Is it a good idea to trade and pay for a used Macbook?

In My Humble Opinion
1

This place is not my strong suite. I have not spent a lot of time in dealing with understanding computers or what would be a good deal if I were to trade my computer.

I put my computer into a shop the other day for a free diagnostics test. It is broken (the touchpad is cracked and there was trouble with it starting up and displaying). I go check on it today and the repair man says that my computer has a problem with the (a?) chip, the motherboard, and obviously the touchpad.

He shows me a Macbook also which seems to be almost exactly like mine. It is clean and seems to be in good condition. It seems to be running well. He offers it to me for $300 plus trading in my old computer, which he gave a starting price at $500-$700. I guess I just don’t want to be scammed in this whole deal and I am not sure if it would be a good deal, or how to find out if it is a good deal.

Any suggestions?

Also, this is the first place I have been to, it was not diagnosed or priced by anywhere else. The repairman currently is holding the computer awaiting a response from me (he would need a days notice to put it back togeather. I would feel more comfortable checking out the gigabytes and all that on mine personally rather than having the repairman who is now in possession of the computer tell me so I know what I am bargaining with, but i feel to ask for it back and then do the deal may be a bit akward. Maybe not though.

2

The best way to judge what a computer is worth in the real world is to search for the exact model (Year, CPU, RAM, HD, etc.) on ebay and look at completed auctions.
That will give you a range of prices that people are willing to pay.

3

Good idea, thanks Beowulff

4

Note that I buy, sell and horse trade Macs, so I have to make the same decisions you are faced with.

The typical “killer” problem with old MacBooks is the solder joints on the video chip. There are outfits that will fix this for around $200, of which I’ve had mixed success (some repairs have lasted many years, others have failed within 3 months (repaired again under warrantee)). If you have a trackpad problem, that can be solved with a new keyboard deck. So, you are looking at around $300 dollars in hard cost (then, the repair shop is going to mark that up).

So, is it worth getting a new (used) MacBook for $300 + your old one in trade? Maybe, as long as it has a decent guarantee.

You might want to look at the Apple refurbs - I’ve had very good luck with them.