Awful trade in value for 2021 14" MacBook Pro

[eoren1]

I purchased the 14" M1 Pro MacBook Pro in late October 2021 with the following specs:
Apple M1 Pro with 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
16GB unified memory
1TB SSD storage

I found the machine to be a HUGE step up from the old 27" iMac it replaced but, as a photographer, found it slowing down with heavier workloads in Photoshop.

I decided to jump on the next iteration when it was announced assuming the trade in value would be good as I got $570 for my 5 year old iMac.

Well, the new M2 Max Pro looks like a reasonable step up. To get the Max with 32gb ram would cost me $3099 (the original M1 was $2499).

But Apple is quoting $970 for trade in now?!?!? And a 3rd party for perfect condition is only $1,081.

Quite frustrating. Any thoughts on better avenues for trade in/selling? The current M1 Pro hits 90% of my wants/needs but would be nice to get the better configuration. Just not thrilled about losing $1500 of value in 1 year.

Thanks!

 

[SRQrws]

If you are in the U.S., try itsworthmore.com. They are offering substantially more for the specs you listed, assuming 'flawless' condition, a good battery, and the OEM charger is included. I have sold to them many times with no issues.

 

[james2538]

Apple trade-in values have been garbage for a while now. Much better selling it yourself off FB marketplace or eBay. Upgraded/Customized models always take an even worse hit on resale/trade-in value.

Quite frustrating. Any thoughts on better avenues for trade in/selling? The current M1 Pro hits 90% of my wants/needs but would be nice to get the better configuration. Just not thrilled about losing $1500 of value in 1 year.

My advice? Wait for now. A year, a couple months or at least a week.

Waiting a year:
The models that came out today are still on the same 5nm fabrication as the M1 Pros. That's why we're not seeing a huge performance jump. TSMC ramped up their 3nm production at the beginning of this month. There literally was a rumor this morning that the next generation MacBook Pros will be out Spring 2024.

Waiting a couple months:
New generations usually hit the refurbished store about 3-5 months after release and will net you a 15% discount off the cost of a new model. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between new and refurb, and all models come with the same 1-year warranty. It's how I've bought my last five Apple devices

Waiting a week:
See how reviews of this model are. The embargo supposedly lifts on Monday. There were reports of the M1 Max having some throttling issues in the 14" case. That may be better or it could be worse for the M2 Max.

 

[eoren1]

If you are in the U.S., try itsworthmore.com. They are offering substantially more for the specs you listed, assuming 'flawless' condition, a good battery, and the OEM charger is included. I have sold to them many times with no issues.

Wow - $1300 quote from them. Thanks!
Between that and the 30% depreciation/tax deduction, that does make it more reasonable...

 

[eoren1]

Apple trade-in values have been garbage for a while now. Much better selling it yourself off FB marketplace or eBay. Upgraded/Customized models always take an even worse hit on resale/trade-in value.



My advice? Wait for now. A year, a couple months or at least a week.

Waiting a year:
The models that came out today are still on the same 5nm fabrication as the M1 Pros. That's why we're not seeing a huge performance jump. TSMC ramped up their 3nm production at the beginning of this month. There literally was a rumor this morning that the next generation MacBook Pros will be out Spring 2024.

Waiting a couple months:
New generations usually hit the refurbished store about 3-5 months after release and will net you a 15% discount off the cost of a new model. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between new and refurb, and all models come with the same 1-year warranty. It's how I've bought my last five Apple devices

Waiting a week:
See how reviews of this model are. The embargo supposedly lifts on Monday. There were reports of the M1 Max having some throttling issues in the 14" case. That may be better or it could be worse for the M2 Max.

Agree with at least a week for reviews.
When the M1 came out, I was on a severely lagging iMac and could not wait for the long and growing longer time til my original (correct) configuration would be ready. It was past Xmas at the time so I jumped on a store available configuration.
I think it's just the 16gb RAM that has been holding back my performance and do wonder if an M3 on 3nm would even provide measurable improvement if I opted for an M2 Max now vs an M3 Pro later...

 

[james2538]

Agree with at least a week for reviews.
When the M1 came out, I was on a severely lagging iMac and could not wait for the long and growing longer time til my original (correct) configuration would be ready. It was past Xmas at the time so I jumped on a store available configuration.
I think it's just the 16gb RAM that has been holding back my performance and do wonder if an M3 on 3nm would even provide measurable improvement if I opted for an M2 Max now vs an M3 Pro later...

Check Activity Monitor. See how your memory and CPU usage is during your most intensive tasks. That should give you an idea on if the 16GB of RAM or M1 Pro is what is holding you back.

FYI there are some custom specced M1 Gen Pros discounted pretty heavily in the Apple refurbished store

 

[eoren1]

Let's see if this works...
Mail, Safari, Firefox, iMessage open and connected to 2 externals

Lightroom open

Scrolling through images in Lightroom

Photoshop open

Using plugin/filter in Photoshop

Green is while filter was processing image

Quit Lightroom then quit Photoshop

 

[avkills]

That's nothing, you should see what kind of lame trade in they offer for 2019 Mac Pros.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

You guys have to know you’ll get considerably better money for all this stuff if you list it on either the classifieds here with us fine specimens or on ebay and deal with the idiots. Trade-ins are for people who don’t know how to take pictures and put an ad of their own, and that ignorance costs big.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

You guys have to know you’ll get considerably better money for all this stuff if you list it on either the classifieds here with us fine specimens or on ebay and deal with the idiots. Trade-ins are for people who don’t know how to take pictures and put an ad of their own, and that ignorance costs big.

Depends on the price. A lot of folks aren’t willing to take chances for high dollar items so even listing it for deep discounts is a trust exercise ha. Hard to sell anything local (metro cities) or on forums that’s more than $1K

 

[eoren1]

You guys have to know you’ll get considerably better money for all this stuff if you list it on either the classifieds here with us fine specimens or on ebay and deal with the idiots. Trade-ins are for people who don’t know how to take pictures and put an ad of their own, and that ignorance costs big.

Member here since 2007 and never knew you could sell here

 

[nordique]

I purchased the 14" M1 Pro MacBook Pro in late October 2021 with the following specs:
Apple M1 Pro with 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
16GB unified memory
1TB SSD storage

I found the machine to be a HUGE step up from the old 27" iMac it replaced but, as a photographer, found it slowing down with heavier workloads in Photoshop.

I decided to jump on the next iteration when it was announced assuming the trade in value would be good as I got $570 for my 5 year old iMac.

Well, the new M2 Max Pro looks like a reasonable step up. To get the Max with 32gb ram would cost me $3099 (the original M1 was $2499).

But Apple is quoting $970 for trade in now?!?!? And a 3rd party for perfect condition is only $1,081.

Quite frustrating. Any thoughts on better avenues for trade in/selling? The current M1 Pro hits 90% of my wants/needs but would be nice to get the better configuration. Just not thrilled about losing $1500 of value in 1 year.

Thanks!

Yeah same in Canada.
$530 CAD for a 2021 base 14” model
Just atrocious.

I remember when the prior gen values were >1000 easily. Mind boggling how terrible this is

 

[inhalexhale1]

The current M1 Pro hits 90% of my wants/needs but would be nice to get the better configuration.

A 10% productivity jump does not seem like it would be worth the money and/or potential hassle. Sounds like your current Mac is working great and no guarantee there isn't some unknown with this release yet. Or if you'll just get bad luck which happens. Unless of course you're going to a bigger size, etc. or something that isn't just a mild spec bump.

I get it though. I used to upgrade way more often when the resale values were better. Always nice to pick up something new.

 

[powerbook911]

I think with the competitive pricing of M1 and M2 Macs, it has further hurt the Mac resale market. There are very attractive machines brand new at some good prices. Just my guess.

 

[Beau10]

Wow, that's surprising. I got $600 for a 2017 13" when purchasing my 14" in late 2021. Figured one of the stock 14" models would do at least 50% from Apple.

 

[hardwickj]

but, as a photographer, found it slowing down with heavier workloads in Photoshop.

Are you trying to say that it's running slower than your old Intel based iMac? That doesn't sound right at all.

I don't do a lot in Photoshop, but I do plenty in Lightroom, often times batch editing 1000's or even 10's of 1000's of RAW files at a crack (I like to do timelapses). I can definitely get Lightroom to peg all my CPU cores solid while it's working, but it's still far faster than my prior decked out last-gen Intel Mac mini, despite having half the RAM (32gb vs 64gb in the mini).

 

[eoren1]

Are you trying to say that it's running slower than your old Intel based iMac? That doesn't sound right at all.

I don't do a lot in Photoshop, but I do plenty in Lightroom, often times batch editing 1000's or even 10's of 1000's of RAW files at a crack (I like to do timelapses). I can definitely get Lightroom to peg all my CPU cores solid while it's working, but it's still far faster than my prior decked out last-gen Intel Mac mini, despite having half the RAM (32gb vs 64gb in the mini).

No - absolutely not. Runs circles around the old iMac.
But it is slowed at some tasks and I see the Activity Monitor as above stuck at yellow whenever I use LR and/or PS and I can't tell if that is a confirmation of RAM causing slowness OR if I am reading too much into the scary yellow and occasional red signals.

 

[GMShadow]

You're definitely paging to disk, which isn't cause to panic, but yes, it will run a bit slower. Not the end of the world.

If you were really looking to solve a bit of slowdown, 32GB of RAM is more important than going to an M2.

 

[tcatsninfan]

Waiting a year:
The models that came out today are still on the same 5nm fabrication as the M1 Pros. That's why we're not seeing a huge performance jump. TSMC ramped up their 3nm production at the beginning of this month. There literally was a rumor this morning that the next generation MacBook Pros will be out Spring 2024.

This. Between the money you'd be losing and the minor performance bump, it isn't worth upgrading from an M1 Pro to an M2 Pro. Wait and sell your M1 Pro next year when the M3 Pro offers significantly more performance because of 3nm.

 

[FattiesGoneWild]

I purchased the 14" M1 Pro MacBook Pro in late October 2021 with the following specs:
Apple M1 Pro with 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
16GB unified memory
1TB SSD storage

I found the machine to be a HUGE step up from the old 27" iMac it replaced but, as a photographer, found it slowing down with heavier workloads in Photoshop.

I decided to jump on the next iteration when it was announced assuming the trade in value would be good as I got $570 for my 5 year old iMac.

Well, the new M2 Max Pro looks like a reasonable step up. To get the Max with 32gb ram would cost me $3099 (the original M1 was $2499).

But Apple is quoting $970 for trade in now?!?!? And a 3rd party for perfect condition is only $1,081.

Quite frustrating. Any thoughts on better avenues for trade in/selling? The current M1 Pro hits 90% of my wants/needs but would be nice to get the better configuration. Just not thrilled about losing $1500 of value in 1 year.

Thanks!

Good! The update is not needed and a want just to want. You just got it no to long ago. Be happy with it!

 

[james2538]

Let's see if this works...
Mail, Safari, Firefox, iMessage open and connected to 2 externals
View attachment 2143882
Lightroom open
View attachment 2143883
Scrolling through images in Lightroom
View attachment 2143884
View attachment 2143885
Photoshop open
View attachment 2143886
View attachment 2143887
Using plugin/filter in Photoshop
View attachment 2143888
Green is while filter was processing image
View attachment 2143889
View attachment 2143890
Quit Lightroom then quit Photoshop
View attachment 2143891

Yep, looks like the RAM is your constraint. It’s not terrible though which is why your slowdowns probably don’t seem so egregious. The SSDs on these things are stupid fast so paging doesn’t end up being as bad as in the past.

If you want an upgrade you’d be better served selling your current M1 Pro private party and picking a M1 Pro with 32GB RAM from the Apple Refurb store.

Honestly if the current machine is hitting 90% of your needs, I’d just keep it. Any change will involve losing a decent chunk of money.

With 3nm on the horizon this generation will likely be short lived (we’ll definitely have new ones by Spring 2024 at the latest). Keep in mind that for the next generation, 24GB could become standard RAM or Apple might lower upgrade prices.

 

[maerz001]

No - absolutely not. Runs circles around the old iMac.
But it is slowed at some tasks and I see the Activity Monitor as above stuck at yellow whenever I use LR and/or PS and I can't tell if that is a confirmation of RAM causing slowness OR if I am reading too much into the scary yellow and occasional red signals.

Yes RAM is the limit. U have 7GB of swapp to the SSD.

Try closing firefox or safari before doing intense work like image processing.

Oh i miss the time when we could just stick in more RAM 🙃

 

[Fruit Stand]

Macs held their prices better under Intel chips. Being on Apple's upgrade cycle now means chips are depreciated quicker as Apple pushes the envelope with each iteration where as with Intel bumps were more minor.

 

[1BadManVan]

Yeah same in Canada.
$530 CAD for a 2021 base 14” model
Just atrocious.

I remember when the prior gen values were >1000 easily. Mind boggling how terrible this is

$530?! Wow, that’s a slap in the face considering how much more us canadians pay for these damn things. Jeeze

That’s not convenience anymore, that’s a slap in the face to their customers. Apple goes on and on about why their stuff is so amazing and worth so much, but then only wants to offer us Pennie’s on the dollar for trade in?

 

[bcli4tech]

Trade-ins are always like this…