macs & ebay: a few questions
About 4 months ago, I upgraded from a 400mhz imac to a 700mhz emac. I sold my lime imac on ebay (upgraded memory, loaded with software, stand, iomega drive etc) for $600. I then purchased an emac in the same week for $1050 (guy was selling it after he had it for 3 months for various legit reasons). I thought I was getting a killer deal. I mean, I did get a killer deal considering that I only paid about $450 to upgrade to my emac which I love...I am in total heaven with this power house of speed, memory & HUGE screen. Plus, it was loaded with a LOT of software (of course I lost it all when I needed to do a clean install) DOH!
I bought a 233 ruby imac - 6 months ago for my hubby for $230, that would not start up b/c the guy erased the HD (UGH!) that is why I got it at such a great deal. He even included an unused mircosoft office 98 & some of the WRONG install CDS. I sold the office 98 on ebay for $100, sold the restore CDs for $35-- My mac tech friend got the 233 working great, but since it was sooo slow compared to the 400mhz, I resold it on ebay and got $300 for it. So basically, I made $200 on the resale of it once I got it working/sold the software it came with.
After that resale, I went on ebay again-- I got husband a SE graphite 500mhz imac loaded with air port card, DVD/DV, QUE firewire drive and tons of memory for $525. What a deal! We kept it. Sold the Que for $50, Sold the airport card for $70, sold the optical mouse (yuk) for $35--so I basically got a 500mhz for $370..again WHAT DEAL!
My question is...when I bought the emac on ebay, they were all selling between $999-1,200. Here it is 4 months later, and you can get them on ebay (from good sellers) NEW IN BOX with applecare for $700-900. Even a super drive goes for $1000 on ebay NEW. That, to me...is a killer price to get a beautiful mac.
Does ebay really set the market for used mac computers? It seems that you can really see things depreciate in value by searching ebays current & ended auctions.
How many of you have used ebay to sell/buy macs and what was the success for you? I have had great success!
Thanks! Jessica
I bought a 233 ruby imac - 6 months ago for my hubby for $230, that would not start up b/c the guy erased the HD (UGH!) that is why I got it at such a great deal. He even included an unused mircosoft office 98 & some of the WRONG install CDS. I sold the office 98 on ebay for $100, sold the restore CDs for $35-- My mac tech friend got the 233 working great, but since it was sooo slow compared to the 400mhz, I resold it on ebay and got $300 for it. So basically, I made $200 on the resale of it once I got it working/sold the software it came with.
After that resale, I went on ebay again-- I got husband a SE graphite 500mhz imac loaded with air port card, DVD/DV, QUE firewire drive and tons of memory for $525. What a deal! We kept it. Sold the Que for $50, Sold the airport card for $70, sold the optical mouse (yuk) for $35--so I basically got a 500mhz for $370..again WHAT DEAL!
My question is...when I bought the emac on ebay, they were all selling between $999-1,200. Here it is 4 months later, and you can get them on ebay (from good sellers) NEW IN BOX with applecare for $700-900. Even a super drive goes for $1000 on ebay NEW. That, to me...is a killer price to get a beautiful mac.
Does ebay really set the market for used mac computers? It seems that you can really see things depreciate in value by searching ebays current & ended auctions.
How many of you have used ebay to sell/buy macs and what was the success for you? I have had great success!
Thanks! Jessica
Comments
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It's really not that much cheaper, especially under edu discount from Apple. Also apple does add extra for shipping, so there's another $50 difference or so. Just price the systems, sometimes ebay's prices are more.
Not quite sure what you mean as far as edu goes. If you don't work in education, I am assuming you would not qualify for the edu discount. correct?
I think when you compare ebay to the typical apple prices/comp usa etc, ebay has some great deals.