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What's the best way to go about selling my MacBook?

A

-A113-

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Original poster
Nov 8, 2015
21
4
I got a new MacBook Pro a couple of weeks ago and there's little point in keeping the MacBook Air.

I'm in the UK, looked at Cex but ~£250 seems a little low, I saw one go on eBay for somewhere around £400. I've sold an iPad on eBay before and had no problems so thinking of going that route. What are some necessary pictures? Pictures of it open/closed and in the box with everything else? Specs are:
  • 2011, 11.6"
  • 1.6GHz
  • 4GB RAM
  • 128GB SSD
  • OSX El Capitan
Also what's the best way to get this thing securely formatted? I've read a bunch of posts saying it's not possible without straining the SSD, and others saying SSDs are already encrypted so all it needs to do is erase the key.
 
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Another thing, is this a good time to sell it? Near to Christmas? I don't really want to wait any longer, this seems like the perfect time to give it to someone as a gift.
 
Just sold one of ours on Craigslist. Easy and no EBay fees to deal with. Met the buyer at a local Starbucks so he could verify it worked as advertised.
 
merkinmuffley said:
Just sold one of ours on Craigslist. Easy and no EBay fees to deal with. Met the buyer at a local Starbucks so he could verify it worked as advertised.
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I have sold a few Macs, PCs, phones, etc. on craigslist. Starbucks is my go to place to meet them. Just be ready to deal with all the crazies calling, emailing, and texting with low ball offers, sob stories or random trades.
 
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Thanks a lot guys, reinstalling El Capitan asks for my Apple ID, that's not going to stay on the system is it?

Also I'm looking at eBay prices, they're going for pretty decent prices (£350 to £400) so think I'm gonna stick with eBay. I was always skeptical about Apple products holding their value, I was so wrong, I sold my iPad for a decent amount a couple of years ago too.
 
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-A113- said:
Thanks a lot guys, reinstalling El Capitan asks for my Apple ID, that's not going to stay on the system is it?
Click to expand...

I usually just install the base OS that came with the machine, that way the new owner can update to whatever OS they want.

-A113- said:
Also I'm looking at eBay prices, they're going for pretty decent prices (£350 to £400) so think I'm gonna stick with eBay. I was always skeptical about Apple products holding their value, I was so wrong, I sold my iPad for a decent amount a couple of years ago too.
Click to expand...

Don't forget ebay and paypal both have fees and its very easy for the purchaser to screw you over. Ebay and paypal almost always side with the buyer for any claim. Craigslist puts cash in the hand!
 
-A113- said:
Thanks a lot guys, reinstalling El Capitan asks for my Apple ID, that's not going to stay on the system is it?
Click to expand...

No it won't. That just allows you to do the download and does not attach that AppleID to our machine in any way.

Just make sure to tell the new owner to go to the App Store and "purchase" El Capitan under their AppleID so they will be able to reinstall should they ever need to. They don't need to do the download, just purchase and stop the download.
 
I jut prepped my 17" 2011 to sell. Wiped the HD, did a few passes, and installed Yosemite and it's good to go.

Two things to keep in mind when selling your computer:
- Get the stuff off of it you want to keep.
- Delete your stuff you don't someone else to keep. 2 or 3 passes is more than enough.

A rather clueless friend of mine was tossing his old Windows 8, simply because he was "upgrading" to Windows 8.1 and didn't want to download the upgrade. I asked him if I could have it, seeing as he was throwing it away. He says "no, no I want to make sure all my private info is gone. I took it to the recycle center." ... he literally just took it to the recycle place and set it down on the pavement - no wiping, no cleaning, nothing. :eek:
 
Melrose said:
2 or 3 passes is more than enough.
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Can't actually pass an SSD so as someone else said earlier the best way is to encrypt it first, then erase.

I've read a lot of conflicting info on this, people saying that encrypting an SSD is better than not but "not good enough" and that 7 passes on a hard drive still isn't enough (With other people in the same thread saying that 1 pass is enough).

Last question, is it ok for me to include the serial number in the photos? I've taken a pic of the specs, not sure if I should blur out the serial number, apparently it's perfectly fine to leave that there.
 
-A113- said:
I've read a lot of conflicting info on this, people saying that encrypting an SSD is better than not but "not good enough" and that 7 passes on a hard drive still isn't enough (With other people in the same thread saying that 1 pass is enough).
Click to expand...

I don't know that encrypting then erasing is better... but I would argue it is as good. Think of how it works. You encrypt the entire disk with FileVault and a complex password, then after that you erase the drive. So even if somebody somehow managed to restore some of what you erased (which is not easy in flash storage), anything they restored would still be encrypted an unreadable. I have yet to read about anybody able to crack a FileVault encrypted drive.

That's what I always do. Encrypt with FV2 then erase.
 
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Thing is, I'm assuming FileVault can only encrypt what's indexed, so anything I would have deleted beforehand can't have been encrypted too?
 
-A113- said:
Thing is, I'm assuming FileVault can only encrypt what's indexed, so anything I would have deleted beforehand can't have been encrypted too?
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No that is not how it works. FV2 encrypts the entire drive, so anything on the drive is within the encrypted space.

What happens is FV2 creates a logical volume on the drive that fills the entire disk and encrypts that volume, so everything is encrypted.
 
Weaselboy said:
I don't know that encrypting then erasing is better... but I would argue it is as good. Think of how it works. You encrypt the entire disk with FileVault and a complex password, then after that you erase the drive. So even if somebody somehow managed to restore some of what you erased (which is not easy in flash storage), anything they restored would still be encrypted an unreadable. I have yet to read about anybody able to crack a FileVault encrypted drive.

That's what I always do. Encrypt with FV2 then erase.
Click to expand...

Hm. Did not even think about encryption. I mean, likely running 3 passes would still be safe enough for most folks though, right? Or no?
 
Melrose said:
Hm. Did not even think about encryption. I mean, likely running 3 passes would still be safe enough for most folks though, right? Or no?
Click to expand...
Yep sure if you have a hard drive, but the secure erase option is blocked on flash storage drives.
 
Melrose said:
Wait - they BLOCK secure erase on SSD? Damn NSA......
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They don't necessarily block it, they just disable it since writing over the drive multiple times causes damage AFAIK, SSDs begin to slow after so many writes.
 
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-A113- said:
Can't actually pass an SSD so as someone else said earlier the best way is to encrypt it first, then erase.

I've read a lot of conflicting info on this, people saying that encrypting an SSD is better than not but "not good enough" and that 7 passes on a hard drive still isn't enough (With other people in the same thread saying that 1 pass is enough).

Last question, is it ok for me to include the serial number in the photos? I've taken a pic of the specs, not sure if I should blur out the serial number, apparently it's perfectly fine to leave that there.
Click to expand...

I treat it like a vin number and license plate on a car. I usually block the serial numbers in the photos just to be safe. If someone wants to checkout the computer they are going to see it then, but no reason to let anyone and everyone see it if they don't need to.
 
Ok, this question will be my last question. I reinstalled it and all then set it up again as a fresh Mac so that I could take pics showing the desktop, I haven't erased/reinstalled it a second time yet and the other day they released OSX 10.11.2, when I go through the reinstall process again, will it update to 10.11.2, or should I update through the App Store first or what? I'd rather sell it with the latest OS version so that they don't need to update it when they set it up.
 
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