I have been planning on trading in my MacBook Pro for a bit. Last week my trade in was worth $1065 but now it’s only showing $985. Should I just try to sell it instead?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 15.4
When you trade it in, the buyer is purchasing raw compute power, and the buying agent expects to have to expend their company's money to make it 'user ready'.
Used computers that sell for top dollar are already 'user-ready.' The buyer can imagine taking it out of the box and getting their work done immediately, or perhaps after only some setup and possibly a software upgrade.
Computers that appear to have festering problems or are somehow less than User-ready sell only for "wholesale" prices to buyers willing to put in the time and effort (and knowledge) to fix them up for actual use.
So if yours is made to appear "user-ready", and you point that out, you will get more interest and likely a higher price.
Sale-able computers must have a copy of MacOS installed, But NOT set up. DO NOT leave the currently-running macOS on it, because that version is tagged with YOUR Apple-ID, and will be of no use to the buyer since it can not be updated without YOUR Apple-ID.
What to do before you sell, give away, trade in, or recycle your Mac - Apple Support
When you trade it in, the buyer is purchasing raw compute power, and the buying agent expects to have to expend their company's money to make it 'user ready'.
Used computers that sell for top dollar are already 'user-ready.' The buyer can imagine taking it out of the box and getting their work done immediately, or perhaps after only some setup and possibly a software upgrade.
Computers that appear to have festering problems or are somehow less than User-ready sell only for "wholesale" prices to buyers willing to put in the time and effort (and knowledge) to fix them up for actual use.
So if yours is made to appear "user-ready", and you point that out, you will get more interest and likely a higher price.
Sale-able computers must have a copy of MacOS installed, But NOT set up. DO NOT leave the currently-running macOS on it, because that version is tagged with YOUR Apple-ID, and will be of no use to the buyer since it can not be updated without YOUR Apple-ID.
What to do before you sell, give away, trade in, or recycle your Mac - Apple Support
You’ll usually get the most from a private sale, yes.
Whether you want to deal with the effort, and with whatever support claims or hassles might arise?
What to do before you sell, give away, trade in, or recycle your Mac - Apple Support
Whether you trade it in or sell it yourself is 100% your decision. If your decision is 100% financial and you don't mind the risk of selling it on your own then yes, you will get more than a trade in. We don't know you, what your situation is, what your abilities are and are not, so we cannot make up your mind for you, you have to determine yourself what you want to do.
Whatever you do (sell or trade in) set it per the link you were provided and document with photos of it running and how it looks cosmetically and show that it runs prior to getting rid of it. That is your ONLY insurance of the devices condition when you get rid of it. If you do not document it, then if any kind of disagreement comes up then you can prove with your documentation. Ensure the photos are date and time stamped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I always trade my gear into Apple as private sale means meeting a complete stranger somewhere which in today's crime saturated society could result in unacceptable risk.
Should I trade in my MacBook Pro with Apple or sell it myself?
