Good deal or scam?

December 16, 2012 11:27 AM

Looking to by a MacBook Pro off Craigslist, is this one a scam? Advice for buying used computers?

The full body of the ad:

500 GB Hard drive macbook pro for sale - $740

this listing is for a 13.3- inch apple mac-book pro notebook laptop.

the laptop is new and sealed. this stats are :: 4 GB ram, 2.4 ghz i5 processor, 500 GB hard drive space . the model no. is MD313LL/A. additional specs can be found on apple sites. This macbook pro is covered with a one year original warranty. receipt and warranty info will be given.
cash only- no paypal or shipping. Only willing to meet up at a local and public place.

only reason im sellin the notebook is b/c I need the cash.

thanks 4 looking this ad. contact me if interested.

One the one hand, the receipt seems reassuring. Then again, it's a late 2011 model, why would anyone need expired warranty information? The price seems low for a brand new MacBook. Also, this ad has been reposted on Craiglslist several times over the last 2 weeks. It's odd to me that someone would have an unused and sealed computer that came out a year ago. The flagrant abuse of grammar, spelling, capitalization, punctuation and text shorthand does not inspire a lot of confidence, but I'm cranky about these things.

I've never bought a computer from a private seller. I'm inclined to go with my gut and skip this one, but am curious about what the scam might be, if, in fact, it is one.

Do you think this is sketchy or legitimate?
If it's a scam, is this a knockoff or something else?
Generally, any suggestions for buying a used computer? What should I look for when meeting with sellers?

Thank You!

posted by space_cookie to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)

"new and sealed" makes it sound like a scam to me. It usually means they put something of the appropriate weight in the box and then sealed it (e.g. a mirror instead of an iPad).

I usually responded to these ads saying that I want to open the box and play with it even if it's new and sealed--to verify that it works, that the specs are right, etc. None of those "new and sealed" ads have ever replied to me.
posted by ethidda at 11:33 AM on December 16, 2012 [7 favorites]

Alternatively, it was stolen.
posted by ethidda at 11:34 AM on December 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'd never buy anything of any value from anyone who wasn't willing to reveal their identity or address. There are simply too few good reasons to insist on cash to make the risk that your seller has one a risk worth taking.
posted by howfar at 11:43 AM on December 16, 2012

Deals that appear 'too good to be true' most often are. Buy a refurbished unit from the Apple site. You'll know exactly what you're getting for your money.
posted by Pudhoho at 11:50 AM on December 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

Refurbished Apple stuff directly from Apple is all kinds of good, and you can usually get the latest-spec stuff, too.

Sent from my Refurbished Mid-2010 15" MBP
posted by Chutzler at 12:01 PM on December 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

There are lots of very very good reasons why a seller would only accept cash. Especially for a high value electronic item being sold over the internet. It's very easy for a buyer to pay with PayPal or a credit card and then claim not to receive their item or claim to have received a broken item.

I would be more concerned that its either stolen or a box of rocks that the seller won't let you open because their worried about decreasing the value. If you do go make sure to meet in a safe place and try the computer out before you accept it.
posted by SpaceWarp13 at 12:02 PM on December 16, 2012

Agreeing with the New&Sealed weirdness. CL is a haven for items that have "fallen off the truck" and if a unit was still in the box, it could have been sold as refurbished via Apple. Also, your radar about "grammar, spelling, capitalization, punctuation and text" errors is very much in tune.

Something is stinky about this. I suggest passing up on it.

Even if it is a perfect item, it could be a stolen perfect item. If that is the case, it would bring a whole host of other issues along with it receiving stolen property. (that is a bit of a longshot though)
posted by lampshade at 12:08 PM on December 16, 2012

I once successfully bought a used MacBook on Craigslist. And, in fact, have bought a lot of stuff on Craigs over the years, found roommates that way, etc.

Things I think are important:

1. It seems fishy to me that the text of the ad doesn't explicitly mention the year/generation aside from the model number. When I bought my used Mac in this way, the ad I responded to explicitly said "Black MacBook originally purchased in 2009". It was very easy from the ad and only the ad to see exactly what I was getting. The mention of looking up other specs on the Apple website (without even a link to the relevant model) seems odd to me, too. Like they are trying to fudge the exact age and specs of the laptop they actually have for sale (if in fact there is a real laptop at all).

2. It seems fishy to me that someone who would "need the cash" would have a new still-in-the-sealed-box MacBook Pro purchased a year ago.

3. That price is way too good to be true. It's, what, half the price of a virtually identical brand new model? And supposedly never used and still in the sealed box? If I had such an item, I would be asking for close to what I paid for it, put OBO in the ad, and be willing to go down to about $1000.

4. Ads that are reposted frequently seem fishy to me. At the very least, why are they having so much trouble selling a brand new MacBook Pro at half the MSRP? Or what sort of person (again who "needs the cash") has access to a large supply of this particular item?

If after all this, you are desperate to buy this thing, set up a meeting in a public place and carefully examine the laptop, including turning it on and taking it for a test drive. If the seller makes it difficult to meet up in person or doesn't want you opening the box, no deal.
posted by Sara C. at 12:22 PM on December 16, 2012

I would second checking out the refurbished stuff on apple.com. Even if this was somehow legit (nope), it's not that great of a deal. My refurbished 13" MBP was under $1000, and I got one pretty close to a new model at the time.
posted by drjimmy11 at 12:23 PM on December 16, 2012

Everyone's tolerance may vary, but for me if I was going to deal with all the hassles of buying off CL:

a) may be a total scam or stolen
b) Even if not, it has been used and maybe not gently
c) no warranty

I wouldn't consider it worthwhile unless the price got down to half of what I would pay Apple, or less.
posted by drjimmy11 at 12:26 PM on December 16, 2012

I have bought quite a few comps off of craigslist/ebay. Have had less issues with them then I have with the ones I bought at Fry's.

Just make sure to take it for a test drive. Boot it up, run some hard programs.

I guess you can check the serial numbers against some of the online databases. Usually when I have bought it, the person with the computer still had their name in the comp.

You never really can tell if it is stolen, that is a risk and you will have to deal with your own conscience.
posted by psycho-alchemy at 1:20 PM on December 16, 2012

Best answer: If the macbook is new and unsealed, with receipt, he could return it to an apple store for full retail price. Or sell for 90% of the purchase price, so yeah, it's too good to be true.

Good news is, it almsot definitely doesn't matter. When you e-mail this guy, he will tell you that he has already sold the macbook, but he can tell you about this amazing way he has bought so many cheap things at a super-cheap auction website. That's why he can offer all those reassuring details, like he'll only meet in a public place, he has the receipt, etc. There's no macbook, and he's not even going to try to meet up with you.

I've noticed this scam going on for about a year on craigslist, it's pervasive on all high-end electronics. Look out for ads that don't offer any specific location, and a price too good to be true on an item in new condition. It almost always ends up in an e-mail. If anyone knows the name of this new scam, I'd like to know. Makes craigslist almost unusable for buying newish electronics.
posted by skewed at 3:54 PM on December 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: skewed, that's exactly what happened. I emailed him out of curiosity per ethidda's suggestion. And yeah, it's making looking for a Mac on Craigslist impossible. Mystery solved. Thanks all.
posted by space_cookie at 4:05 PM on December 16, 2012

People are making a lot of questionable assumptions here.

The fact that it is a late 2011 MacBook Pro model doesn't mean that it was purchased a year ago, or that the warranty is, in fact, invalid. Apple was selling that model until June of this year, and with some Googling, it looks like Microcenter (and perhaps others) still have some stock they are selling for ~$1000.

So, this could be something purchased relatively recently (enough so that the warranty coverage is meaningful), but not so recently that it can't be returned for cash back.

Now, even so, I doubt it is legit. The price is plausible for someone who received it as gift or something that they want to unload for some cash, but chances are that it is, bullshit, one way or another, if only as bait.

I like Apple's factory refurbs. The price breaks are significant, and the machines are in excellent shape. A good used model might be a better deal, if you can find one, but how much more are you really going to save? A couple hundred bucks? How much is your time worth?
posted by Good Brain at 4:16 PM on December 16, 2012

I bought a few laptops and other pieces of hardware from CL sellers. The approach I used was "meet me at the bank branch." It solves both the personal-safety question and the avoiding-stolen-property question pretty thoroughly. It let me withdraw cash on the spot, after running the machine through its paces, and it restricted my sellers to people not afraid to do the transaction in front of that many security cameras (that were known to be recording / known to be easily accessible to cops).
posted by kalapierson at 2:32 PM on December 17, 2012