Q: Restoring a new Air for resale

heres how you restore to same as new out of box condition and wipe all personal data etc http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

Restart your Mac and hold down the Command key and the R key (Command-R), and keep holding them until the Apple icon appears, indicating that your Mac is starting up. After the Recovery System is finished starting up, you should see a desktop with a OS X menu bar and a "Mac OS X Utilities" application window.

In order to reinstall OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion, you will need to be connected to an Ethernet or Wi-Fi network. The Wi-Fi menu item is in the upper-right corner of the screen. Click the icon to display all available Wi-Fi networks. Click your preferred network name and, if needed, enter a username and/or password.

Follow these instructions step by step to prepare a Mac for sale:

Step One - Back up your data:

       A. If you have any Virtual PCs shut them down. They cannot be in their "fast saved" state. They must be shut down from inside Windows.

       B. Clone to an external drive using using Carbon Copy Cloner.

          1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.

          2. Select the Source volume from the Select a source drop down menu on the left side.

          3. Select the Destination volume from the Select a destination drop down menu on the right

              side.

          4. Click on the Clone button. If you are prompted about creating a clone of the Recovery HD be

              sure to opt for that.

               Destination means a freshly erased external backup drive. Source means the internal

               startup drive.

Step Two - Prepare the machine for the new buyer:

          1. De-authorize the computer in iTunes! De-authorize both iTunes and Audible accounts.

          2, Remove any Open Firmware passwords or Firmware passwords.

          3. Turn the brightness full up and volume nearly so.

          4. Turn off File Vault, if enabled.

          5. Disable iCloud, if enabled: See.What to do with iCloud before selling your computer

Step Three - Install a fresh OS:

     A. Snow Leopard and earlier versions of OS X

          1. Insert the original OS X install CD/DVD that came with your computer.

          2. Restart the computer while holding down the C key to boot from the CD/DVD.

          3. Select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu; repartition and reformat the internal hard drive.

              Optionally, click on the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass.

          4. Install OS X.

          5. Upon completion DO NOT restart the computer.

          6. Shutdown the computer.

     B. Lion and Mountain Lion (if pre-installed on the computer at purchase*)

         Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because

                   it is three times faster than wireless.

          1. Restart the computer while holding down the COMMAND and R keys until the Mac OS X

              Utilities window appears.

          2. Select Disk Utility from the Mac OS X Utilities window and click on the Continue button.

          3. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the left side list. Click

              on the Erase tab in the DU main window.

          4. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on the Security button

              and set the Zero Data option to one-pass.

          5. Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.

          6. Quit DU and return to the Mac OS X Utilities window.

          7. Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.

          8. Upon completion shutdown the computer.

*If your computer came with Lion or Mountain Lion pre-installed then you are entitled to transfer your license once. If you purchased Lion or Mountain Lion from the App Store then you cannot transfer your license to another party. In the case of the latter you should install the original version of OS X that came with your computer. You need to repartition the hard drive as well as reformat it; this will assure that the Recovery HD partition is removed. See Step Three above. You may verify these requirements by reviewing your OS X Software License.

as for "transfer of ownership". *it isn't necessary

When you wipe the HD, there is no personal info of yours on HIS now computer.

There is a limit of 5 computers associated with ONE account.....but unless you run into that, you can reset that ONE TIME PER YEAR.......otherwise no worries.

Authorizing and deauthorizing a computer allows you to manage which computers can sync or use apps, audiobooks, books, music, movies, or other content you've purchased from the iTunes Store.

You can use or sync your purchases from the iTunes Store on up to five different  computers (these can be any mix of Macintosh or Windows-compatible  computers). When you sync or play an item you've purchased, your computer is  "authorized" for purchase using your Apple ID.

Notes:

• In order to enable Home Sharing, Automatic Downloads, or downloading of past purchases, your computer must be authorized for use with your Apple ID.
• Songs you encode in AAC format from a source  other than the iTunes Store, such as your own audio CDs, and iTunes Plus content (music and music videos) do not need to be authorized.

To authorize a computer using your Apple ID

1. Open iTunes
2. From the Store menu, choose Authorize This Computer. (In earlier versions of iTunes, access this option from the Advanced menu).
3. When prompted, enter your Apple ID and password, then click Authorize.

To deauthorize a computer

1. Open iTunes.
2. From the Store menu, choose Deauthorize This Computer. (In earlier versions of iTunes, access this option from the Advanced menu).
3. When prompted, enter your Apple ID and password, then click Deauthorize.

Remember to deauthorize your computer before you sell it, give it away, or get your computer serviced. Also, make sure you deauthorize your computer before you upgrade your RAM, hard disk or other system components, or reinstall Windows. If you do not deauthorize your computer before you upgrade these components, one computer may use multiple authorizations.

He wont have your user ID or password on your wiped AIR, once you restore it.

He will be asked to "sign into Apple store or Itunes using an existing or CREATE A NEW account"

Yes, before you wipe it, you can use the deauthorize a computer  link..

Some computers that are stolen, or people have computers that just die....... they (you can only do this once a year)  "deauthorize ALL computers"  ,then reauthorize the working ones they own.  You can authorize up to 5 total on one account.

no worries, good luck, glad anyone could help

You can click on the unregister it on https://supportprofile.apple.com   if you desire, its nothing to worry about however.