Resale value of MBP's

Suppose I were to sell my MBP in four years time, which is circa 2011. Is it possible that the MBP will retain a bit of value?

 

Yikes...four years' time is a long time away . We have no way of predicting what will become of the tech world and Apple around that time. Quantum computing could turn more mainstream, we may have octo-cores in notebooks, its unpredictable. We may have 128-bit applications. I would say you'd be better off just keeping that four-year-old MBP .

One issue that will probably ruin your sale or at least force you to drop your price is the lack of warranty. Most consumer electronics don't last three years without some problem, and to have a 4-year-old MBP with no warranty would be really risky for the buyer.

 

LOL, at the rate the newer technology is coming out, I doubt it. Of course, it might all change one day, who knows, but based on what we see today, I would have to say "nope".

 

Probably not. Four years is a long time in computer land. If I had to guess, a MBP bought today for 2000 dollars will probably be worth 300-400 dollars in four years, if it's in really good shape.

 

I figured as much. Thanks for the replies.

 

id say 100-200

 

Sure. The casing is made of aluminum, and that's a fairly expensive metal. It could definitely be melted and recycled. Take soda cans, for example. The can is made of tin, but that piece that you pop the lid with -- that's aluminum. Or so I've heard. A lot of bicycles have aluminum frames too.

 

You might be surprised. Before I bought my Macbook, I was browsing ebay to see what resale value is like on used Apples in general. I saw a Powerbook G4, the seller stated was purchased in 2001. It sold for more than $600!!

 

I think the resale value of Apple notebooks may go down. They are using Intel processors now, so it is easier to gauge their computing power against other notebooks, and more people are starting to buy these machines, which makes them less exclusive and more common.

 

I have to disagree here on the value, i sold my ibook which was about two yrs old and i bought it for 1100 w / apple care and sold it for like 690.

So i really believe in apple resale

The apple i bought a yr ago for 1800 is worth about 1300 on ebay.

So i guess it really depends, if you could go two years and sell it then you could flip through new laptops and still get a decent return??

I am not planning on selling any of my laptops ...

I have two macbook pro's
1 is a yr old
and 1 is 4 months old

and i plan on killing them both..

 

you almost always get more value out of driving your stuff into the ground than reselling it.

 

lol, that is true. i have an old gateway computer that to this day still keeps on trucking. its now on its 7th or 8th year of service, and runs XP decently still as an internet surfer or word processor.

if only gateway's quality didn't take a nose dive in recent years, i would still be with them now.

 

I will wager $800+ in good shape for a private sale. Macs really hold their value once they sink below $1000. It doesn't seem fair for dollar to dollar comparison, but so is life. There are several features that will keep the price up, DX10 gpu, firewire800, sata bus, lcd screen, up to 4gb ram, N wireless, dual core cpu 64bit. Right now it's on the edge of maturing technologies. Even a Powerbook of 4 years ago goes for $900, and it's a completely different beast from what we see today. Have faith.

 

Too true.. I still have an Ibook from 1999 that I use on occasion...it outlived it's value long ago

 

I think that with the development of CPU, 4 years from now on the macbook pro will be worth 200 dollars at most.
I bought my IBM t40 one year ago for 1100, now the value that I can see is 300~400. I decide to keep it to myself.

 

The main difference is.. you can't run OSX (yet) on anything other than a MAC. Most PCs just aren't in the same league here.. and I dont' mean to seem snobbish. It's all about demand for the OSX and the fact that a 4 year old MAC can do it nearly as good as a new one.

Even my Ibook from 1999 is still worth $200. go figure

 

Nope, i dont think so. A lot can happen in 4 years.

try selling a 4 year old ipod with monochrome screen and no video capability.

 

Your ipod analogy is bit far off. Yet, even those ipods still hold their value extremely well considering the rapid advancement. I would consider ~$100 or less for a 20gig player from 2004 a fair deal considering it works well with Itunes. What a laptop does today.. is the same they'll be doing tomorrow. They already have color screens and play videos. The difference is newer ones may run programs older units can't, play games the older does not support, but the Core OS will run fine.. if apple continues to hold it's support for 7 year old computers. Anyhow, I'm sorry you don't agree.. but if you look around you'll see the prices on the net. Take a look at http://www.everymac.com/ take a look at ebay even. take a look at retailers. It won't be worth less than 1/3rd it's original price in 4 years.. plus factor in inflation. The only things that will crash the prices are if OSX is licensed to PCs or our Economy collapses

 

Who says anyone will want OSX in 2011?

 

I actually do want OSX to still be around by then.

Edit: It keeps Microsoft trying to improve on Windows with the growing user base of Mac OSX.

 

Hey, if you want to predict Apple will go bankrupt and all of humanity will forget about Mac, be my guest. I think you have atleast a 1% chance of that happening.. maybe. However,based on apples recent growth rate, and market trends.. it will continue to gain market share for some time to come. You know it runs Windows too..

posted from My all original 1999 Ibook wirelessly.. the wonders of an 8 year old laptop, that can still turn heads.

 

apple resale is pretty good...

A $2000 MBP, could still be worth hundreds in 4 years, like $400-600.

 

4 years ago for $1,999, you could buy a Powerbook G4, 1.0 GHz, 512 MB Ram, 60 GB, DVD-R and now one of those gently used goes for $600-700 on eBay so you can probably get about that in 4 years time.

 

Yeah, take a quick walk down memory lane. 4 years ago Apple was still using the ever increasingly slow G4 processors. Now unless you are selling at least a G5 there is hardly much value in the PPC G4 Macs. In fact I just sold my G5 desktop in favor of the new iMac because I wanted to an Intel Mac for the multi OS compatibility.