Mac Resale Value

[Tegeril]

Before I get any kind of hate...I love Macs. I use one at work, my laptop is a Mac, and I use PCs too.

There have now been:

1. http://www.apple-history.com/?...=date&order=ASC&range=
2. http://www.apple-history.com/?...=date&order=ASC&range=
3. http://www.apple-history.com/?...=date&order=ASC&range=
4. http://www.apple-history.com/?...=date&order=ASC&range=

revisions of the Mac Mini before the current gen. I do not understand how the low and mid range G4 Mac Minis are still selling for -over- $200 when some of them come with 512mb of ram and a 40/80gb hard drive and a G4!

I'm trying to determine what makes this such a self perpetuating cycle of non-depreciation. I understand that they are well built systems, but there doesn't appear to be a sloping price scale. The old Intel minis are almost selling for the same as a vastly superior new mini, and the latest mini does not appear to have had any effect on the price of the oldest G4s.

Reality distortion field?

 

[nosfe]

i think it's apple's marketing, i mean, they're considered more of a collectible and not an old pc or personal computer for those that don't like the term "PC" for whatever reason

 

[TheStu]

I think that the RDF is a major part of it, but especially with regard to Mac Desktops, the following has to be taken into account.

There is only one company that makes a system that legally runs OS X.
OS X currently has, for the sake of round numbers, 10% market share (much less when the G4 Mini came out)
Again, for sake of argument, lets say that since the G4 Mac Mini came out, 50% of all Macs sold have been desktops.
Of those desktops, you have iMacs, PowerMacs, Mac Pros, and Mac Minis. If you already have a monitor, and don't need the power of the PowerMac/Mac Pro, then you are left with the Mini.

So, at the end of the day, you have a machine that is only sold by 1 company, that happens to be the only company that sells a machine that can legally run a fairly popular OS (looking at the number of people that I have heard say things such as "I like OS X but the price of a Mac is too high"). Not very many of them were made, and of them, not very many are for sale.

If a person wants an itty bitty OS X box, your only option is the Mac Mini. If $600 is too much, or don't need all the power of an intel Mini, then the G4 is what you are left with.

So, part RDF, part Supply&Demand.

 

[hiromizu]

Macs don't slow down like PCs do, they just keeping going with good looks. Maybe that's why they have and high resale value.

 

[LtPage1]

Originally posted by: hiromizu
Macs don't slow down like PCs do, they just keeping going with good looks. Maybe that's why they have and high resale value.

You're right, because Macs are hewn from solid blocks of aluminum and human goodwill. :roll:

There are Powerbooks like mine on eBay that go for ~$500. It's crazy, and yes, this thing is way slower than it was when I bought it. Two new OS's, an explosion in the resources necessary to view basic web content, and the increasingly bloated nature of iTunes over the last 3.5 years means that yeah, this thing is slow.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: hiromizu
Macs don't slow down like PCs do, they just keeping going with good looks. Maybe that's why they have and high resale value.

please don't tell me you're serious and that my sarcasm meter is on the fritz

 

[Ichigo]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: hiromizu
Macs don't slow down like PCs do, they just keeping going with good looks. Maybe that's why they have and high resale value.

please don't tell me you're serious and that my sarcasm meter is on the fritz

Good save.