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Whats my Mac Pro worth?

J

Jbook

macrumors member
Original poster
May 22, 2006
32
0
Atl
Well, I spent my life savings and bought a Mac Pro a day after it came out. When it finally arrived at my door, my dad took it away due to a bad grade. Since then its been sitting in my basement... its torture just thinking about it. I have talked to him about when I could actually open it and he just says, "not anytime soon." So Ive decided to sell the freaking thing before Apple releases an updated one and I lose a couple hundred dollars.

Total cost to me: $2748

Specs:
Quad 2.66GHz
X1900 XT 512MB
1GB RAM
BlueTooth and AirPort
160GB HD
16x SuperDrive

Whats a good price and place to sell this? I usually sell on ebay but after looking through comleted listings, only half of the listed mac pros have sold. I would sell it here in the macrumors marketplace, but i dont yet have the required 100 posts.
 
I'd say work your ass off for a month and prove to your dad you're responsible enough to have the MacPro. I hope he'd be willing to give it back.
 
Badandy said:
I'd say work your ass off for a month and prove to your dad you're responsible enough to have the MacPro. I hope he'd be willing to give it back.
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Yeah, i agree, however i would guess you could get around 2300 for it. Sorrry about the grade, must really suck. My parents dont thraten me like that yet, hope yours dont give them ideas.
 
It's never been taken out of the box? I'd say you should be able to get full price for it... of course you have to give people a reason to buy from you instead of Apple or a reseller, so maybe take the educational discount price and -$100 or something. Shouldn't loose more than a few hundred with any luck.
 
If you sold it on something like eBay and gave a reason why (ie: your father), explained that it has never been opened, I think you should get back what apfhex suggested.


And I think that's a ridiculous way to punish you unless money grows on trees in your family's backyard. Why wait until you pay for it yourself? Punish you before you buy the machine. Or if the machine was in transit when your father got your bad grades, punish you another way, or limit your usage. Hell, even return the box to Apple unopened. You would have gotten ALL your money back and not have wasted $300-400 dollars on this punishment.
 
just how old are you that

a) you can afford that kinda computer
b) your dad can do such a thing?

I suggest you find a like minded friend and run away with your Macs tucked under your arms

just kidding :)

If you're dad will listen try this:

Sit with him and agree what needs to change (your grades), what he wants/needs them to be, and by when. Then agree an action plan to get there. Make sure you set points to agree (like you'll get nn% in the next test) and as soon as those are met, you can have limited access

If your grades are suffering as a result of not doing homework or studying, agree (and stick to it!) a number of hours / week - and if you do those, you can play with your mac for 4 hours on the weekend.

Just an approach
 
Greebazoid said:
If your grades are suffering as a result of not doing homework or studying, agree (and stick to it!) a number of hours / week - and if you do those, you can play with your mac for 4 hours on the weekend.
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That doesn't work. My parents used to do that when I was younger and all it did was cause problems. They agreed in the end that it was useless and stopped doing it.

It's like saying 'you can only drive your car between 2 pm and 6 pm on sundays.

It just won't work...
 
Jbook said:
Well, I spent my life savings and bought a Mac Pro a day after it came out. When it finally arrived at my door, my dad took it away due to a bad grade. Since then its been sitting in my basement... its torture just thinking about it. I have talked to him about when I could actually open it and he just says, "not anytime soon." So Ive decided to sell the freaking thing before Apple releases an updated one and I lose a couple hundred dollars.

Total cost to me: $2748

Specs:
Quad 2.66GHz
X1900 XT 512MB
1GB RAM
BlueTooth and AirPort
160GB HD
16x SuperDrive

Whats a good price and place to sell this? I usually sell on ebay but after looking through comleted listings, only half of the listed mac pros have sold. I would sell it here in the macrumors marketplace, but i dont yet have the required 100 posts.
Click to expand...

One good reasons to move out I would say.

Unless of course, this is not 'your' life savings, but actually 'your parents'. If you worked your ass off for all those money and it is indeed YOUR total life savings to date, then he has no right to do such a thing.

If it is your parents savings, I would explain to them that their entire life's investment is now rotting in the basement as it is not being used and it is a complete waste of money. It would seem someone here needs to learn the concept of depreciation.

Perhaps next time, the moeny could be donated to a charity where it won't lose any value.

David
 
davidjearly said:
...and it is indeed YOUR total life savings to date, then he has no right to do such a thing.
Click to expand...
b) your dad can do such a thing?
Click to expand...

While I understand what you guys are saying, and while I am definitely against his father not at least returning the machine (like I said in the other post), I honestly don't mind that his father got tough on him. Parents in our culture really are soft. It's nice to grow up knowing that people have certain rights, but I think that when it comes to the parent-child relationship, I think some things are just going to have to go the parents' way, however illogical it may be. They should be able to take your XBox 360 or whatever away from you if your schoolwork is going into the toilet because you've spent too much time playing video games, and it doesn't matter if you bought your system with your own money or not. Parenting is not about always doing things the PC way.
 
Abstract said:
While I understand what you guys are saying, and while I am definitely against his father not at least returning the machine (like I said in the other post), I honestly don't mind that his father got tough on him. Parents in our culture really are soft. It's nice to grow up knowing that people have certain rights, but I think that when it comes to the parent-child relationship, I think some things are just going to have to go the parents' way, however illogical it may be. They should be able to take your XBox 360 or whatever away from you if your schoolwork is going into the toilet because you've spent too much time playing video games, and it doesn't matter if you bought your system with your own money or not. Parenting is not about always doing things the PC way.
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Agreed.

It does also depend on how old the guy is.

If he's 18, the time has come for him to make his own decisions for example.

Nevertheless it does sound overly harsh and so reasoning has to come from both sides I think. You'll never make any money in selling it only to buy another (and lets face it, you could be waiting 6 months for an upgrade - who knows what Apple will do) so my thoughts are just to hold on to it and use it when the time is right. I still love my dual 1.8 Powermac and it still does the exact same job as it did when I brought it - yours will too.
 
Well first off im 17. I worked my ass off for the money to buy it. I also am working my ass off to raise my English grade, however my teacher is a moron and im only slowly improving. Ive talked with my dad so many times he is just pissed... He doesnt understand. So i decided its not worth the trouble and I should sell it before they come out with an 8-core mac and i cant get more than $2000 for it. Im not here to debate wheather or not he has the right to take it from me, im just here to find out how much and where I should sell it. As i said earlier, there are only like 6 of em on ebay and there isnt even a catagory for it. THe catagories go: Computers: Apple: Desktop: PowerMac: Other. There is no mac pro section.

I wish he woulda told me i wasnt gonna be able to use it before i bought it... woulda saved me time and money. He drives me crazy.... ANYWAYS please help.
 
Jbook said:
I may have a C in english, but i sure as hell dont have C in math....
Click to expand...

:p :p Best response EVER.

Anyways: even though eBay doesn't have a category for the MacPro specifically, I'd still say that's your best bet if you want to minimize how much you lose. That is, however, if you have a decent feedback rating. Post lots of pictures, start at $0.99, and let it go. Oh, and be sure to include in at least one of the pictures your eBay name and the date, as proof that you have the system. You can probably expect $2200-$2400..

Alternatively, you could try Craigslist, especially if you live near a big city.

I'd probably list it in the marketplace here as a last resort, because you'll lose the most selling it here.
 
I still wouldn't go near eBay to be honest.

Aside from the unreliability, you're sure to end with a bidder who has no feedback and never pays, thus costing you a final value and listing fee for nothing. A final value on £1600 is a lot of money!

As I said, try selling privately, if not I would keep hold of it.

As for your dad, I guess the only silver lining is that he is doing it in your right interests - whether or not that is misguided is not for us here to say.
 
What are yalls feelings about setting a reserve price so i dont have to let it go if i dont like the final price? Say your going to bid on a mac pro, does a no-reserve auction scare you away? As for my ebay rating its 100 percent positive so that shouldnt be a problem.
 
Maxiseller said:
I still wouldn't go near eBay to be honest.

Aside from the unreliability, you're sure to end with a bidder who has no feedback and never pays, thus costing you a final value and listing fee for nothing. A final value on £1600 is a lot of money!

As I said, try selling privately, if not I would keep hold of it.

As for your dad, I guess the only silver lining is that he is doing it in your right interests - whether or not that is misguided is not for us here to say.
Click to expand...

Where would be the best place to find a private buyer?
 
Maxiseller said:
I still wouldn't go near eBay to be honest.

Aside from the unreliability, you're sure to end with a bidder who has no feedback and never pays, thus costing you a final value and listing fee for nothing. A final value on £1600 is a lot of money!
Click to expand...
eBay makes it very easy to get back your listing fees if you have a dead-beat buyer. I've had this happen several times to me, and never any problems. Also, it's important to note that your listing fees are charged to a seller account, so it's not as though you're actually out that money while eBay settles or addresses your claim.. once eBay verifies your Unpaid Item Dispute, they simply credit your account.. so no money has actually exchanged hands.

In the last few months, I've sold two computers on eBay (two MBs), one for $1500 and the other for nearly $1900..both times had terrific and responsive buyers who paid promptly. Have also sold several $200-ish items, and again, no problems..

Oh, and just a tip: it helps to require that any bidders have a PayPal account linked to their eBay account.
 
Killyp said:
He has no right to take money off you like that...
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lol, it's so true... If my dad did that (Over a bad grade, I wouldn't know, 10 A-C GCSEs over here, left school happy ;) ) I'd kick his ass (Not in the literal sense) , wait till he was at work, go get it and possibly swear at him. Especially if it was my own money, if he'd bought it fair enough, but seriously... Thats twisted.
 
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