Wanting to buy a 2nd hand iMac - does this look like a good deal..

[TrudyW]

Hi, I'm fairly new to the world of Apple and am thinking of buying an iMac for my teenage daughter. We bought a new Macbook Pro about 4 years ago, unfortunately just outside of warranty, it ended up being quite costly and needed a new hard drive. I've been looking at 2nd hand iMac's but am nervous about buying one that may also need parts replacing due to age, which if this happens I may as well have shelled out for a new one!. Just wondered what everyone's thoughts were on this one that i've seen advertised;
Apple IMac 2013 edition in great condition with Magic Mouse, Apple keyboard and an external samsung disk drive.
Product Details:
- 21.5 inch(viewable) 16:9 widescreen LED-backlit display; 1920 by 1080 pixels; ambient light sensor
- 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with 6MB L3 cache (turbo boost up to 3.2GHz)
- 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM
- 1TB 5400-rpm hard drive
- NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR5 memory
- FaceTime HD camera
- Two Thunderbolt ports; support for high-speed I/O and Mini DisplayPort devices
- SDXC card slot and four USB 3 ports
- 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet
- Built-in stereo speaker, dual microphone, headphone port
- 802.1 in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0
- Apple wireless Keyboard and wireless Magic Mouse
- Preinstalled OS X and iLife
- Meets ENERGY STAR requirements

He has said he'll take £500. It is a 2 1/2 hour round trip for me to go and get it so I want to be sure!
Thanks
Trudy

 

[varian55zx]

I would say no.

If you want to go used I'd recommend to buy an Apple refurbished machine.

There are too many variables with simply buying a second hand machine from some random person.

 

[Crazy Badger]

I would agree!

http://www.sellyourmac.com/sell.html?view=confirm suggest a value of $391 and whilst they are probably a little on the low side, £500 seems quite high for that spec.

I would imagine with a spinning HDD it would also feel a little slow compare to todays models, so might not have much longevity. My 2011 iMac is still going strong, but had 32GB RAM and a SSD.

 

[Hellhammer]

Looking at completed eBay auctions for the same model, £500 seems a little expensive. The real value is ~£400-430, so I'd offer him £400 and see what he says.

By the way, what happened to your MacBook Pro? Did you get it repaired or not? Replacing the hard drive is very easy and cheap.

I would say no.

If you want to go used I'd recommend to buy an Apple refurbished machine.

There are too many variables with simply buying a second hand machine from some random person.

Refurbs are close to non-existent outside the US. The UK refurb store current has zero stock.

 

[TrudyW]

I haven't seen any official refurbished models available in my search. I'm struggling to find any models with an i5 or i7 for less than £500 on ebay or private ads and a lot of them are 2011 models. I just feel it's a lot of money when it may not last that long.

Looking at completed eBay auctions for the same model, £500 seems a little expensive. The real value is ~£400-430, so I'd offer him £400 and see what he says.

By the way, what happened to your MacBook Pro? Did you get it repaired or not? Replacing the hard drive is very easy and cheap.

Refurbs are close to non-existent outside the US. The UK refurb store current has zero stock.

We did get the Macbook repaired and it is still going. I think we were a bit done over and got charged around £350! It was to replace the hard drive and recover a load of photos that I wanted which apparently took a long time to do! (I stupidly did not have them backed up, lesson learned!)

 

[Hellhammer]

I haven't seen any official refurbished models available in my search. I'm struggling to find any models with an i5 or i7 for less than £500 on ebay or private ads and a lot of them are 2011 models. I just feel it's a lot of money when it may not last that long.

Would Mac Mini be an option then? The base model is £399 and comes with one-year warranty (technically two in the EU thanks to the consumer protection law). A ~23" 1080p IPS monitor comes in at about 120 quids so with a keyboard and mouse you're looking at about £600 in total for a brand new setup. Of course, if you already have a monitor, keyboard and/or mouse, it'll be even cheaper.

We did get the Macbook repaired and it is still going. I think we were a bit done over and got charged around £350! It was to replace the hard drive and recover a load of photos that I wanted which apparently took a long time to do! (I stupidly did not have them backed up, lesson learned!)

Ahh, so it included data recovery. That explains the price because data recovery can be fairly labor intensive and can cost thousands in a worst case scenario.

 

[TrudyW]

Would Mac Mini be an option then? The base model is £399 and comes with one-year warranty (technically two in the EU thanks to the consumer protection law). A ~23" 1080p IPS monitor comes in at about 120 quids so with a keyboard and mouse you're looking at about £600 in total for a brand new setup. Of course, if you already have a monitor, keyboard and/or mouse, it'll be even cheaper.

Thanks, i'll look into it. ALthough i'm sure my teenage daughter will, aesthetically, prefer an all in one! When she can contribute to buying it she can have a say!!