Apple has come under fire for its Mac trade-in prices, with one man claiming his $50,000 Mac Pro was valued at the shockingly low price of less than $1,000 by Apple.
David Immel, a researcher at YouTuber Marques Brownlee, posted a screenshot About the appraisal he received from Apple for one of his office Mac Pro computers, which cost him $52,199 (and which Apple still sells for the same price). Apple’s valuation was $970, which is about the same price as the iPhone 14 Pro.
Apple lists all maximum prices it will pay for trade-in products on its website. For the Mac Pro, that amount tops out at $1,250. If you paid $52,199 for one, the Mac Pro represents about a 98% drop in value, despite still being available at the same price.
Amazingly, a refurbished Mac Pro with the same specs as David Immel’s sells for $39,239 on Apple’s online store.
Emel wasn’t the only one to receive a disappointingly low estimate from Apple. Twitter user @jasonbshew shared a similar story where he was offered $720 Canadian (about $540 US) for his 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Max chip, a price he described as “brutal”. This particular model — with a 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU, and 4TB of storage — was still being sold by Apple for $4,299 as recently as the morning of January 17, if our calculations are correct.
shop around for the best prices
Apple’s trade-in prices have never been particularly attractive, with the company usually offering much less than other outlets. It’s possible that Apple is banking on customers wanting to take a financial hit in exchange for the convenience of being able to return an old product and buy a new one in the same transaction.
It’s not just Macs that offer poor value for money if you trade them in through Apple. The company says it will give you up to $570 for the iPhone 13 Pro Max — one of the best iPhones before the current generation — although we were only offered $540 despite the device being in good condition. From other companies, we were able to get up to $751 for the same device.
Apple cut its trade-in prices in November 2022 and has done so again since that time. In November, you could get an iPhone 13 Pro Max for up to $650, which is $80 more than what Apple claims to be offering today.
If you’re thinking of trading in an Apple device so you can upgrade to something else, it’s definitely worth shopping around to see if you can find a better deal elsewhere. Based on this evidence, it’s unlikely you’ll find an attractive price from Apple.
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