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Be honest - Two small dings.

H

Help Please

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 26, 2011
108
0
Iowa
I need to know, how much these two, very small, barely noticeable dings take away from the value of the Air.

13" MBA, 1.86GHz C2D, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD.



The price is $1,220 + $15 shipping and MS Office 2011 included. Worth it?
 
Psilocybin said:
uhm what dings haha..i see em barely, go for it!
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So, you don't think when it comes time to sell (if I do decide to jump up to Sandy Bridge, when it comes out), I won't have a problem with a major loss of resale value?

May'be I'm just freaking out about them..
 
Help Please said:
So, you don't think when it comes time to sell (if I do decide to jump up to Sandy Bridge, when it comes out), I won't have a problem with a major loss of resale value?

May'be I'm just freaking out about them..
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If you're freaking out about them, others may as well, but it doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. Some won't care. Maybe a $50 or $75 hit on the price? I can't imagine more than that.
 
rtkane said:
If you're freaking out about them, others may as well, but it doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. Some won't care. Maybe a $50 or $75 hit on the price? I can't imagine more than that.
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I feel like the only reason I'm freaking out is because this is my first Mac :)
 
Do you need an Apple computer (more specifically the air) right now? If you do, then go for it. If not, why not wait for the version of the computer you want rather than unnecessarily spending money?

From what I read online, macbooks (pro) depreciate quite quickly. Plus, the hassle of selling it as well.
 
Help Please said:
I feel like the only reason I'm freaking out is because this is my first Mac :)
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Welcome to Mac! You'll enjoy it...I just got my third Mac since May/June of last year and will never go back to Windows (switching my wife and my computers over). A bit of a learning curve, but it really wasn't bad.
 
And1ss said:
Do you need an Apple computer (more specifically the air) right now? If you do, then go for it. If not, why not wait for the version of the computer you want rather than unnecessarily spending money?

From what I read online, macbooks (pro) depreciate quite quickly. Plus, the hassle of selling it as well.
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The only way I'm getting the Sandy Bridge Air is if they bring back the backlit keys, 4GB RAM standard, and the obvious, better CPU performance which will obviously happen.

I like what the Air has to offer now, don't get me wrong, I love what it has to offer right now, I'm just saying. If the opportunity comes up to upgrade, I was wondering how this would affect me. Thank you for your input though.
 
rtkane said:
Welcome to Mac! You'll enjoy it...I just got my third Mac since May/June of last year and will never go back to Windows (switching my wife and my computers over). A bit of a learning curve, but it really wasn't bad.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I've used Mac's before, friends and at school, but this will be my first official one and I'm very much looking forward to it.
 
Help Please said:
The only way I'm getting the Sandy Bridge Air is if they bring back the backlit keys, 4GB RAM standard, and the obvious, better CPU performance which will obviously happen.

I like what the Air has to offer now, don't get me wrong, I love what it has to offer right now, I'm just saying. If the opportunity comes up to upgrade, I was wondering how this would affect me. Thank you for your input though.
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No problem. If you were to keep the machine and not upgrade (then again, I don't know your upgrading habits) for maybe >2 years, then I would go for it. But, if you buy this and hypothetically sandy bridge-equipped air comes out in <1 years, the money lost from buying this (in terms of what you paid for it minus what price you sold it for) could have gone towards purchasing a new mba and/or accessories or internal upgrades.

Although there is a MR guide in predicting refresh cycle, one can't know for certain when the new one comes out. Since, people have the habit of waiting ~2 months for a potential release and also know of the refresh cycle patterns, the value of your mba in relations to the price you can get it for will be much lower than anticipated, equating a higher loss monetarily. Even if you sold it for half the price of what you got it for (let's $700), that other $700 is money you will never gain back and could have gone towards a new machine.

In the end, you need to ask yourself this, do you really need to have a mba right now? Will you benefit from the features you want in the new air, especially the ram and cpu? If no and yes, I suggest you wait =)

Oh, if you decide to get it, make sure there isn't any hidden damage that may be related to those small dings. You never know on these type of things. Otherwise, it's a good buy.
 
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tom vilsack said:
it would bother me...i would hold out for same model at refurb site...
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it would bother me too. Bought a machine once (not a mac though) with minor cosmetic damage. Turned out that the fall causing the minor damage had damaged more inside than outside.
Using mac means pleasure to me. I would never 'destroy' my peace of mind/pleasure wondering all the time whether there is more damage inside. It's not worth the $$
 
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Like with buying a car, don't just look at the cosmetic damage, you need to think more about what caused it. That looks like an impact to me, and whilst there's no moving parts as such in the MBA (aside from fan) now it's all SSD, that impact is located right at the edge of the hinge/display. Not ideal.

For me, aside from my aesthetic sense which means visible dings are just unacceptable, this would be a very big risk. Forget getting excited about MS Office 11 (which is a dud by the way, extremely buggy, search the forums here), I'd be more reassured if it came with Applecare.

Buy refurb direct from source. You'll sleep better.
 
Same exact MBA less the damage is $1189 refurbished from Apple in perfect condition with a full year warranty.

When you can get it for less from Apple and perfect I don't get why anyone would do this.

Don't cut yourself short when you can do better. Apple updates its refurbished section about twice per week with the $1189 with 4GB 13" MBA. Check a few times per day until it's there and get a perfect MBA without instant devaluation no matter how small.

I cannot stand the first damage I get on any Mac and wouldn't want to start out like that.
 
I would be more worried about any internal damage from the incident(s) that caused those external dings.
 
First of all is MS Office 2011 legit? (meaning is the seller giving you his official DVD disk?). Make sure it's a legal copy and insist on original disk.

Second, how much warranty is left? I tend to subtract about $15 per month on the warrant.

So if it only has 7 months of warranty, I would subtract about $100 off price. $1200 would be the max I would pay for that MBA with 4GB. Retail is $1399 plus taxes so around $1500.

Minus $50-75 for the dent.
 
namtaB said:
I would be more worried about any internal damage from the incident(s) that caused those external dings.
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Same here - I don't think I personally would buy a used MBA (or any computer) with any external damage (apart from the odd scratch) on it because I'd be concerned about internal damage.
I'm sure there are plenty of people who wouldn't care though and I wouldn't expect it to really knock any value significant off (i.e. people who were concerned about the damage wouldn't buy it at any price and people who weren't wouldn't care and would pay pretty much the same as any other MBA) - it may be harder to sell though
 
Does it actually come with Office (w/ physical materials/license) or simply come loaded on the machine? The latter is pirating, an all-too-common 'bonus' in resold computers; it shouldn't be factored as a price advantage as you can just do it yourself for free.
 
Help Please said:
I need to know, how much these two, very small, barely noticeable dings take away from the value of the Air.

13" MBA, 1.86GHz C2D, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD.

The price is $1,220 + $15 shipping and MS Office 2011 included. Worth it?
Click to expand...

Note that Apple would charge $1189 plus tax for a comparable refurbished model (85% of the new selling price), though that particular configuration has only rarely appeared in the online store. Office 2011 is about $100 from a reseller ($120 from Apple).

Any way you slice it, you'll take a hit when you sell it. MacBook Airs hold their value worse than other Macs, particularly because the price of SSDs has dropped over the past 3 years. I suspect the Core 2 Duo models will take another big hit when the Sandy Bridge models come out.

If you need a Mac now, it may well be worth it. Find out the circumstances. As long as there is no water damage then it should be fine. Note that aluminum dents fairly easily so it might not have been a hard fall.
 
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