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Why is MBP resale value so high?

nightfly13

nightfly13

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 17, 2008
679
0
Ranchi, India
I'm about to upgrade my first gen MBP in favor of a 13" unibody and as I've checked prices on eBay I've been really surprised by how high they are. This is good for me, just trying to understand it. The MBP is likely to be worth like 60% of what I paid 3 years ago - I've upgraded the memory and HDD modestly (maybe $100 in upgrades) and... yeah any insight?
 
There is a really good point to be made here for purchasing a Mac despite the seeming price difference over PCs. When you replace your computer in X number of years, the high resale value for Macs effectively means you'll be getting a nice healthy discount on your new Mac.

Of course, a lot can change over the course of a few years, but I doubt many people take the "higher resale value = lower effective purchase price" argument into account when making the Mac vs. PC choice.
 
Yeah I totally think about this. Also helps me justify all my upgrades over the years 'I'll get this money back when I sell, anyway!'

My other 'trick' is to get cheaper eBay AppleCare and then sell after 2-2.5 years with AppleCare still in tact.

Back to the original question - I get that Macs are desirable and awesome and whatnot, but I expect $800-900 for my MBP, but you can get a new one for $1200 that's faster, awesomer in every way except for 2" of screen real estate. It's possible the price cut will hurt my resale value, but then it helps me buy the new one so....
 
It's pretty much demand. There is demand even for older MBP and people are willing to pay a premium price even for a used item. Yes price cuts hurt your resale value but as long as there is someone out there willing to buy you should have no problems selling it.
 
tastychicken said:
It's pretty much demand. There is demand even for older MBP and people are willing to pay a premium price even for a used item.
Click to expand...

Yeah I understand the free market economy as well as the next guy, but my question remains: Why so much demand for a 3 year old, 32bit laptop?
 
Not everyone can afford the extra few hundred premium but they still want a Mac. I guess people figure if that they can still get the Apple logo on their computer for cheaper...why not?
 
a13x said:
Not everyone can afford the extra few hundred premium but they still want a Mac. I guess people figure if that they can still get the Apple logo on their computer for cheaper...why not?
Click to expand...

Yeah fair enough. Right now there are refurb white MacBooks for $750 ($812 with tax) that's C2D, the current-gen video card, potential for 4gb, basically better in every way, except 13", glossy, and possibly an inferior screen. Hard for me to envision the guy who prefers my old MBP to a modern, probably cheaper refurb MacBook, but whatever I'm glad!
 
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