apple machines still holding their value?

[talz13]

I know that macs have always had quite a good resell value down the road, but has anybody been wondering whether the intel transition will have any affect on this?

I mean, before, there was a single (sometimes two) processor line for the systems (a la G4). There were speed bumps every so often, so the older machines would take a bit of a loss in resell value. Now, I haven't been around all that long in the mac world, but do older machines take a larger drop in price when significant updates are performed? Like G4->G5, desktop transition?

At least as far as I can see, it looks like with intel the technology improvements are becoming more substantial and more frequent than they were on the PPC platform.

I suppose my big question is, do you think the resale market for macs will be affected by faster changes in technology?

 

[danny_w]

I expect that larger drops in resale value will happen after the next revision of Intel products is out, but I'm really not seeing the drastic drop everyone was predicting just yet. I expect this is due at least partly to all of the nagging problem that users have been reporting with almost every one of the Intel models so far (the Intel iMac seems to have the least reported issues so far). I was considering selling my PowerBook for a MB or MBP, but don't want to go through all of the hassle of multiple exchanges (some here are reporting up to 6!). My current pb is working just fine, is flawless, and does everything that I need it to do, so why be in a hurry?

 

[zap2]

I would think PPC will take a big dive soon(look for older G4, as they still run fine but will be cheap)

But in the long run, it will slow down.. once PPC is gone and dead, the used ones is will be stone cheap, but intel should hold there value espeacil Core Duo, when they get replace by Core 2, as Core is still a good chip

 

[chasingapple]

Not so sure

I bought my iMac G4 1.25Ghz a little over 3 years ago, and I love it. BUT, when the G5 iMac came out I noticed my poor little G4 went WAY down in price, from the $1799 it cost me all the way down to $1399 average on Ebay. Then when the Intel equipped one came out it fell to below $999 area. 3 years old and worth around half of what it used to be. As I do a quick search on Ebay right now, I see one there for a paltry buy it now price of $779. So there you have it, my beautiful iMac (which I wouldnt sell anyway) is cheap as dirt now and costs even less then the last gen eMac.

Yeah the Intel thing is only going to hurt our older gen systems more in value.

 

[zap2]

Yeah the Intel thing is only going to hurt our older gen systems more in value.

I think its a given when new tech comes out, old tech price will fall, but it really option on how much you think.. i think Old G4 PM will start to bomb(good for me ) and new PPC still holding there own until all Apps are universal, at what point they will fall a good amount. And when App start to become intel only, PPC is be left for dead, and when OS X goes intel only, PPC will have been shot with a pistol, then pistol wiped, then shot, then pistol wiped, then intel will wipe PPC's blood off the pistol and shoot it again.

 

[generik]

I'd say no, back in the PPC day you can actually sell your "near new 1 week old" machine at virtually the price you got it for.

Try doing that today.

Macs are PCs now, simple as that.

 

[leekohler]

Oh I don't know- I just sold my 1Ghz G4 tower for $550. I was more than happy to get that for it, it was six years old. Now granted, I did a ton of upgrades: new processor, 1.75 Gigs of RAM and a new video card. But still- I was happy with what I got for it.

 

[OldCorpse]

I bought my iMac G4 1.25Ghz a little over 3 years ago, and I love it. BUT, when the G5 iMac came out I noticed my poor little G4 went WAY down in price, from the $1799 it cost me all the way down to $1399 average on Ebay. Then when the Intel equipped one came out it fell to below $999 area. 3 years old and worth around half of what it used to be. As I do a quick search on Ebay right now, I see one there for a paltry buy it now price of $779. So there you have it, my beautiful iMac (which I wouldnt sell anyway) is cheap as dirt now and costs even less then the last gen eMac.

Yeah the Intel thing is only going to hurt our older gen systems more in value.

Weird. Being used to the PC world, your story sounds just the opposite to my ears. It sounds like the Apples hold their value darn well. I mean, try to see what price you'll get for 3 year old PC gear.. do you think you'll get 50%? Not on your life. Not with Dell selling brand new laptops for $500. I have a Dell Inspiron I bought exactly 3 years ago, paid $1000 for... today, I probably can't give it away... not with brand new kit selling for half of that.

I bought the 12" iBook (see sig) brand new last December for $785 (after rebates from Amazon), knowing full well that MacBooks were just around the corner (actually, they were 6 months around the corner, lol). I don't regret it for one minute. With all the software that folks have which is PPC only, there is a very, very large pool of mac users for whom PPC is the only choice, unless they want to shell out not just for a new intel mac, but for a whole new bunch of universal apps... expensive! So, to them, getting ahold of the last generation of PPC kit is very important. That means, the resale value of PPC gear will remain high IMHO (and certainly high compared to the PC world).

Bottom line, I bet a year from now, my by then 2 year old ibook will still be selling for $500, which is just $285 less than I paid for it... then again, I don't care, as I'm not planning on selling anytime soon.

 

[milozauckerman]

The prices on G5 towers have dropped more than I expected. I was hoping to get $1600-1800 for my G5/2.0/X850, but that looks a few hundred high. That's a loss of (basically) $1000, maybe more, compared to retail in June of last year. I sold a 2 1/2-year old G4/933 to get the G5, and lost less right at $1000 in retail value over that entire span.

The PPC->Intel switch has hurt PPC values immensely. I almost wish I hadn't bought a MBP, I might as well have held onto the G5 until it's last dying breath, but I needed a decent notebook and it's silly to have a notebook and a desktop when the former is just about as powerful.

In the past, you could say that PPC resale was artificially inflated by the slow progress of the chips - the gap in power over two years wasn't huge. With the move to Intel, that's not the case. So in the future you'll see resale patterns echo more closely the PC world than the old Mac world, but Apple's emphasis on design and integration should help somewhat (or maybe hurt - when a 20" iMac becomes outdated, you can't just move that monitor onto your new computer).

 

[DaveP]

I think Macs hold their value really well. In the past they held their value ridiculously well...

 

[Ugg]

I bought my iMac G4 1.25Ghz a little over 3 years ago, and I love it. BUT, when the G5 iMac came out I noticed my poor little G4 went WAY down in price, from the $1799 it cost me all the way down to $1399 average on Ebay. Then when the Intel equipped one came out it fell to below $999 area. 3 years old and worth around half of what it used to be. As I do a quick search on Ebay right now, I see one there for a paltry buy it now price of $779. So there you have it, my beautiful iMac (which I wouldnt sell anyway) is cheap as dirt now and costs even less then the last gen eMac.

Yeah the Intel thing is only going to hurt our older gen systems more in value.

Actually, for a 3 year old computer, that's not a bad price. Macs do keep their value in comparison to PCs, especially the laptops.

 

[9Charms]

Up here in Vancouver, BC, I've seen a huge drop in PPC prices. I've checked prices for the last 3 months, looked on eBay, even made some posts on craigslist to get a reading of the market, because I want to pick the right time to move to Intel, but I think I may have waited too long. My Quicksilver may not even be worth selling now.

As we get closer to the MacPros coming out, people just seem to be holding off on their purchases. I think a lot of people dumped their G5's and G4's when the MacBook came out.

 

[Roba]

I am doubtful that the new Intel Mac notebooks will hold their value as well. Just by Apple bumping the standard spec on my MBP up to 2.16 cost me to lose a quite significant amount on my model in such a short space of time. These models were £1,800 as standard a few months ago and now you will be lucky to get £1,300 for them on ebay. The 15.4 2.16 model doesn't seem to be selling that great to me on ebay either. Also, the 1.83 MBP i have seen go for around £900 on ebay on a model that was about 4 weeks old an had a retail value of £1,500 a month ago. It doesn't help now that this model is now discontinued.
Of course these notebooks are going to drop in retail value again when the Merom chip comes out.

I think that the iMacs may hold there value a little better as i have seen them sell well on ebay.

 

[THX1139]

It's too soon in the transition to know for sure. There is still a market for used G4/G5 while the software finishs transitioning. Once the dust settles, you won't be able give away PPC. Their is also the rush of people trying to unload their Macs while the selling is good. I was looking on eBay the other day to see if I could pickup a bargain machine to hold me over during the transition period (1st quarter 2007). I noticed that a glut of Macs are driving the price. A lot of people are trying to dump their machines while they still have value. I saw a Quad going for less than 15 hundred. Still, there is nothing wrong with PPC if you buy G5 or get an extemely good deal on a G4 and don't need to do any heavy lifting. The previous poster got a good deal selling G4 because he was lucky and the buyer got a lot for the money. He really lost a lot when you consider what he probably bought it for. Anyway, G4 towers are still functional machines for general purpose computing.

As for the resale value on Intel products, I don't think they are going to hold as well as previous systems. The chips coming in the next year are going to be way faster and come out more often. A machine you buy today, you shouldn't plan on selling if for much after the first of the year. But there is one thing that might make that wrong. There are a lot of stupid people bidding at eBay. They think if it's on eBay, then it's got to be a good deal. Some of those idiots, don't even know the history of what they are buying. They often get caught up in the bidding frenzy and pay waaay more than what an item is worth.

 

[THX1139]

As we get closer to the MacPros coming out, people just seem to be holding off on their purchases. I think a lot of people dumped their G5's and G4's when the MacBook came out.

Yep, I've got 4 grand sitting in the bank waiting for my next purchase. I set aside the money to buy a G5, then had a change of heart when I saw some of the initial speed tests on the Intel macs. Now I'm holding off buying since the Intel desktops are just around the corner. The only purchase I've been thinking of is picking up a fire-sale G5. I could load that with my current applications and have a great computer that will last at least 2 more years. By then all of the software will be ported and all transition bugs will be worked out. Imagine what will be announced at MacworldSF in '08!!

 

[danny_w]

I am doubtful that the new Intel Mac notebooks will hold their value as well. Just by Apple bumping the standard spec on my MBP up to 2.16 cost me to lose a quite significant amount on my model in such a short space of time. These models were £1,800 as standard a few months ago and now you will be lucky to get £1,300 for them on ebay. The 15.4 2.16 model doesn't seem to be selling that great to me on ebay either. Also, the 1.83 MBP i have seen go for around £900 on ebay on a model that was about 4 weeks old an had a retail value of £1,500 a month ago. It doesn't help now that this model is now discontinued.
Of course these notebooks are going to drop in retail value again when the Merom chip comes out.

I think that the iMacs may hold there value a little better as i have seen them sell well on ebay.

Of course part of the reason for the soft MBP prices may be all of the reported problems with that model. Whether true or not, that may be dissuading people from buying at a higher price. I know for a fact that I wouldn't pay a lot for a used MBP; I currently have a known quantity (PB) and I don't want to take the risks on a used MBP.

 

[OldCorpse]

Of course part of the reason for the soft MBP prices may be all of the reported problems with that model. Whether true or not, that may be dissuading people from buying at a higher price. I know for a fact that I wouldn't pay a lot for a used MBP; I currently have a known quantity (PB) and I don't want to take the risks on a used MBP.

Absolutely. I think you may even see a situation, where some latest model PPC laptops hold their value better than first intel mac laptops. Reason? Intel updates a lot faster, so you'll see the value of intel gear go down faster, plus, people have not built up a store of software that won't work anywhere else - as is the situation with PPC. Imagine that I have invested $3000 in PPC only software. So, if I want to buy an intel mac, I have to also buy $3000 worth of software (no use running it under Rosetta). I'd rather stick to my fully functioning PPC platform. Therefore, it may make sense for me to pick up another late model PPC, instead of an intel - due to the software transition costs. That will put upward pressure on PPC gear prices. Meanwhile what reason is there for old intel mac gear to hold up in price? None - since there isn't the software issue like with the PPC, you'll have new better faster gear just around the corner (welcome to the intel world), and the older intel gear will drop like a rock in price!