I've never though of Apple stock this way.

[soldierblue]

In September 2008 if, instead of buying a Penryn MacBook Pro like I did, I had invested that money in Apple stock, I'd have made $8,500 as of Friday.

 

[Consultant]

Hindsight bias is biased.

You can consider that for any stock / product. The thing is, you don't know how much the stock will do in the future, thus you didn't buy the stock at the time.

Besides, the use of the MBP probably offered you at least some benefit (such as time gained from not using an older computer).

In September 2008 if, instead of buying a Penryn MacBook Pro like I did, I had invested that money in Apple stock, I'd have made $8,500 as of Friday.

 

[sigmadog]

In 2009, I paid $3200 for my Mac Pro. I think Apple stock was in the $300 range at the time. If instead I bought ten shares of stock, I'd have profited about $4000.

Not bad.

But, using my Mac Pro, I've made vastly more than that $4000 in three years.

I think I made the better deal.