eBay is worse than ever / used Macs

[echorec]

So a couple of months ago, my faithful iMac essentially died after a 10+ year run. I thought it'd be fairly easy to replace it. After all, there's thousands...(millions?) in circulation. Fuck no.

1) Apple keeps dragging along the impending M1X release, so the big April surprise was a batch of colored consoles for children. A $1300 computer (pre-tax) with 8 gigs of RAM and a 256 GB HD is not a computer for an adult who does things like music production, video editing, archival research, et cetera.

2) Holy fuck. Ebay is such a goddam toilet. The UI is just dreadful. Every page is stacked with sponsored thumbnails. It's such a cluttered mess, that it's a nightmare to scan the listing text for vital specs. Ebay is more of a trashy flea market than it's ever been. There's no hi-lo juxtaposition anymore---boutiques vs pawn shops. Now everything feels like a seedy garage sale.

3) For months now, I've been trapped between two immovable forces---greedy sellers and incompetent buyers.

The sellers don't know or don't care what they have, and the buyers don't know how to bid. This is what I run into every single day.

27" iMac laptop (No one's putting a 27", 20-lb computer on their fucking knees. This is a desktop computer. If you don't know the most basic terminology, you shouldn't be selling computers.)

Computer works great. $600. ($600 for spider glass, that's $250+ in parts & another $100+ in labor for a computer that'd be worth about $500 if it didn't have screen issues.)

2014, $900 + 200 in shipping. ($900 for a 2014 computer with subpar specs, no maxed out RAM, no top-of-the-line processor, no SSD. You can buy a 2017 with better everything for roughly $950 + free shipping. It's a computer, not a large antique. There is no reason to charge $200 for domestic shipping on a 20-lb item. It's not large or heavy enough to even flirt with that figure.)

2011 iMac 27" no reserve (mid-level specs, 16 gigs of RAM, nice but only half of max allotment. ends up being bid up to $457. WHAT. THE. FUCK. It's a 10-year old computer that could die anytime. After taxes, that's a $500 investment on a dinosaural piece of tech. Are all the iMacs going to drug dealers and money launderers?!?)

2015 iMac 27" $531 OBO (why does he need 5-3-1? What is he going to do with $531, that he couldn't do with $530? I make an offer, expecting to get counter-offered. I go to bed thinking I'll have my stop-gap computer for roughly $480+ fees. FUCKING HELL. Some goddam mouth-breathing, knuckle dragger bid the BIN price. WTF?!?!? So instead of buying the item outright, this fucking idiot bid the checkout price, ensuring the listing would run for the full duration of the auction. So this individual doesn't need a $600 computer, so much as they need basic, introductory computer lessons.)

2017 OSX iMac $900 (this shit enrages me. Note they're not selling a 2017 iMac, which could be valued at roughly $900. They're selling a 2011 iMac with 2017 software installed. Upgrading to High Sierra doesn't inflate the value of your item by $700. That's a 30-45 minute install and anyone with an internet connection can do this as a free upgrade. That asking price is fucking criminal.)

2011 iMac Retina $560 (sir, you do not own a retina display from 2011. That came to the iMac in 2014. You are not a fucking time traveler. This is not a prototype. This listing is the product of a greedy, huckster idiot and eBay should perma-ban these clowns.)

$400 opening bid NR, or $950 BIN, 2015 (Wuut? This wild gap says, "Yeah, I'd love to get $500...but $400 is my absolute minimum. But, I'm an unscrupulous fuckhead, so I have no qualms about collecting $200+ over my item's going rate, because I possess no ethics whatsoever.")

2014 iMac $1,050 (Dude, you have a seller score of *3* and you want double the rate of the most recent auctions. Where does this confidence come from? It's like watching an antiques reality show, where everyone thinks old = rare & valuable. Just because it has an Apple logo, that doesn't mean your 2014 is worth more than a 2017 with better specs. Ebay is bursting at the seems with these gomers.)

I'm so fucking pissed. There's no fucking flexibility whatsoever. Your only choice is: do you want to overpay by $180+, or do you want to overpay by $300+? I've been on Amazon, Google, Apple resellers, Craigslist. It's the same toxic culture of idiocy and greed everywhere. I'm not paying $700 for a 2014 computer with monitor issues. I'm not paying $500+ for a shattered display and base factory specs. Every time I think I've found something, the bidding swells up to obscene amounts, or the seller flakes out and pulls the listing. Since my files are for a Mac-only DAW, and several of my plugins are Mac-exclusive, I can't switch to a PC. Nor am I interested in building a PC from the ground up just to save $100 and lose out on hundreds of resources/files. I've read lots of negative comments regarding Hackintosh and plugin/DAW compatibility. I'm stuck in the cult of Mac, and unfortunately, that means drowning in a sea of morons.

Who knew that buying one's first computer in a decade would be like trying to date after the death of a spouse? This process has been sooo aggravating, so time-consuming, and so exhausting. When I switched to Reverb from eBay, I was relieved to be off eBay. Twenty years on, though, eBay is shittier than ever and apparently no one is going to offer up a viable replacement. There's just no wiggle room. If someone has a $500 computer listed at $900 OBO, your'e not talking them down from that. The culture of eBay has been established by the slimiest, dumbest shitheads, and then the noobies come in and just copy the templates that are already set. It's mind-boggling, how rough it is to grab a computer, that you can feel confident about.

[Blackened Soul]

Ebay's that way with everything though..

The last 4 macs I bought in the last few years were:

2 laptops from Mac of all trades [over all they did a good job although their usb plugs are always on the loose side for some reason]

A customized Power mac from usedmac.com [they did a great job thing is great, we using it as the the main studio machine] I'd buy from these guys again over powermacs..

and a iMac off craigslist for $300.00 which works great other than the dvd/cd rom... I think the guy used the computer to rip and burn copies of dvds.... there was even a copy of some children's movie with a ferret stuck in the player.. not really a issue as I use early 2000s Sony external burners for when I need to do something with disks.. I use this one for photo / video editing and keep it on a older OS so I can run Final Cut 6 It's not super super fast but it's not bad..

Yeah those new iMacs are a joke.. with the way the OS is getting more and more app based you might as well just buy a tablet.. I've always had a overall dislike for the iMac design as it is a halfass between a laptop and a desktop these new ones are even dumber as they were back to the 90s for the color thing and the low usefulness.. yay nastasia!!

[repoman]

My computer is a 2019 27" iMac I bought on ebay for $1200 about 5 months ago. I'm going to sell it on ebay sometime in the next couple months and go computer/internet free for at least 4 months. After that I'm not buying anything Apple. FUCK Apple. I hate their products and I hate the company. This latest OS makes my 1 year old computer take 10 minutes to boot up. All other Apple products I have start having shitty problems from their obsession of being trendy and having things look cool over actually functioning or remaining functioning and then you have to pay out the ass to fix their garbage. They rather have something be really thin than and damage components with heat than actually having space in there to get adequate cooling (and you start going deaf from the jet engine level sound from the fans going trying desperately to deal with their retarded design). Do you really look behind your iMac and wonder in amazement at how thin it is on your desk? My 2019 iMac has a shitty HD that is like from the 1990s.

I've only bought and used Macs in my entire life of using computers. No more. Fuck Apple.

[backwardsvoyager]

Given Apple's shift towards soldered memory and other things that discourage users from maintaining and upgrading their own computers, you're going to have to go through the same thing more frequently and more severely the longer you stay in the cult...

Flippers and fee hikes have pretty much ruined eBay. I used to list things below market price there all the time but the fees just about doubled in the space of a few years and I started noticing my old stuff reappearing in 'stores' for >1.5x what I sold it for. There's really no incentive for sellers to be reasonable human beings so it's no wonder things are the way they are.

[jirodreamsofdank]

There are hundreds of Macs available on EBay, some are going to be sold by dumbasses. The good deals go quickly, because they were listed correctly and with good information at a good price.

Amateurs not knowing what they have/the value of it is a tale as old as a Neanderthal trying to barter his chipped flint knife for a knew sharp one.

[MaxMaps]

I feel you on this - the internet has made everyone a crabby asshat when it comes to selling stuff online. As a sales guy - I am pretty adverse to dealing with ad listings and ebay, people tend to not see reason and it really sours the item you are trying to buy.

Things are just going to suck for right now - EVERYTHING is going to cost more because there is a ton of money floating out in the market and a LOT of people are willing to pay more. This is not going to be for EVERYTHING but its going to suck for 2021 and its just going to get worse until stuff catches up.

Just hang in there and keep watching - you will eventually find something.

[K2000]

I’m still using my 2009 Mac Pro, updated from 4,1 to 5,1 through a firmware update. Theres a bunch of people still using 2009 and 2010 Macs, and there’s information out there on how to keep them running, and improve their performance. Have you tried replacing the power supply? Supposedly a common part failure. What exactly is wrong with it? Every part of your old Mac should be replaceable.

I’m in the same boat, hoping there’s a M1x update soon.

What I don’t understand about Apple is who is buying $900 iPhones. They only last like 5-7 years, I think. I would be embarrassed to own one. And why is Apple trying to develop a “smart car”? The whole ‘driverless cars’ thing seems completely stupid to me, and I won’t be surprised if they never ever come to market, no matter who the manufacturer is.

[K2000]

Also, the M1 iMac or Mac Mini is a much better computer than any of the older models you’re looking at on eBay, and only $1200 $849

($1200 for the older Intel version)

[imJonWain]

I just got an M1 Air and love it so far. I've always built my own desktops and haven't had a laptop in 8 years outside of work Dells ( I like the XPS). Battery life is awesome and I haven't had any issues but it'll be nice once more software runs native on the Arm chip.

You can get a refurbished base model for $849 with free shipping from the apple website.