How to sell a Mac or MacBook

The first step when it comes to selling your old Mac is finding out which model you have – not just the type of Mac or MacBook, but the generation and other specs. Read: Which Mac do I have? for help with that.

Another thing to be aware of when you are thinking about how much your Mac is worth is not to get too caught up in what you spent on it. The MacBook Pro you are selling might have been the top dog at the time you bought it, but if an entry-level MacBook Air could now be considered more powerful don’t expect people to pay top dollar for it. So do pay attention to what your market can get for their money right now.

Once you know which model you have you can start to work on getting an idea of what it’s worth. The risk otherwise is that you might not make as much money as you could, or you might be unable to sell your Mac because your price is too high. Even worse, if you get the specs wrong and claim that it is newer or more powerful than it is the person who buys the Mac won’t be happy and you may have to refund them.

We looked up a 2017 MacBook Pro on Ebay to get a feel for what the competition is like, and how much the various Mac laptops are selling for.

You’ll see some options that are listed as pre-owned while other are listed as refurbished – the latter generally means that an Apple Certified engineer has looked them over and they may even come with a one, two or even three-year warranty. 

The refurbished prices will be higher, but they come with more reassurance for the buyer. That’s some major competition already. There are also a lot of businesses selling on Ebay that can offer more protections for buyers, so if you are an independent seller the competition is hot!

You’ll also notice that many secondhand Macs on Ebay and elsewhere will be sold with extras: perhaps its in the original sealed box, i.e. never used. Maybe they are bundling software with it (which isn’t strictly legal – the Mac should be wiped before you sell it). Base your pricing decision on Macs that are a similar as possible to the one you are selling, and note whether there are a lot of people watching the sale to gage interest.

You should also check Apple’s Refurbished Store. If you find that Apple is still selling your Mac in the Refurbished Store that will be a good indication of the maximum resell value of your Mac – expect yours to sell for a lot less. For example, a 2019 16in MacBook Pro with 2.3GHz 8-core i9 is going for $2,289 on Apple’s Refurb store (originally $2,699). While in Apple’s UK Refurbished Store we found a 2019 16in MacBook Pro with 2.6GHz 6-core i7 is going for $1,869 (originally £2,199). Those models will come with a full one year warranty and the knowledge that Apple’s engineers have rectified any problems that there might have been with it.

Keep Apple’s refurbished prices in mind when you set a price for the Mac you are selling because you have to accept that a person is probably unlikely to buy your used Mac if they can get what is essentially a new one for the same price (including a one year warranty from Apple).

Another place to look is BackMarket (see BackMarket US and BackMarket UK) where you can select the model you are hoping to selling and see what they are selling for: those same 16in MacBook Pro from 2019 were on sale for $1,068.93/£1,199.98 for the 2.6GHz i7 model and $1,149/£1,400 for the 2.3GHz i9 model. Just like Apple, BackMarket offers a 12 month warranty.

One issue in particular is pertinent right now: the transition from Intel to Apple’s own chips (so far the M1-series and M2-series). People will either be falling over themselves trying to buy Intel Macs because Apple no longer sells them, or people will not be buying Intel-powered Macs at all. Either way it seems likely that the effect of the transition to the M1 chip, which has proven to be very successful for Apple, will reduce the resale price of, and demand for, older Macs.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that there is a limit to how long Apple supports old Macs for. Apple usually maintains the last three versions of the macOS with bug fixes and important security updates, ensuring that the latest version of Safari will run, and that Apple Services, such as iCloud, are fully supported. This means that Macs that don’t run macOS Catalina are not officially supported by Apple. And by the fall of 2022 Catalina will fall off that list.

If your Mac isn’t in this list you might find it harder to sell because it won’t run macOS Big Sur, which launched in 2020. For more information read: What version of macOS can my Mac run?

• MacBook models from early 2015 or later
• MacBook Air models from 2013 or later
• MacBook Pro models from 2013 or later
• Mac mini models from 2014 or later
• iMac models from 2014 or later
• iMac Pro (all models)
• Mac Pro models from 2013 or later

On the other hand, if your Mac has a very high spec model in its time – particularly if it was one that had veracious build to order options added when you bought it, you may be able to get more for it simply because it is rare – and it’s rare because it is pretty much impossible to add components to a Mac at a later date.

If you aren’t in a major hurry to sell your Mac you might be happy to price it higher on the off chance that at some point someone will be prepared to pay extra for it. Don’t be unrealistic about what it’s worth though. You might have paid $1,999 for your MacBook Pro three years ago when you bought it but, while Macs can keep their value pretty well, you have to be realistic and look at what Apple sells now with a similar spec – it could be that your potential purchaser could pick up the same spec in a completely new Mac for not a lot more than you think yours is worth.

Alternatively, if you really want to shift it quickly you might think that pricing it for a fast sell is wise. There are a couple of things to bear in mind here. 1) You might find that buyers assume that your Mac is faulty if you price it too low. 2) You may find that you could still get more money for your Mac if you were to sell it to a Mac selling service (we list a few below).

Selling your Mac using eBay, Gumtree or a similar service can actually be a lot of work, your decision about selling it will be based on whether the amount of effort you will need to put into selling it will be met by the return. Is your old Mac going to make you enough money to justify the effort selling it, or is there a better way to get rid of it?

You might make a bit more money if you sell it privately, but you might just end up in a dispute with a buyer. The ease with which sellers can offload Macs to a business that specialises in selling Macs is a big reason why there are so many refurbished Macs being sold. If you want to make some money by selling an old Mac you don’t have to do the hard work yourself. In the section below we have some recommendations of places that will buy your old Mac. 

Another option that may apply, if you are thinking of buying a new Mac to replace it, is to part exchange your Mac. Apple will let you do this, as will various Apple Certified Resellers. We look at the prices you can get for this below but you can also find out more information here: How to sell or trade in your old Mac and save on a new one.

Alternatively, if your Mac has very little resell value you might prefer to donate or recycle it. More about that below.

Another thing to consider is whether it is a good time to sell your Mac.

Typically it makes sense to sell on an old model before Apple announces a new one (rather than after the announcement). Obviously when a new model is announced, the older ones will lose a significant amount of value. So keep an eye on upcoming Apple events and rumors and try to pre-empt them if possible.

Read our lowdown on what products we expect Apple to announce over the next few months, and when we think Apple will hold its next launch event.

We anticipate Apple updates in the spring (usually March), June (to coincide with WWDC), September and October. But the company has been know to update products outside of these windows.

Another good time to sell is in summer months prior to students returning to or starting university. While students can get a decent discount on Mac products (read more about how to get an education discount on Apple products), we all know how poor students are.

Selling in the run up to Christmas when people are shopping around for deals is also a good time – although there can be some competition from the Black Friday deals around that time.