What's my MBA worth?

[tardman91]

I got my wife a MBA last year and she isn't too fond of it. She wants an iMac and an iPad instead, so I'm considering selling it. I'll do it locally because I won't risk such a pricy item on eBay.
It's a MC968LL/A, 11.6" Core i5 1.6 GHz, 2GB RAM, with the 64 GB SSD. It still sells new for $999 and it's in perfect condition with the box and all that jazz. There's still 5 months of warranty left too.
What could I reasonably expect to sell it for?

 

[timothyjay]

I would say, between $700-800?

If you were to find someone not as tech savy or know about refurb items, you may be able to sell it for $800, pushing for $200+ savings (avoiding tax).

Refurb Airs with your setup runs $849 currently, so be prepared for those who will use that to bargain

 

[tardman91]

Thanks. I was thinking $800 would be a pretty fair price. Save $50 over the refurb and no taxes or shipping.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks. I was thinking $800 would be a pretty fair price. Save $50 over the refurb and no taxes or shipping.

Recently completed eBay auctions are all right around $800, so I would say you are on target.

 

[alphaod]

$800 on eBay is doable, but don't forget the $100 or so in fees (you get screwed twice, once with eBay then with PayPal), so you may only end up with. Maybe consider Craigslist, meet in a public place like Starbucks, and trade in cash only; less risky with eBay where the buyer can claim non-receipt or damage, with eBay/PayPal most likely to rule in buyer favor.

 

[tardman91]

$800 on eBay is doable, but don't forget the $100 or so in fees (you get screwed twice, once with eBay then with PayPal), so you may only end up with. Maybe consider Craigslist, meet in a public place like Starbucks, and trade in cash only; less risky with eBay where the buyer can claim non-receipt or damage, with eBay/PayPal most likely to rule in buyer favor.

Yeah, I would never trust eBay for such an expensive transaction. Way too much of a chance getting screwed one way or another, and the fees have gotten outrageous between them and PayPal.

 

[robrob74]

I have sworn off selling on eBay, been a member for 4 years with 140 100% positive feedback, sold a lot of computers and phones and always list truthfully and honestly. I sold an iPhone 4s 32gb at the end of December since I wanted to try something else as I always do, well, I packaged it in peanuts and wrapped in bubble wrap totally sealing in the phone... Guy sends me a message 4 hours after its delivered saying the phone is soaking wet and that he took it to a repair shop and it cost him $200 to have it fixed.... Wanted to claim against me and told him I bought insurance and that he should of contacted me first and not went to unauthorized repair shop.... Well he filed a claim with PayPal and PayPal withheld my payment for almost a month until I agreed to refund $50 to buyer to satisfy him, that after having to pay seller fees and PayPal fees, I was so livid but there was nothing I could do, they took the word of a scumbag liar with 10 feedback over me who had 140 positive feedbacks with almost $15,000 in sales over 3 years..... That is the end of my eBay PayPal relationship, I will only do Craigslist from now on.

 

[oneMadRssn]

I'd like to defend ebay for a moment:

For every fraudulent transaction on ebay, there are literally over a million successful ones in which both parties are perfectly satisfied. Not an exaggeration at all. You have better odds of being struck by lightning than being ripped off on ebay, statistically speaking.

Personally, I don't trust local meetups because there is no paperwork at all and no legal recourse. What if you get counterfeit bills? What if you are held up at gun point? Obviously, the numbers aren't linear and lighting and ebay are two different things.

You can do some basic things to protect yourself on ebay. I sell all my unused / older computers on ebay when I upgrade. I have had several $2000+ transactions on ebay, all of them have gone fine. Just do the following:
- Require immediate payment by PayPal.
- Ship only to verified PayPal addresses.
- Exclude buyers from countries other than the US (personally I also sell to Canadians to increase the available pool of buyers).
- Exclude those with less than 0 feedback.
- Exclude those with any incidents or reports within the last year.
- Offer free shipping, so buyers can't argue about it.
- Make sure to ship with a tracking number / deliver confirmation / and insurance.
- Offer a refund policy (buyer pays shipping) for 15 or 30 days.

All of the above are easy to set when making an ebay auction, and practically reduce the odds of being scammed to close to zero.

In terms of costs: I estimate ebay fees and paypal fees and shipping will usually be around 10% of the selling price; if it's less than $200, might be closer to 12-15%; if it's over $1000, might be closer to 5-7%. So for an ~$800 MBA, you'd end up with ~$720 in your pocket.

Now, ebay is not for everyone and it does require a certain level of involvement. My point is: don't make your decision based on some horror stories of things going wrong because someone didn't prepare properly.

 

[lil' brudder]

I have sworn off selling on eBay, been a member for 4 years with 140 100% positive feedback, sold a lot of computers and phones and always list truthfully and honestly. I sold an iPhone 4s 32gb at the end of December since I wanted to try something else as I always do, well, I packaged it in peanuts and wrapped in bubble wrap totally sealing in the phone... Guy sends me a message 4 hours after its delivered saying the phone is soaking wet and that he took it to a repair shop and it cost him $200 to have it fixed.... Wanted to claim against me and told him I bought insurance and that he should of contacted me first and not went to unauthorized repair shop.... Well he filed a claim with PayPal and PayPal withheld my payment for almost a month until I agreed to refund $50 to buyer to satisfy him, that after having to pay seller fees and PayPal fees, I was so livid but there was nothing I could do, they took the word of a scumbag liar with 10 feedback over me who had 140 positive feedbacks with almost $15,000 in sales over 3 years..... That is the end of my eBay PayPal relationship, I will only do Craigslist from now on.

That just sucks. It's too bad that no one at these places uses any logic. I used to receive payments for freelance writing jobs on PayPal, but when my boss's card had fraud detected on it, it recharged all the payments he had made to me since I had started. After multiple calls from each of us, it finally took a conference call with PayPal upper management, his credit card company, and both of us to have them figure their crap out.

 

[oneMadRssn]

I bought insurance

Why didn't you file a claim with your insurance after all of that, and get your $50 back?

I've had similar incidents selling ski bindings, people claiming they came damaged and filing paypal claims against me. Fine with me, I pay their claims and go to the insurance. Last time this happened, insurance actually paid me more than what I had to refund on paypal.