What is a maxed out 2011 MBP worth in 2016?

[ChappieWilderbeast]

I'd like to sell my early 2011 15" MBP to help fund a purchase of the upcoming model. I've checked eBay and it seems they still sell for £300-400. This was quite surprising, I'd be very happy to get £400 for it...but mine has been upgraded compared to most I see and I just wanted to check here and see if that number sounds right for this model? My guess would be the extra memory and RAM don't amount to much on the used market compared to say, battery life, but I've never done this before. Thanks for any suggestions and my apologies if this is in the wrong place!

Here are the specs/notes:

• 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7
• AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024MB
• 1680 x 1050 "HR Antiglare WS Display"
• 500GB Samsung EVO 850 SSD
• 1TB 7200rpm Hitachi Travelstar (OWC data doubler in Superdrive bay)
• 2x8GB (16GB) 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM
• New fans
• New charger (bought literally last week)
• Battery cycle count is 2075 (!)...so I would expect to knock down the price for that. Lasts about 2 hours on a full charge.
• Running macOS Sierra
• Scratches on bottom but top shell has been in hard plastic case since purchase (Aug 2011)
• Original box

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I'd like to sell my early 2011 15" MBP to help fund a purchase of the upcoming model. I've checked eBay and it seems they still sell for £300-400. This was quite surprising, I'd be very happy to get £400 for it...but mine has been upgraded compared to most I see and I just wanted to check here and see if that number sounds right for this model? My guess would be the extra memory and RAM don't amount to much on the used market compared to say, battery life, but I've never done this before. Thanks for any suggestions and my apologies if this is in the wrong place!

Here are the specs/notes:

• 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7
• AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024MB
• 1680 x 1050 "HR Antiglare WS Display"
• 500GB Samsung EVO 850 SSD
• 1TB 7200rpm Hitachi Travelstar (OWC data doubler in Superdrive bay)
• 2x8GB (16GB) 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM
• New fans
• New charger (bought literally last week)
• Battery cycle count is 2075 (!)...so I would expect to knock down the price for that. Lasts about 2 hours on a full charge.
• Running macOS Sierra
• Scratches on bottom but top shell has been in hard plastic case since purchase (Aug 2011)
• Original box

Actually the SSD could raise the price a bit, but unfortunately the fact that it's a 2011 lowers it a bit because of the notorious graphics card issues on these models, the extended warranty that Apple has been offering to fix the GPU on 2011 models finishes at the end of the year too, they have become a gamble to buy.

£300 to £400 sounds fair to me, not that I would touch a 2011 with a barge pole myself but someone will buy it.

 

[keysofanxiety]

I'd like to sell my early 2011 15" MBP to help fund a purchase of the upcoming model. I've checked eBay and it seems they still sell for £300-400. This was quite surprising, I'd be very happy to get £400 for it...but mine has been upgraded compared to most I see and I just wanted to check here and see if that number sounds right for this model? My guess would be the extra memory and RAM don't amount to much on the used market compared to say, battery life, but I've never done this before. Thanks for any suggestions and my apologies if this is in the wrong place!

Here are the specs/notes:

• 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7
• AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024MB
• 1680 x 1050 "HR Antiglare WS Display"
• 500GB Samsung EVO 850 SSD
• 1TB 7200rpm Hitachi Travelstar (OWC data doubler in Superdrive bay)
• 2x8GB (16GB) 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM
• New fans
• New charger (bought literally last week)
• Battery cycle count is 2075 (!)...so I would expect to knock down the price for that. Lasts about 2 hours on a full charge.
• Running macOS Sierra
• Scratches on bottom but top shell has been in hard plastic case since purchase (Aug 2011)
• Original box

The trouble is that your model has documented problems with the graphics. They're almost guaranteed to fail over time, so people won't jump at the opportunity to buy one: https://www.apple.com/uk/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

Although £450 would be more than reasonable, with the cost of the parts you've put in, I personally wouldn't be happy to let it go for that.

 

[ChappieWilderbeast]

The trouble is that your model has documented problems with the graphics. They're almost guaranteed to fail over time, so people won't jump at the opportunity to buy one: https://www.apple.com/uk/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

Although £450 would be more than reasonable, with the cost of the parts you've put in, I personally wouldn't be happy to let it go for that.

Damn, I have never had a single issue with this, so as of now it seems that this problem
a) has not effected my computer so I can't take advantage of the free servicing from Apple and yet
b) it lowers the resell value in spite of the above.

Do you think it would be worth it to take it in to my local Apple store and have them run the diagnostic, just in case? If I've never experienced any of the listed symptoms I wouldn't want to waste their time, but worst case I would have evidence mine does not have video card issues which I can include in my listing, and best case they find a problem and maybe give me a new MBP...(haha I know that won't happen).
[doublepost=1475149519][/doublepost]

Actually the SSD could raise the price a bit, but unfortunately the fact that it's a 2011 lowers it a bit because of the notorious graphics card issues on these models, the extended warranty that Apple has been offering to fix the GPU on 2011 models finishes at the end of the year too, they have become a gamble to buy.

£300 to £400 sounds fair to me, not that I would touch a 2011 with a barge pole myself but someone will buy it.

Thanks to you and keysofanxiety for making me aware of the current warranty situation and upcoming expiration date. I was wondering if it would be worth it to take mine in for a diagnosis, even though I've never seen any of the symptoms in 5 years of use. This way I could get "proof" mine doesn't suffer from the issue, although I suppose it's no guarantee it won't succumb eventually huh?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Damn, I have never had a single issue with this, so as of now it seems that this problem
a) has not effected my computer so I can't take advantage of the free servicing from Apple and yet
b) it lowers the resell value in spite of the above.

Do you think it would be worth it to take it in to my local Apple store and have them run the diagnostic, just in case? If I've never experienced any of the listed symptoms I wouldn't want to waste their time, but worst case I would have evidence mine does not have video card issues which I can include in my listing, and best case they find a problem and maybe give me a new MBP...(haha I know that won't happen).
[doublepost=1475149519][/doublepost]

Thanks to you and keysofanxiety for making me aware of the current warranty situation and upcoming expiration date. I was wondering if it would be worth it to take mine in for a diagnosis, even though I've never seen any of the symptoms in 5 years of use. This way I could get "proof" mine doesn't suffer from the issue, although I suppose it's no guarantee it won't succumb eventually huh?

Yeah your issue is that there is no guarantee it won't happen failure rates have been quite high. It is time to sell though before it happens to you.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Do you think it would be worth it to take it in to my local Apple store and have them run the diagnostic, just in case? If I've never experienced any of the listed symptoms I wouldn't want to waste their time, but worst case I would have evidence mine does not have video card issues which I can include in my listing, and best case they find a problem and maybe give me a new MBP...(haha I know that won't happen).

Yeah, might be worth taking it in anyway. You can say you occasionally have freezing issues and coloured pixellations on the screen. If it passes, you'll get the Genius Bar report outlining that, when you come to sell it. If it passes, you get a new Logic Board. Win-win.

As SamSan said, the issue will eventually crop up in some form or another. It's really just a matter of time and they do tend to fail very very quickly.

It's up to you, though. It's still a very capable machine, providing the graphics aren't failing!

 

[ChappieWilderbeast]

Yeah your issue is that there is no guarantee it won't happen failure rates have been quite high. It is time to sell though before it happens to you.

Yeah, this thread has made me way more motivated to get rid of this thing. Do you know what they do to machines that fail the video card test? Just replace it with the same one?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Yeah, this thread has made me way more motivated to get rid of this thing. Do you know what they do to machines that fail the video card test? Just replace it with the same one?

They replace the board seemingly with a refurbished one, unfortunately the problem is down to the AMD video card and the "new" board often fails again and often far more quickly.

 

[ChappieWilderbeast]

They replace the board seemingly with a refurbished one, unfortunately the problem is down to the AMD video card and the "new" board often fails again and often far more quickly.

Ok, well again thanks for your input and I will try listing at £475 and wait for the inevitable lowball offers. Always start high eh.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Even if you haven't had the listed symptoms occur, Apple should bench test the machine for free, so you could include in your ad that it passed all testing.