help with 2nd hand macbook?

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Level 1

39 points

help with 2nd hand macbook?

Asking on behalf of my niece who hopes to buy a 2nd hand MacBook from her friend who bought it new last year but simply doesn’t use it! My niece will be starting collage and hopes to get herself one a bit cheaper.

what would I need to be aware of, what will need to be done to it so that it’s all clean ( settings wise) and does the OS need to be reloaded?

ive owned a iMac for many years and many iPads iPhones so I’m familiar with the OS environment but never played with a MacBook.

thanks, Lee.

Posted on May 18, 2021 9:54 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Tesserax

Level 10

149,477 points

May 18, 2021 12:41 PM in response to Lee Tubb

If she decides to go with this notebook, have her provide her friend with the following article to get it ready to be sold:

What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 2

BigZerG

Level 1

28 points

May 18, 2021 11:13 AM in response to Lee Tubb

Few considerations:

1: how much cheaper? If it's only a hundred or two, not worth it. Better off to buy a certified refurbished unit from Apple.ca website directly (normally at 15% of discount or more) or at least get a new one at the educational price (8%-ish discount).

2: if the discount is significant, I'd consider it. But first thing first, ask for a receipt because that matters to the warranty of this product. MacBook comes with one year warranty. If it is out of it, that raises a red flag as it's hard (for me) to believe someone is keeping an expensive and fancy product like that for over a year but rarely uses it. But safe than sorry.

3: If still within warranty and the discount is great, i'd say go for it. the settings and system reset/upgrade is fairly straightforward.

4: If your niece only uses it for school, there are tons of older models of MacBook Air (the intel chip version) that are on great sales now on BestBuy. Take a look there.

Enjoy.

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