Proof That Macs Hold Their Value

You've all heard that Apple computers retain their value better than PCs. How would you feel if you bought a four year old iBook five years ago and were still able to get 50% of what you paid for it? Stoked, I bet. And surprised.

Way back in May 2004, on behalf of the kids, I bought my wife a G3 iBook 366 Firewire clamshell laptop. The costs over the five years have been:

iBook (purchased 2004): AU$405 (plus AU$20 delivery)
256MB RAM (2004) :AU$115
New battery (2008): AU$80

In total we've spent AU$620 on it.

In tax accounting, you write a computer off over 3 years. Well that little iBook could have been written off three times by now! To the taxman it's worth less than nothing.

And yet, it just sold on eBay for AU$200. And looking through completed listings, this is probably the average price for an iBook of that age. PC laptops of similar age are averaging closer to half that - though they do start out cheaper.

We might grumble about Apple's cheapest laptop still costing US$999, but when you're selling secondhand, that comes back in your favour. Apple's higher prices are certainly good for the resale value. It means you end up with something that is still worth selling, instead of just chucking.

Personally, I wouldn't have paid AU$50 for it and if we hadn't checked how much they were going for, would have either tossed it or given it to some four year old as a toy.

The thing that lets it down most is the 800x600 resolution. If not for that it would be a lot more usable. However, if all you want to do is word processing and email, it is a damn fine little machine. And it's got a handle.

But I still don't think it's worth AU$200.

When you can buy a brand new Dell Inspiron mini 9 netbook or a even secondahand iBook 1.33GHz with wireless for a bit under $500 (which is still a very good laptop - I know, coz that's what my wife replaced her G3 iBook with), why would you pay AU$200 for a 0.366 GHz iBook without wireless and only 800x600 resolution?

Consider also that that netbook is so much better in every way, even screen resolution. And can run Mac OS X. And it's one third of the weight, i.e. 1kg compared to 3kg.

Fair enough, it is two and a half times the price. But if you shop around you can find decent netbooks much closer in price.

But why compare it to a netbook anyway? Because as I mentioned above, both will be primarily used for email, word processing and web browsing.

Whoever has bought this iBook really probably wanted something like a netbook but couldn't stretch the budget.

It's made me realise there's a strong market for these old iBooks. Although I suspect their unique look helps too.

It certainly is the age of the laptop. If you've got an old iBook or two gathering dust somewhere, what are you waiting for? It's a seller's market.

Man, I wish I had a dozen to sell.