Where DO the kids sell their MacBooks these days?

November 19, 2020 4:59 PM

Time to flip my macbook and for the first time in 8 years I'm not in any of the social or work situations where I used to get rid of my old electronics. Mac's buyback program will give me 1K for it and I don't want to get into some sketchy craigslist situation these days. Not the way the world is. So what's the way folks do this now?
posted by rileyray3000 to Technology (13 answers total)

Gazelle.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 5:20 PM on November 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Though you may not get the best possible price for your old Mac, the Apple Trade In program is the safest and easiest method by far, especially if you live near an Apple Store. Of course this only makes sense if you're planning to buy a new device from them.

If you want cash and you're ok with the time and effort of selling through an online marketplace, Swappa is one of the better ones for phones, laptops, and tablets. As a seller you shouldn't encounter any fees aside from the PayPal transaction fee. The verification process for sellers is a bit of a hassle, but such hurdles are what give the site a good reputation.
posted by theory at 6:00 PM on November 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

$1k for an eight year old computer? Take it.
posted by mhoye at 6:09 PM on November 19, 2020 [25 favorites]

if you can get that 1k from the trade in oh my gosh take it. Everything else will be more of a hassle an you've already identified the inherent risk profile.

That being said for selling-used-things-to-local-people Tim Bray recently wrote a well reasoned piece on why Facebook Market is currently really effective for this kind of thing and why, well, "ugh; Facebook".
posted by mce at 6:38 PM on November 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

I would double check that trade in value. I just checked it for a 5 year old high end MacBook Pro I have, and the offer was $450.
posted by primethyme at 7:09 PM on November 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

I still use Craigslist and it still works fine.
posted by aniola at 7:24 PM on November 19, 2020

Best answer: I took the OP to mean that, unlike the previous 8 years, they can't easily give used electronics to friends & coworkers right now, not that their current MacBook is 8 years old.
posted by theory at 7:26 PM on November 19, 2020 [11 favorites]

Yeah, how in the world is the Apple buyback program offering you $1,000 for an eight-year-old computer? Take it! Mine is three years old, and I'm getting $580. And three years ago, when I traded in a top-of-the-line three-year-old computer, I got something similar. If they'll give you $1,000 for something that's almost a decade old, jump on it.
posted by jdroth at 6:39 AM on November 20, 2020

I used macmeanoffer last year to sell an old Mac Mini and got more than I expected. It was an easy transaction too.
posted by Vek at 8:06 AM on November 20, 2020

Mac of All Trades is a refurbisher I trust- they buy macs, and if you want to buy a used one, a much better deal than the apple store....
posted by lalochezia at 4:13 PM on November 20, 2020

Swappa.com is pretty good for buying and selling used electronics. But yeah, $1k sounds amazing.
posted by nixxon at 9:35 AM on November 21, 2020

Response by poster: Just to be clear for everyone, I haven't had THIS computer for 8 years. I've only had it for two. Macbook Pro Mid-2017 3.1GHZ chip, 2TB SSD and 16 gb of ram.

I've just always had someone easy to sell it to for the last 8 years. There's always been someone in my office or a family member or a girlfriend. Someone.
posted by rileyray3000 at 4:26 PM on November 23, 2020

I use Swappa for selling macs and phones fairly often. It is not completely without risk, but in general has pretty good controls and protections in place. That said, $1000 seems like a pretty good option if you can get that direct from Apple.

https://swappa.com/laptops/buy/apple-macbook-pro-2017-15
posted by vegetableagony at 7:52 PM on December 3, 2020