6 ms·

I have a new board in mine as well. Without AppleCare, it would have been $550. Estimated value of the machine, from CL, eBay, etc: $575. The downside to Mac

by chiph 13y ago

I have a new board in mine as well. Without AppleCare, it would have been $550. Estimated value of the machine, from CL, eBay, etc: $575. The downside to Macs having become popular is the severe price drop in the used market.

mgkimsal 13y ago
I was always told the benefit of Macs is that they hold their value. I don't think it's terribly true - never felt like it when I've come to sell.
- vacri 13y ago
  Most of the people making that claim seem to be people who upgrade every year, so they're only selling 1-year-old models.
- mikeash 13y ago
  It's not that they "hold their value", which implies they'd sell for something similar to the original purchase price, and that's crazy. Rather it's that their value drops considerably more slowly than the average computer. A 3-year-old Mac is still worth only a fraction of the original purchase price, but a typical computer is worth only a fraction of that fraction.
- umanwizard 13y ago
  The benefit of Macs is that they're high-end unix workstations optimized for usability. As far as I know Apple is the only company still making anything by that description.
  - cones688 13y ago
    Thinkpads?
    - malyk 13y ago
      That takes care of the hardware, but not the UI/UX.
      - dfc 13y ago
        Ihe UX of OSX is not that of a high end unix workstation. High end unix workstations do not need homebrew. High end unix workstations do not provide the miserable, second class Xwindows experience that is found on OSX.
        GFK_of_xmaspast 13y ago
        So I used "high end unix workstations" for years and years and years and OSX isn't perfect, but jesus christ I'd take its UI over just about any of the UIs from its competitors. (and remember trying to compile anything on sunos and only having suncc? fuck that, imo, I'll deal with xcode)
        dfc 13y ago
        You will take the Xwindows experience over the Xwindows experience in just about any competitor UI?
        prewett 13y ago
        The X Windows experience on my MacBook Pro is great! I get a OS that does pretty much everything my ThinkPad with Linux did, plus: * wifi works out of the box and reconnects practically instantly out of sleep [1] * sleep works without me spending two weeks recompiling Gentoo with different kernel options and finally discovering some boot flag that worked until Ubuntu broke it in one of their updates * I don't need to edit my XF86Config file (maybe not necessary any more) * no hassle of getting a compositing window manager working (hopefully compiz/emerald works better now than in 2008), figuring out how to disable gdm/kdm because the window manager options with the distribution are always terrible so I just start from .xinitrc because figuring out how to get gdm/kdm/xdm to run what I want seems to change every time I have to look. * no more poor battery life * filtering through low quality apps (KDE: crash-happy and UgLy), GNOME: pretty but light on the features); still scarred over X-CD-Roast... * AirDrop! * no arcane errors about sound because Ubuntu suddenly decided that I needed Jack (or maybe it was the other one), when ALSA was working just fine * oh, yeah, whenever I need to run an XWindows program it integrates seamlessly into my other programs. So much so that I tend to forget to use Ctrl for the keyboard shortcuts instead of that Apple command key with the weird symbol on it. It even seems to cut and paste from the rest of the system reasonably well. Yeah, I'm totally loving the XWindows experience on MacOS X! [1] I switched to Ubuntu because wifi and sleep just worked, and then they just didn't work after some updates
- JohnBooty 13y ago
  Non-Mac laptops drop off in value even more quickly.
  - danmatan 13y ago
    Anecdotally confirming. When shopping around for the past 10 years, I've usually bought used PCs and used parts, both desktops and laptops, but after deciding to try out a Mac in early 2012, buying used just didn't seem to be worth the discount. It doesn't seem to be so bad right now, but part of this may be due to my insistence on getting at least 4GB of RAM for a MacBook Air, which was hard to find on the used market.
    - pyoung 13y ago
      Adding to the anecdotes[1], of the last 5 computers that I have owned, 0/2 of the Macs are still running, compared to 2/3 of the non-macs. Because of this, I refuse to ever purchase a used mac, the discount is not worth the risk, especially considering the fact that it's nearly impossible to repair them on your own. [1]Random idea for a website/service: Computer reliability statistics by model/year. Could be really useful for people in the market for used machines. Not sure how/where you would get the data though. Seems like forums are overrun with anecdotes, but actual data is few and far between.
      - PhantomGremlin 13y ago
        > I refuse to ever purchase a used mac Macs are quite variable in terms of good models and bad models. This seems to apply to both laptops and desktops. Unfortunately. I also haven't heard of a website or service that has the reliability statistics you want. You didn't mention Applecare. It is transferable and is for 3 years. So if you buy a 1 y/o machine from a hipster who wants to upgrade, you would be covered for the remaining time.
      - danmatan 13y ago
        I still bought a Mac, just not a used one. A reliable machine so far, can't say the same about the charger cord. Perhaps the used prices are propped up by a high number of units dying.
cloverich 13y ago
Hmm. I sold my 2008 macbook pro on Ebay two months ago and got $500 (average was in $350 range). Just another data point for perspective.

by chiph 13y ago

mgkimsal 13y ago

I was always told the benefit of Macs is that they hold their value. I don't think it's terribly true - never felt like it when I've come to sell.

vacri 13y ago
Most of the people making that claim seem to be people who upgrade every year, so they're only selling 1-year-old models.
mikeash 13y ago
It's not that they "hold their value", which implies they'd sell for something similar to the original purchase price, and that's crazy. Rather it's that their value drops considerably more slowly than the average computer. A 3-year-old Mac is still worth only a fraction of the original purchase price, but a typical computer is worth only a fraction of that fraction.
umanwizard 13y ago
The benefit of Macs is that they're high-end unix workstations optimized for usability. As far as I know Apple is the only company still making anything by that description.
- cones688 13y ago
  Thinkpads?
  - malyk 13y ago
    That takes care of the hardware, but not the UI/UX.
    - dfc 13y ago
      Ihe UX of OSX is not that of a high end unix workstation. High end unix workstations do not need homebrew. High end unix workstations do not provide the miserable, second class Xwindows experience that is found on OSX.
      - GFK_of_xmaspast 13y ago
        So I used "high end unix workstations" for years and years and years and OSX isn't perfect, but jesus christ I'd take its UI over just about any of the UIs from its competitors. (and remember trying to compile anything on sunos and only having suncc? fuck that, imo, I'll deal with xcode)
        dfc 13y ago
        You will take the Xwindows experience over the Xwindows experience in just about any competitor UI?
        prewett 13y ago
        The X Windows experience on my MacBook Pro is great! I get a OS that does pretty much everything my ThinkPad with Linux did, plus: * wifi works out of the box and reconnects practically instantly out of sleep [1] * sleep works without me spending two weeks recompiling Gentoo with different kernel options and finally discovering some boot flag that worked until Ubuntu broke it in one of their updates * I don't need to edit my XF86Config file (maybe not necessary any more) * no hassle of getting a compositing window manager working (hopefully compiz/emerald works better now than in 2008), figuring out how to disable gdm/kdm because the window manager options with the distribution are always terrible so I just start from .xinitrc because figuring out how to get gdm/kdm/xdm to run what I want seems to change every time I have to look. * no more poor battery life * filtering through low quality apps (KDE: crash-happy and UgLy), GNOME: pretty but light on the features); still scarred over X-CD-Roast... * AirDrop! * no arcane errors about sound because Ubuntu suddenly decided that I needed Jack (or maybe it was the other one), when ALSA was working just fine * oh, yeah, whenever I need to run an XWindows program it integrates seamlessly into my other programs. So much so that I tend to forget to use Ctrl for the keyboard shortcuts instead of that Apple command key with the weird symbol on it. It even seems to cut and paste from the rest of the system reasonably well. Yeah, I'm totally loving the XWindows experience on MacOS X! [1] I switched to Ubuntu because wifi and sleep just worked, and then they just didn't work after some updates
JohnBooty 13y ago
Non-Mac laptops drop off in value even more quickly.
- danmatan 13y ago
  Anecdotally confirming. When shopping around for the past 10 years, I've usually bought used PCs and used parts, both desktops and laptops, but after deciding to try out a Mac in early 2012, buying used just didn't seem to be worth the discount. It doesn't seem to be so bad right now, but part of this may be due to my insistence on getting at least 4GB of RAM for a MacBook Air, which was hard to find on the used market.
  - pyoung 13y ago
    Adding to the anecdotes[1], of the last 5 computers that I have owned, 0/2 of the Macs are still running, compared to 2/3 of the non-macs. Because of this, I refuse to ever purchase a used mac, the discount is not worth the risk, especially considering the fact that it's nearly impossible to repair them on your own. [1]Random idea for a website/service: Computer reliability statistics by model/year. Could be really useful for people in the market for used machines. Not sure how/where you would get the data though. Seems like forums are overrun with anecdotes, but actual data is few and far between.
    - PhantomGremlin 13y ago
      > I refuse to ever purchase a used mac Macs are quite variable in terms of good models and bad models. This seems to apply to both laptops and desktops. Unfortunately. I also haven't heard of a website or service that has the reliability statistics you want. You didn't mention Applecare. It is transferable and is for 3 years. So if you buy a 1 y/o machine from a hipster who wants to upgrade, you would be covered for the remaining time.
    - danmatan 13y ago
      I still bought a Mac, just not a used one. A reliable machine so far, can't say the same about the charger cord. Perhaps the used prices are propped up by a high number of units dying.

cloverich 13y ago

Hmm. I sold my 2008 macbook pro on Ebay two months ago and got $500 (average was in $350 range). Just another data point for perspective.