Buy a Used Mac Tips - How to Not Get Ripped Off

Buy a Used Mac Tips - How to Not Get Ripped Off

With the recession underway, many of you might be holding on dearly to your hard earned cash - after all, Mac's aren't cheap. On average, a Mac would cost around two and a half times the price of a PC. Second hand Macs are just as good provided you know what you're getting.

Here are some useful tips while shopping for a used Mac:

The first thing to check for is the battery (if you're buying a laptop). It is usually pretty worn down by the time it gets sold. A new Mac laptop's charge would hold about three hours of juice while a used one will probably be much worse.

It's best to test out the laptop you're buying by installing the "Coconut Battery" app which will give you tons of information on the battery's status. You can easily upload the program onto a small thumb drive and take it along with you.

The next thing to do is find out if it's still under warranty. If you are lucky enough to buy a used mac that's still under warranty, you have truly struck gold. Apple only provide a default 1 year warranty on all their computers, but a customer may by "AppleCare" to extend their warranty by up to 2 years.

If something goes wrong with the hardware, Apple will do a part replacement for free (though you might have to wait in queue for a week to get things sorted out). Without a warranty in effect, replacements and labor costs will not be worth your while to buy a used Mac. Make sure the owner of the computer transfers their "AppleCare" warranty over to your name after you've paid for it.

The third thing that commonly goes wrong in a used Mac is the disc drive or optical drive. It's a good idea to bring along a couple of DVD's with you and play them to see if there are any problems with the drive reading the discs.

If all the above fails or you don't feel comfortable with buying a used machine in a private sale, then you could consider buying a refurbished Mac. You can find these available to buy online at the Apple store and also on other online retailers. Most of them have been through standard procedure check, and they also come with a 3 month warranty on parts and labor. This is a much safer option.

Before you put forth your hard earned cash to buy a used Mac, do some research and find out the market value of the particular machine you're after. How do you do this? You could go to Yahoo stores or eBay and look at the auctions going on there. It's the best way to determine the approximate value of the computer based on the machine's specifications and consumer demand.

Be wary of private sales where the Mac is way under valued. Second-hand Mac's dohave a tendency to hold a higher value compared to PC's, even older the older models. So it is unlikely that someone would sell you a Mac for a ridiculously low price. This is a sign that there's obviously something wrong with it.

Finally, don't get over-excited and jump in with your money. Consider also that you might need extra RAM for the used Mac, or you might need some extra peripherals like an external USB port, or a wireless modem.

Amy is a mother of two little girls and an avid Macintosh user. She has been using Macs for the past 10 years. In her spare time she also writes reviews on her websites on the topics of newborn baby clothing and preemie baby clothes.

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