Ebay Macbook Pro's and replacement batteries

[dizmonk]

Has anyone else had this experience? I purchased a secondary MBP from Ebay that was supposed to be in excellent condition. From the outside it was. Based on the model (M1 Pro) and the battery info, I suspect the seller replaced the OEM battery with a third-party one. I returned it, got an M4 and the same thing happened.

Is this common? I was trying (like everyone these days) to save some money and get a used model, but I'm put off by these replacement third-party batteries.

Any advice? Thanks.

 

[Hajj.david]

Has anyone else had this experience? I purchased a secondary MBP from Ebay that was supposed to be in excellent condition. From the outside it was. Based on the model (M1 Pro) and the battery info, I suspect the seller replaced the OEM battery with a third-party one. I returned it, got an M4 and the same thing happened.

Is this common? I was trying (like everyone these days) to save some money and get a used model, but I'm put off by these replacement third-party batteries.

Any advice? Thanks.

Its important to ask these questions first. It is not necessarily malicious sometimes people think they are doing a good thing by putting in what they believe is a fresh battery or taking it to a shop to swap it out either because they wanted to use it for a bit more or so that way the person they sell it to wont complain about the battery.

Another thing is often times Ebay is a dumping ground for big (or small) companies that take in trade ins on behalf of apple and just resell them so they have no idea other than a quick physical inspection. Ask if there was any repairs done. Ask for a copy of the system report on key things such as battery health etc that will not only have the cycle count, and how much charge is left but also the serial and model number so you can verify its correct.

3rd party batteries are a genuine concern just because there is a huge unknown factor and a bad battery can cause your house to burn down (I know extreme scenario but the risk is there). Sometimes they are great and made to Apple's specification exactly. It just depends on who did the repairs and what they did to it.

I personally never buy used laptops because I make a ton of money off of my Apple hardware so:
A) I get a nice write off to reduce my income tax burden
B) I need it to be 100% reliable and covered by Apple Care in case anything goes wrong I can easily swap it out.

Edit:
I have and will buy used desktops like mac minis etc to be used as backup servers or hot fail overs so I am willing to risk some reliability to get a reasonable price, but never as a primary server. I also know what I am doing so I will take them apart and redo their thermal past etc to improve long term reliability and clean out any dust and build up. Most recently I got a 2018 i7 mac mini with 32 gb of ram and 10 Gb ethernet for only $300 which will serve perfectly as a mongo node.

It is very strange for an M4 to have a battery swapped. I still have an M3 Max that I use VERY heavily for computation, compilation, and AI work (my fans are screaming hours a day) and I still have 92% of my battery capacity left. So that is a bit of a concern, can you post a screenshot of the battery info in the system report.

 

[mike.coulter]

I would just look for one that doesn't advertise 100% battery health, then it's less likely to have been replaced.

 

[ignatius345]

eBay can be super tricky, and it always pays to dig into the seller’s history. When you see something like “TechDeals” with 10,000 feedback, that means they’re probably a huge reseller, moving refurbished or semi-refurbished machines -- and maybe cutting some corners in the process. I’ve found a smaller seller with positive feedback will often be a better bet.

The product description can be really telling. Sometimes it’s AI slop, or they’re obviously just cranking them out off of a template. IMO that’s a little more suspect than one that someone clearly wrote themselves that offers a lot of info about the device and its condition.

A couple years ago I bought an M1 Air off a smaller seller that had really good feedback. Their product description was very detailed and explained they’d been using the two M1 Airs they had for sale for software development and they’d lived their lives on a desk. I ended up with an Air in near-mint condition with the original battery, and as a bonus an extra power adapter.

 

[dizmonk]

Thanks for the feedback. Given how astronomical prices are now for new Macs, I'm really trying to figure out how to get a decent secondary laptop. Would you buy an older Ebay machine (say M1 to M3 Pro) and have Apple put in a new OEM battery? or pay the new prices for like a Apple refurbed M4 or 5?

For example price wise it might be equal to get a M3 Pro add an OEM battery vs. an Apple M5 refurbed 16gb/1tb.

 

[DavidPS]

It's pretty common on resold MacBooks — third-party cells are cheap and a swap can bump the "battery health" numbers a seller screenshots. Before buying, ask for a photo of System Information > Power showing cycle count, condition, and especially the serial number and manufacturer fields; genuine Apple packs report a Sony/SDI-style manufacturer and a serial, while many aftermarket ones show blank or garbage there. Also ask for the full serial of the machine and run it through Apple's coverage page, and check whether macOS shows "Service Battery" or the Optimized Charging option missing, which often points to a non-OEM pack. If you want to avoid the lottery entirely, buy from Apple Certified Refurbished or a seller with eBay's returns, and treat any listing that only shows a screenshot from a third-party app as unverified.

 

[benholt]

the follow-up is actually the interesting question — used M3 Pro + Apple battery swap vs Apple refurb M5. I've walked both paths. the cost math usually tilts toward the refurb once you factor in AppleCare eligibility (used-then-serviced doesn't put you back inside a fresh AC+ window, refurbs do), plus the refurb ships with a full year warranty and a fresh top-case assembly since Apple has been bonding the battery to the enclosure for a few generations now. the used M3 Pro path only wins if you find one ~35-40% below refurb pricing AND coconutBattery reads a low cycle count with a genuine Apple manufacturer string before you commit. on the eBay screening side — ask the seller for a Terminal screenshot of `ioreg -l | grep -E "Manufacturer|Serial|CycleCount"` on the battery node, not just System Information; the info pane can be spoofed with fake plist entries but ioreg pulls straight from the SMC.

 

[dizmonk]

the follow-up is actually the interesting question — used M3 Pro + Apple battery swap vs Apple refurb M5. I've walked both paths. the cost math usually tilts toward the refurb once you factor in AppleCare eligibility (used-then-serviced doesn't put you back inside a fresh AC+ window, refurbs do), plus the refurb ships with a full year warranty and a fresh top-case assembly since Apple has been bonding the battery to the enclosure for a few generations now. the used M3 Pro path only wins if you find one ~35-40% below refurb pricing AND coconutBattery reads a low cycle count with a genuine Apple manufacturer string before you commit. on the eBay screening side — ask the seller for a Terminal screenshot of `ioreg -l | grep -E "Manufacturer|Serial|CycleCount"` on the battery node, not just System Information; the info pane can be spoofed with fake plist entries but ioreg pulls straight from the SMC.

I thought Coconut battery was largely unreliable? I mean when I've used it I've gotten some bizarre readings (like batteries way too old). You make some really good points about the top case assembly and Applecare eligibility. I'm leaning toward a Apple refurbed M5... but the Ebay M3Pro I ordered is scheduled to arrive in a few days. Thanks.

Is there a battery app (other than Apple's and maybe? Coconut battery) that's reliable and accurate?

 

[DavidPS]

CoconutBattery is fine for a quick glance, but I wouldn't buy or reject a machine on its numbers; the raw values from ioreg -l | grep -E "CycleCount|DesignCapacity|AppleRawMaxCapacity" come straight off the SMC and can't be dressed up by a UI. Cross-check that against System Settings > Battery > Battery Health and you've got everything a third-party app would tell you.

 

[benwiggy]

I suspect the seller replaced the OEM battery with a third-party one. I returned it, got an M4 and the same thing happened.

What are you basing your suspicion on?

I'd be surprised if there was sufficient market for third-parties to make batteries for Apple Silicon models yet.