslist.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I realize I won't do it for $2000, but if I knocked him down to $1900, then I would perhaps...



Otherwise, what is keyboard wear like on these laptops? And is there anyway I can see how many hours he has used his laptop or see if his usage was above normal? And he says it doesn't come with iLife, aren't all Macs installed with iLife?
 
Ugh...This is a really tough decision for me, plus, the free ipod deal hasn't started yet and some think it won't start, which means that it could add $200 to the price for me, I just need to figure out if I can live with a 128GB SSD.




Can I swap out the Apple SSD for a HDD or another SSD?
 
The seller sold to someone else. $2000 wasn't that great of a deal and I would have to pay $30 to get leopard in a month anyway. Back to School better come though, I may sacrificial a small animal....
 
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