Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Store has refurbished 2012 Minis!
- Thread starter ZipZilla
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
A bunch of refurbished 2012 Quad Core Minis just showed up in the Apple Store.
Can't believe how over priced they are. Apple is trying to clean up more on the 2012s than the 2014. lol
Just had a thought...since they now know that they command a higher price for refurb 2012 Mac Mini maybe they will consider going back to the quads and user upgradeable ram in the future ones.
na......not a chance.
Last edited:
At this point they're three year old technology. One could argue that Apple is price gouging.
Yeah, I would say so. They were charging more for those 2012 quads than when they were new in 2012.
That 3 year old technology is better than their latest machines. That is the saddest part. And, that's the reason people are willing to pay more to get the older computers.
With Apple, the way forward is reverse.
I share your pain. I was ****ing dead when I learned that the new minis had no memory upgrades, removed the second SATA port, only placed a SATA/PCIE port/slot depending on what you order, and even put security screws on the damn thing, while not changing anything physically except replacing a single FW port with a Thunderbolt port, which certainly did not require a board re-design.
I had watched eBay and all the units were going for more than what Apple wanted new. I ended up watching the refurb notifications closely and immediately made a purchase to get what I wanted.
What was the price? According to what I see on refurb.me, the base 2012 Quad-core (2.3ghz/4GB/1TB) was $579 when it showed up on the refurb store 3 days ago. That seems reasonable to me. I paid $589 for that same configuration a year ago refurbished. So it is $10 less today. It was $799 new, when it was available new, so the refurb prices are significantly less.
It's still a great machine that in many ways is better than the new models, comes with a 1 year warranty that is extendable to 3 years. That means, in theory, Apple will service your 2012-era computer well into 2018.
That doesn't seem like gouging to me.
Your 2012 refurb cost the same price in 2012 as it does 3.5 years later. Apple knows market scarcity of these devices allows them to keep the price high. In a market of plenty the equilibrium price will be very much less. Ergo, price gouging per ECON 101.
No. That is not price gouging. Price gouging is when a seller significantly spikes the price of something to take advantage, in an unethical and exploitative way, of a some situation that causes the supply to suddenly become very limited.
For example: The one lucky store that isn't destroyed after a hurricane charging $150 for bottled water is price gouging. Uber charging 20x surge pricing during a blizzard is price gouging. An egg farming company charging 10x the normal price for eggs when it's biggest competitor is shut down for salmonella contamination is price gouging.
Apple charged the following prices, which show the price has gone down over time.
2012 New: $799
2013 Refurb: $679
2014 Refurb: $589
2015 Refurb: $579
Adjust the prices for inflation and put it all in 2015 dollars, and this is even more evident.
2012 New: $829
2013 Refurb: $694
2014 Refurb: $592
2015 Refurb: $579
Apple has been lowering the price every year. My refurb cost less than someone would have paid a year before I bought it, and it cost way less than someone would have had to buy it new two years before I bought it, and someone had a brief chance to pay even less today, a year later.
The only people who might be gouging are those eBay sellers who list that configuration at $1000, and even then it's not really gouging because there isn't really unethical about it - no one is being hurt by it and the supply of 2012 QCs isn't suddenly more limited than it was last year (it's not like that container ship that was lost in the storm recently was carrying a few containers of Mac Minis aboard).
It was $739 for the 2012 2.3 quad. lol
The 2012 2.6 quad was over $900. I think it was $930 or $960.
Last edited:
Was it? The records on refurb.me say otherwise...
EDIT: You sure you weren't looking at the 1TB Fusion drive model, or the 2TB model?
Apple just posted a whole bunch of refurbished 2014 Mac Minis. Wonder why there are so many. Is Apple trying to clear out their stock, or are people returning them because they are not happy with them? Sure glad I was able to grab a 2012 Mini when I had the chance!
I think the 2012 quad cores have been out of production so long that the 2012 refurbs have thinned out to almost nothing. No surprise there. I'm happy to have gotten a quad core 2012 too. I think the Mac Mini 2014 was a less a step forward and more sideways and slightly back for those looking for power on the entry level. Most other buyers don't care.
Face it, we're the minority in this. But, a smart minority.
Face it, we're the minority in this. But, a smart minority.
Last edited:
Glad I scored my quad-core i7 2012 mini a few months back. I just recently got everything moved over from my 2008 Mac Pro and onto the mini and my NAS. The 2012 is a great little machine, especially after I stuffed a 256 gig SSD and 16GB of memory into it. Still, I kinda miss the low but comforting hum of the venerable Mac Pro.
But then again, the office is cooler and quieter without it.
But then again, the office is cooler and quieter without it.