What to do with old Macbook? Trade In, or Ebay?

[LuciusWrong]

Hey, I didn't find much on the subject by searching. I will be upgrading my 2013 15" macbook in the near future, and I'm debating what I should do with the old one. It seems the options are trade it in to Apple, or sell it somewhere, like on Ebay.

Does anyone have any experience with trading in a machine? Have you had a machine sent in that you though was decent/functional, but was de-valued by Apple?

I'm curious how it works. The descriptions of condition seem fairly open ended to me, so i'm wondering if they take anything reasonably functional, or are they super picky?

My current machine serves me well, and I think it is doing pretty good for being 6 year old. But there are a couple hot pixels that are visible when displaying pure white, lettering is worn off several key caps, battery is swelling a little, althoug still reading "normal" with 550 cycles, and the headphone jack defaults to optical mode when I remove a headphone plug, meaning internal speakers don't play.

Will they say my machine is worthless? Or is this accepted as expected for a 6 year old machine? No part of the machine is perfect, but nothing is completely broken... I suspect they are buying used stuff to keep it off the used market, so I doubt the machines have any actual value to them...I mean, I think my machine is considered obsolete to them, atleast for replacing the battery...

I would prefer to sell it on to someone who will use the machine, or use it's parts for the repair industry. But I don't love selling "as is" items on Ebay.

Thoughts? Experience?

Thanks all!

 

[nickandre21]

I have a late 2013 15" i checked with a reseller they quoted me about 350$ exchange value, only issue ismy display has staingate but still based on their offers which read exchange old pc or mac and get upto $350 off
checking the used market I saw some listed from 500$-1200$. You can get better price selling it. If the battery is swollen and pushing against the case causing trackpad issues or it to not lay flat apple can reduce the value or not even buy it.

 

[MacLawyer]

I use eBay if the device is older than, say, 2015. Gazelle is quicker and easier than ebay for newer items, but figure you get roughly 20% less from Gazelle than if you sold through eBay. YMMV

 

[lambertjohn]

Why not sell it on MacRumors? Isn't there a place to sell stuff on MacRumors?

 

[foldpages]

Hey, I didn't find much on the subject by searching. I will be upgrading my 2013 15" macbook in the near future, and I'm debating what I should do with the old one. It seems the options are trade it in to Apple, or sell it somewhere, like on Ebay.

Does anyone have any experience with trading in a machine? Have you had a machine sent in that you though was decent/functional, but was de-valued by Apple?

I'm curious how it works. The descriptions of condition seem fairly open ended to me, so i'm wondering if they take anything reasonably functional, or are they super picky?

My current machine serves me well, and I think it is doing pretty good for being 6 year old. But there are a couple hot pixels that are visible when displaying pure white, lettering is worn off several key caps, battery is swelling a little, althoug still reading "normal" with 550 cycles, and the headphone jack defaults to optical mode when I remove a headphone plug, meaning internal speakers don't play.

Will they say my machine is worthless? Or is this accepted as expected for a 6 year old machine? No part of the machine is perfect, but nothing is completely broken... I suspect they are buying used stuff to keep it off the used market, so I doubt the machines have any actual value to them...I mean, I think my machine is considered obsolete to them, atleast for replacing the battery...

I would prefer to sell it on to someone who will use the machine, or use it's parts for the repair industry. But I don't love selling "as is" items on Ebay.

Thoughts? Experience?

Thanks all!

I just sent in my Late 2013 15" MBP via Apple Trade-In. My SSD had failed and the system wouldn't boot up. Apple offered me $0. I went onto eBay and got a cheap replacement SSD (same capacity), restored the OS, and now the trade-in offered me $470. I was concerned about sending it in with a different SSD but no issues.

What's odd is that the actual payout was more than $470, it was close to $503. I'm thinking there is some tax adjustment happening since I applied it towards a new MBP.

As long as you are answering the questions during the trade-in process, there shouldn't be any negative value adjustments. If your MBP is fully functional you can probably make some more $ by going the eBay route, but it's not as easy or convenient as Apple/Gazelle.

 

[jerryk]

I am trading in my 2018 15" to Apple. They offered me $1400. That was close enough to the best other trade-ins offer of $1475.

 

[rdubmu]

I am trading in my 2018 15" to Apple. They offered me $1400. That was close enough to the best other trade-ins offer offer of $1475.

I was thinking of doing the same thing? How do you like it verses the 2018?

I am more concerned about the keyboard failing

 

[LuciusWrong]

I have a late 2013 15" i checked with a reseller they quoted me about 350$ exchange value, only issue ismy display has staingate but still based on their offers which read exchange old pc or mac and get upto $350 off
checking the used market I saw some listed from 500$-1200$. You can get better price selling it. If the battery is swollen and pushing against the case causing trackpad issues or it to not lay flat apple can reduce the value or not even buy it.

Yeah, on Ebay i was seeing used prices around $450 to $550, and "refurbished" units selling for $1200. Well, not sure how many sold at that price.

I would be tempted to "refurbish" mine, but im concerned that the hot pixels would scare people off. They are in the corner, and I rarely notice them.
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Im also gradually turning to the idea that maybe i should just keep the 15" as a spare. I dont have any back up machine right now.

I have been in the habit of selling off stuff when im done with it. But it would suck if my only machine needed a repair that required it to be shipped away for a coupke weeks. I guess i have been lucky so far...

 

[jerryk]

I was thinking of doing the same thing? How do you like it verses the 2018?

I am more concerned about the keyboard failing

The unit just showed up, so I haven't picked it up yet.

But, I never had issues with the 2018 15". Just OK with the keyboard, but lack of physical Esc was a pain. Liked the Touchbar.

 

[AHDuke99]

I have no idea what to do with mine. It's an early 2011 MBP with the quad core i7, and I also replaced the CD drive with an SSD so it has 2 drives in it. These seem to only be fetching ~$150 on eBay and places like that.