Used Macs are getting REALLY cheap (Why I bought one!)

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Since Apple Silicon first started rolling out there's been a noticeable and steep decline in the value of used Macs, so much so that I was able to get this retina MacBook Pro for just $100 including shipping and taxes! This is a truly crazy time to be alive, and with just a bit of elbow grease we can try to get this machine up and running like new! This is a great time to be in the market for a MacBook, new or used!
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#tech #apple #mac

[@lukemiani]

Get 60% off System Mechanic Ultimate Defense with 30 days of FREE 24/7 Live Tech Support! Use code "LukeMiani" at www.iolo.com/lukemiani, and if you liked this video, make sure to clear your calendar for Genius Bar Goes Drk! Our one night only WWDC after party on June 6, you'll have the chance to meet me and hang out as we cover the latest announcements and more! Audience interaction, some giveaways, and a VIP meet and greet! Get your tickets at geniusbargoesdrk.com!

[@damilolaneal]

Love the video, how much would it cost me to buy it off your hands?

[@yoan67de20]

I really wanted to meet you but i live in France

[@audiobooksbd3529]

Luke, can I buy it from you brother? I need a laptop for study but don't have much money😔

[@onewizzard]

where do we buy your fixed projects?

[@gdubleu]

Luke Miani new video get this stuff called armour etch only thing that works 100% removing the coating completely. Takes 5 mins . Just make sure clean it all off otherwise it will etch into the aluminium top case when you close the lid .

[@theartistchair_]

What’s crazy is that 2019 16-inch MacBook Pros are going for $700 in decent conditions… Intel Macs are depreciating at crazy amounts

[@Blindtechnician]

Yeah, if I had more money I would be buying a brand new one instead of an Intel one.

[@bt7348]

M1 Macbook Air is still the sweet spot.

[@robertocanizares]

I bought one like this 2019-16” but it was a Great deception: once I update to last MacOS the laptop was always with fun at high speed and horrible sound 😢😢😢

[@RobertLevitPhD]

@@bt7348 Agree with you. I own one. But the 16 MacBook 2019--just bought one--is working great though one keeps an eye out for heat issues.

[@robertocanizares]

So I hadnto return the next day

[@vonkamps]

$230 on eBay got me a mid-2015 15” 2.8ghz, 16gb and dual graphics. Virtually zero cosmetic issues apart from what you’d expect on the bottom case and no delamination whatsoever. Knew what to look for and what to steer clear of, all thanks to you sir 👍

[@lattermanstudio]

My daily driver

[@BobbyWoody429]

Can you do power work on it?

[@ted356]

Luke does good work pointing out the best old Macs.

[@vonkamps]

@@BobbyWoody429 I got it mainly for light processing/editing of GoPro footage when I’m away from home, which it does just fine with so far. I did also upgrade to a 1tb nvme with sintech adapter.

[@BobbyWoody429]

@Neeowka and the best part is it’s not like the older Intel macs are now all of a sudden bad computers; it’s just the new ones are great so the Intel machines drop in price. Meaning fantastic deals all around

[@erick-nobre]

In Brazil Apple products are the most expensive in the world (in fact). They are usually sold for 3 times the value of the product in the USA. Currently a 2012 MacBook Pro is sold for about 700 dollars. An entry level MacBook Air M1 costs, converted from Real to Dollar, 2406.4 dollars.

[@possamei]

Simplesmente intankável o bostil

[@sihamhamda47]

Imagine a maxed out M2 Max MacBook Pro there, it would be about the same price as the new car, I guess

[@possamei]

@@sihamhamda47 14,273 USD for the maxed out M2 Max 16' MBP. It's 4400 USD just for the SSD alone.

[@britneyfreek]

yeah, it sucks hard here in brazil. but the problem is: people pay the prices.

[@Eddy_E.]

It’s cause the bad economy situation in Brazil, your boys above want a absurd high amount of taxes for products which are not produced in your own country… So it has exactly nothing to do with Apple itself… It’s by the exactly the same situation in country’s like India, when the government wants too much the company’s just take that back from you… And that’s cuz you have very big issues in the relationship between poor and rich people… In the whole world it’s the relationship that nearly 10% of the people have more or less 90% of the existing money, in country’s like India or Brazil it’s more an relationship of 1% have 98 or 99% of the money… That is the big issue with corruption and questionable laws…

[@BuckeyeStormsProductions]

I have been playing around in the early 2010's used market for about five months now. I've managed to get my Dad a 2012 MacBook Pro, myself a 2013 MacBook Pro, and my son a 2014 Macbook Air by learning how to interpret listings, doing some simple repairs and upgrades, and being willing to accept there are limitations. All in, for the 3, I am not even in a full $300. My next find is going to be Mac Mini to use as a server. I admit, it's kind of addictive.

[@chadwickhell]

Same, but also got a couple Mac Pro towers as well, they are extremely capable still and now dual booting Monterey and Windows 11(for gaming)

[@202true]

It’s fun to shop the used market

[@BuckeyeStormsProductions]

@@immanuel8760 thanks! I'll look into that.

[@MemelordSupreme]

careful with the 2011 models they were notorious for having gpus that would go out. There was a huge recall on them. most of the other ones are good though

[@BuckeyeStormsProductions]

@@MemelordSupreme thank you for that information.

[@JB-xz8pw]

Also, love the videos. I've been watching for probably 6 years, and you're the reason that I started refurbishing the old 2010 unibody MacBook pros. I've had a lot of fun doing it and your channel is great. Thanks

[@bryans8656]

Great find. For a few years, after I retired, I was buying unibody MBPs from that era, fixing them up, and reselling them. I never had a net gain but I made enough to mostly support my hobby. That was, until the M chips released and prices nosedived. I quickly sold off and gifted what I had left and invested that money in an M1 Mac mini, and I've been on Apple silicon ever since. But I do miss my hobby.

[@thenessh2807]

Don’t worry u can start soon like once m3-m4 chip start coming up

[@FidelCastro128]

M3 numbers will always increase.

[@thenessh2807]

@@FidelCastro128 yes which means m1 & m2 would have flooded the used market by then. Then it will slowly become like the iPhones where it can get very minimal updates hence buying second hand would be more worth the money.

[@MXCN_El1011]

@@thenessh2807 problem is that there isnt anything you can really do for the M class laptops in terms of fixing up/upgrading. Sure you could clean them up surface level or something, but there isn't the same level of repairability

[@thenessh2807]

@@MXCN_El1011 u can for MacBook airs m1 and 13 inch MacBook pros their displays are cheap and buying them with broken display are cheap too. Other models i agree there nothing much u can do then collect.

[@GregSplond]

It is because of Luke’s videos and OCLP that we are at this point. My first laptop was the 2013 MacBook Pro and since then I have gotten 4 more because of Luke’s videos. He took away the fear of repair and I thank him for it. The older MacBook Airs he used in high school prompted me to get one and change out the battery. If I am not editing I am using that one.

[@archimedepitagorico4283]

Still rocking my 17-Inch 2011 Macbook Pro with upgrades. Thanks Luke for inspiring me to find and repair one.

[@dylanlindsay1993]

im surprised your GPU aint dead yet! those are known for failing gpus! pro tip though use a fan control app n max out the fans! i had some early macbook pros 2007-2008 non unibody which were also known for bad GPUS but all i did was max the fans out and not one of those gpus died!

[@archimedepitagorico4283]

@@dylanlindsay1993 Oh no the GPU is dead. Just recently though in like October last year. I did upgrade it with SSD, 16 GB of RAM and removed the R8911 resistor that is responsible for the GPU's voltage rail. Doesn't get hot anymore thank god. I do use TG Pro as a matter of fact which is amazing.

[@MegaTechpc]

You’re forgetting the most critical secret to your success Luke; you seem to be about the luckiest Apple consumer alive! I mean, just about every video you put out contains some variation of “I found this completely busted Mac on EBay for $100 and after 20 minutes of cleaning and $20 of parts, voila! A perfect-condition MacBook Pro I can turn around and sell for $650!” I don’t know how you do it but I can pretty much guarantee that it in NO way, shape, or form will work out like that for me or literally anybody else. I find a “Parts Only” MacBook on EBay for $100 and I can virtually guarantee what I will get will be completely disintegrated, unrepairable, and a complete waste of $100. That’s reality.

[@raginald7mars408]

With an incurable DEEP Apple Allergy - I never even think of that ever

[@TobZeN666]

So true. Even ones in "workung condition" are usually worse than this one here in Germany.

[@guycortesi]

Two things - Luke, did carefully read the eBay description before he bought. He noted in the video that the only thing he noticed was that the Mac was missing an SSD. He took a chance that that was the main issue and he was correct. He notes that again at the end of the video. He noticed that the Mac had stickers on it that indicated this was a scraped business-use computer. Many scraped business computers are not trashed like personal use ones and are simply disposed of due to their age. Luke also provided some decent guidance in this video relating to cleaning off the pesky stickers often found on business computers, including the internal computer asset tag. Yes - Luke is lucky, but his luck is also based on minimizing risk. That said, he could have obtained a Mac with a bad battery or display, but this was just a run of the mill scraped business computer, and most are still ok - just fully depreciated.

[@mangakey]

Yeah but he doesn't show all the failures.. I used to flip laptops on the side (not macs but same thing ) it's like out of 10 el chepo laptops you order 8 of them are just junk so you return them 2 are hidden gems so you keep them and maybe clean them up a little wipe the os and data and in luke case make a vid or 2..

[@brahtrumpwonbigly7309]

@@mangakey this. He probably went through 5 to find this one.

[@alherrera9390]

I have the Late 2012 one, quite similar to yours. Installed Ventura on it (modified installer of course). I am a nodejs developer and there are certain things that are notoriously slower than a fairly new machine. But it does the job, and its screen makes it specially wonderful for design shenanigans. Fantastic machine.

[@deanzaZZR]

I "upgraded" from a 2015 15" MBP to a 13" M1 MBP at work. I love the M1 but I do miss the larger screen of the 15" MBP at times. The only issues I had with the 15" MBP was its bulk (not too bad either), running hot during the summer and the decreased battery life. $120 is a great bargain.

[@smbu]

Pretty good deal. You still do have to provide your own AC adapter in that case. I just picked up a 2015 13" MBP for fairly cheap. Had an expanding battery, but other than that it was in like-new condition. Upgraded i7/16GB/512GB model with box/accessories. I replaced the battery, re-did the thermal paste and swapped in a 1TB Apple SSD I had (512GB one went into my OWC usb case) and now it runs great. Cost me about $230 total including the cost of the battery. Definitely a great find.

[@lfroncek]

Not to mention you can always turn these old Intel Macs into pretty decent Linux machines...

[@chitan1362]

YES! This exactly.

[@sali-ali]

I agree I installed Linux Mint to my 2008 iMac and it's perfect for web browsing and youtube in 720p. With KODI I repurposed it as a IPTV.

[@Cloud007.]

Why though. I never understood the appeal of Linux. Can you enlighten me? Linux vs Mac os. Why would you choose linux over Mac os?

[@lfroncek]

@@Cloud007. If the Mac is no longer supported, then it may be the only way to get a current browser on the device. With linux, you can squeeze more years of use out of a laptop for the basic stuff.

[@sali-ali]

@@Cloud007. Actually unlike Windows and Linux, MAC and Linux are very similar, so there is no real reason other than most linux distros are more customizable and lightweight. But MAC is still very limited os, it's like making a choose between democracy and communism in many aspects. But I can honestly live with MAC.

[@phillipwaters7041]

I love these bargain/fix videos. I watch every one of them. Keep up the awesome content.

[@kollinkoko]

5:12 That's an asset tag that you see in work environments for tracking assets. They're meant to be difficult to remove

[@CamEtherTech]

yup. see em all the time at school but the kids still find a way lmao

[@erickondratieff4770]

Enjoying your comments on my mid-2015 15" MBP with 2.2ghz quadcore. Still works great for most of what I do... Thanks for another great video!

[@movdqa]

One nice thing about these older models is that there are much less likely stolen with activation lock. I see a lot of people buying newer MacBook Pros which are apparently stolen and unusable because they are activation locked.

[@tomwagner4516]

Long time sub, love it! I actually use my 2015 15” Pro over my MB Air M1 most of the time. Because it works better for what I need it for. These are perfectly usable for 99.9% of people and will be for years to come. Thank you!

[@hariboproductions]

Why is the pro easier??

[@mrrybicki]

Hey Luke, I picked up an early 2013 Macbook Pro 15 and patched it to Big Sur. Works like a charm! Thank you for inspiring videos like this.

[@reecewilson6067]

Still rocking my Mid 2015 Macbook pro. I bought this a few years ago after watching one of your videos. I had never been a Macbook user, now I will never go back. In the UK there are 2018 Macbook pros selling for £500/£600!

[@geekPlayground]

Great video. I bought an 2013 imac out of eBay for £75. It was listed as faulty because was dead slow. Actually the hdd was bad. I bought a 512GB Samsung SSD and that thing flies. The longevity of these computers is amazing. It's 10 years old and I love it. Cheers Pedro

[@GaneshJU]

Well done. Been watching for years and you keep delivering top content

[@be236]

I've always liked your videos.. so entertaining with your humor, opinions, insights and comments.. keep it up!

[@PaintballBoomer]

I actually just revived my 2012 MBP 15 with an SSD and RAM, and was so impressed with the performance I bought a 2012 Mac Mini and did the same. I'm dual booting PopOS and Catalina and it's fantastic as a day-to-day machine.

[@quasar.nebula]

I loved this video! It means so much not just for accessibility but sustainability too - _every single Mac_ made in the last decade and some, which hasn't been damaged beyond repair (and that's practically all of them) is still a device with so many uses today. As people trade them around or pass them onto relatives or friends, that's simply more people who have effective and high quality computers. It'll be really interesting to see what happens another ten or fifteen years from now. On one hand, Apple Silicon Macs will probably never naturally lose their value because they blaze through every single common use of an OS with unprecedented efficiency. But on the other, new Macs will keep getting made and eventually official support for the earliest M1/M2's will fade away, and most owners will probably be quite content having gotten 7+ years out of their purchase. The oldest ones will eventually be outdated, and that's when I'd like to think we'll see this all over again. It's a long game, but we've already clearly made huge strides since not so long ago :D

[@BubuBORG]

That’s the model MBP I got in 2014…it had battery issues but the system worked just fine…had 2 descrete GPUs and 16GB of ram…it ran Big Sur just fine. Gave it to my bestie when I got my M1 Air.

[@FDNY8231]

Just found an eBay (surprisingly) deal on one of these (MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.6 15" Late 2013) for $236 Grade B Condition. When I received it was in MY opinion Grade A ... Not a scratch on it. Just some screen delamination. I upgraded the 256GB SSD to an EVO Plus 2TB SSD and Macos up to Big Sur. I am VERY happy with the results. It's fast and does everything I need it to do. You just have to be careful with eBay though. Sometimes the deals are not so good, but I found the diamond in the rough.

[@travisbrown2459]

Mind me asking who you bought yours from on eBay?

[@krazykidmusic4954]

Watched on a 15 inch 2012 macbook pro non retina found in the trash (gtx650m dgpu). Threw 512GB of SSD storage and 16G ram in it with a macos ventura upgrade. The thing still performs surprisingly well in even harder tasks!

[@unboxingwithmarty]

These videos are fun to watch and good thing can happen with Macs, found myself a 2011 iMac at a garage sale for $20! It booted up, I added more ram and the thing is great!

[@RolandTreiberDesign]

Cool video indeed. I'm also an advocate for older Macs for specific purposes. I'm using a few of them for the following, to give an idea: - 2009 Mac Mini (Core 2 duo, 16gb ram, SSD upgrade) - use case: webserver (runs 3 websites, a self hosted web based invoicing tool for internal use, 2 apis for mobile apps). It is connected to a projector and is used for watching netflix. It is always turned on and has been running continuously since 2019. Costed exactly £30 - it wasn't supposed to be working according to the listing, but all it needed was an OS. - 2x 2011 MacBook Pros (both has 16gb of ram, optical drive replaced with a bay for an additional ssd and obviously upgraded to an ssd) - use case: software build pipelines, trying out linux distros, teaching kids to Photoshop and generic web browsing. The price was £80 each. Please note that these older machines will struggle under stress of using modern tools that expect more resources. I'm using way more powerful machines as daily drivers for my software development work. Still if I could justify stacking up more of these old but very reliable machines, I would do exactly that :)

[@SenoGaming]

This is really cool and shows how good you are at finding deals. Ive only ever found 2012 for cheap and retinas that are in bad shape. Still good flips but i havent found one i want to use for myself.

[@ColinKlupiec]

I have a mid 2015, 15" MBP, retina display, force touch track pad, all the ports etc., and still use it for light duty work or when travelling. I get incredible value out of it as it continues to age. Even had the retina display swapped twice by Apple under warranty after 'delaminate-gate'. So the display I have now is only 2 years old. What's not to like?

[@nazarhelvetius1423]

after watching your video about old MacBooks Air I got one from 2014, I'm so happy with it! For a fraction of price I have machine that does everything I need as a student and I don't have to worry too much about when carrying it all the time in a backpack

[@michaelkalbfleisch4492]

I bought a 2013 MacBook Pro with Retina display when it first came out. I think it was $1100.00 at the Ramstein AB BX and it has to one of the best value purchase I have ever done. I still use it to this day.

[@scottbeeler1532]

You can use goo gone to clean the sticky stuff off as well, just use a bit of glass cleaner afterwards to clean off the goo gone residue, works exceptionally well, and plastic razor blades help out as well

[@ColinsCity]

I bought a used 2015 15" MacBook Pro on eBay last year, I needed 1TB of storage so my pricing was never going to be low, the crazy thing is in Europe these can still sell for 800-1,000 euros, I eventually found one from a US seller and they said it was from an office setting, even with the import fees paid at the checkout I got it for 200 euros less than what I would have paid from European resellers, the MacBook arrived and it was in incredible condition, I would say A Grade. The price of apple products decrease so fast in America yet they retain much more value in Europe, you can still paid 1,000 euros for an iPhone 12 Pro/Pro Max.

[@budgetkeyboardist]

I'm watching this video on a 2012 i7 Mac Mini, which is currently my "TV" computer. Works great. It's true that Core 2 Duo chips these days can barely play KZbin videos, which I think is sad. But pretty much any i5 or i7 from the past can surf the web.

[@MrVizickles]

I actually never knew about the NVMe carrier cards you could put into these. I'm using a 2015 MBP with a 1080ti in a Thunderbolt eGPU enclosure. The Thunderbolt ports on these devices give them an extra level of versatility even if they're TB2 with Apples adapters and cables. I wish I new about the carrier cards before buying a 2TB external harddrive to use as a games drive. Still though those at least work and if the internal drive ever dies, well now I know!

[@zrt2575]

You have to really hunt for deals like that one, but they are there. After seeing this video I decided to give it a try, I got a decent deal - 2013 13" MBP high end (2.8GHz i7, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD) with 2 chargers for $165 shipped. I will either flip or sell to a friend. Only 33 charge cycles too! A few months ago I scored a 13" M1 with 16GB RAM with 1 charge cycle and all accessories (still had the display cover), and AC+ until 2025 for $700 because it was MDM locked, but the company who previously owned it was kind enough to remove the lock.

[@nelsonogram]

Wow, nice score. I like that you recognize that old Macs still have their uses.

[@iamkmark]

I had a 2012 MacBook Pro 13" that I'd fixed up and used for several years, and was eventually able to give it to a friend who needed a new computer and wanted to learn macOS. I was able to move up to a 2015 MacBook Pro 15" that only needed a new SSD, as well, and it's still an absolutely fantastic machine! Got it patched to Monterey and couldn't be happier. I always enjoy these refurbishing videos, because as amazing as Apple Silicon is, there is DEFINITELY still loads of value in the older Intel Macs!

[@trustme2001]

I have a MacBook pro 13-in 2015. And it's a great laptop never had an issue with it. Solid, screen looks great. Speakers awesome. Great for school or running a little small business

[@TheZaackTosswill]

I bought one of these used and it kept crashing within minutes of booting, took it to a shop and they showed me that someone installed a standard ssd drive with an adapter and thats why it was crashing, put an ssd into it that's actually made for mac and it works great. Be careful with those cheap adapters.

[@lucienluyt2729]

Brilliant! Loved this.

[@iPodee]

Old macs really are still usable. I still use a unibody MacBook Pro in school, I'm literally the only person with a unibody MacBook Pro. Everybody either uses the school chromebook, a Windows 10 laptop, an M1 MacBook Pro, M1 MacBook Air, or a retina MacBook Pro, and then there's me, carrying around a modded hackintosh-ed 2011 13" MacBook Pro.

[@petercdejong]

Yup, I got myself a MacBook retina 2013 2.6Ghz 16gb ram and 1Tb SSC for 180,- and patched it to Ventura. Great value!

[@reread2549]

I’m still using a 27” inch screen IMAC, 15” 2014 invidia GPU MacBook Pro, and a 15” 2015 MacBook Pro. All with Intel quad cores, ssd drives and at least 16 gigs of RAM. They all run fast for my use Music production running Monterey. I spent about $1200 total for all three renewed from Amazon. Everyone of them looks like new, no scratches. All the screens are great. I got rid of all my windows PC’s except for one that I run Linux Ubuntu on. I am very happy running trailing edge, Macintosh technology.

[@Neo_AIO]

One note i'd like to make is that these end 2012 beginning 2013 15" models suffer of the same issue which is the solder joints on the chip responsible for gpu power cracking. The board model is 820-3332 and the fix is quite simple, taking off the chip, cleaning the old solder on the pads, applying new leaded solder on the pads and reinstalling the chip the correct way. The simptoms? Screen going black sometimes without reason. You're welcome.

[@pedrolopezortiz]

I have got a macbook pro retina 2013 with the i7, been using it almost daily since I bought it and it goes like a bullet after almost 11 years. Best buy ever

[@LarryGanz]

Still using our 2012 1st Gen rMBP that was bought on launch Maxed out at 16GB RAM / 768GB SSD. This thing is very useful, with GT650 GPU. Only problem is one keyboard backlight LED around the D or F key is out, but the other LED still light up that area. On it's second battery too.

[@ASobhi92]

The Late 2013 MBP is actually my daily driver lol running Ventura Luckily I bought it maxed out brand new and it’s still blazing fast

[@brendomiryr]

Love your content Luke

[@Hopmad]

Still using my 27” iMac 2009 after removing the DVD drive and replaced with a solid state hard drive. And added more RAM. ACTUALLY boot up faster than originally back in 2009. 24 seconds. Works great for browsing, streaming and home server.

[@alfonsozampogna2193]

With the cost of living I’m loving these type of videos and it’s amazing to see older macs have plenty of life

[@54tristin]

Best place to find these?

[@audioslaverockband]

@@54tristin eBay or Amazon

[@MyNameIsNeo81]

Few weeks ago I bought MacBook Air A1466 with 8 GB RAM and SSD 128 GB. MacBook is in very good condition. It was a broken MacBook.. Fault was in bad type partition used to Mac OS.. so he can't install OS.. I deleted partition and maked new one.. and Mac OS installed perfect :) Cost 48 $

[@zanaghahramani8680]

FINALLY The type of video that I subscribed to you 3 years ago ❤

[@thedumbdino9224]

11:04 I was using my 2010 iMac for a long time until I decided to get myself a M1 MacBookAir and I still love my Old iMac to this very day.

[@SarduseuSutidu]

I do remove the staingate /Delamination) as a service. The display becomes neat like a mirror.

[@RobertLevitPhD]

I currently own just the model Luke "restored". I own other Macs but this is one of the best. I would recommend it especially for a reasonable price even though it may be IOS limited. I would expect 3 years more use---at least.

[@blarghblargh]

My partner and I have been using our 2013 MBP 15" models since they came out. I only had to replace my screen because I fell asleep and dropped it on the floor while open. Theirs is still practically spotless, besides a very tiny bit of keyboard key shaped delamination in the middle, that you can't see on direct angles. Still run reasonably fast, and the trackpads are going strong. I bet the hardware will last 5+ more years, if well cared for. May have to install Linux once Apple etc stop making software available for it.

[@RobertLevitPhD]

Glad you had a good experience. Only limitation for us amateurs is the Mojave/Big Sur limitation, but frankly, for what I do--that's just fine. Wonder how long it will last. Still use a 2009 Pro also and it's getting a little tired!

[@deirdreryan7402]

I have this laptop and I still love it. It “may” need a new graphics card which I’m not sure I can replace or not. I have a 13” M1 MacBook Pro and the thing I hate is the lack of the magnetic power cord. And the SD card insert on my older machine is a huge plus. The main reason I got the newer machine was primarily the weight for the type of work I do.

[@dkmillares]

Liked the song in the cleaning process!

[@aykhanislamzade]

I bought a 2016 13 inch Pro touchbar for $190 and it had flexgate. I am using an external monitor but I found out getting a new screen to even install myself is so expensive 💀

[@SoldererOfFortune]

I've been using a late 2013 MBP 15" 2.7GHz/16GB/500GB since I bought it in 2015 for work and personal stuff. One new battery and no issues. It is an awesome laptop.

[@Jake-xx9xq]

I have the Ifixit battery and its crap after one year. Did you find a better battery?

[@tibelchior]

I bought an iMac 5k 2015 last week for 300 Euros, because of the screen. But it looks so good, so well kept, that I decided to not convert it to an external monitor. It looks amazing, I just updated the processor and ram to the maximum for less than 100 Euros

[@terencetan5712]

Still using my mid 2014 15 inch MacBook Pro. 2nd battery( the guy who changed it the first time stripped a screw) changed speakers just upgraded from 512gb to 1tb. Probably going to use this for another 2 years for development work. Since stuff moved to the cloud, you just need a good screen to do dev work.

[@miskaknapek]

writing this form a MBP 15" late-2013 :D has been working perfectly well, well, for almost ten years, except for a battery change two years ago (150 euros cost). love this, and love the models. they're super great. super great screens. if you're doing data science, these things are still pretty fast, and can sit and do your crunching when you're doing something else, or on a different computer. I bought a Microsoft Surface Book 3 two years ago, and it feels slower than the 10 year MBP.

[@Drewiss]

In January of 2020 i bought a 2009 Macbook for $200 with a bunch of software on it, upgraded ram (8 GB), and an SSD. Even at the time, I still think I got a little ripped off but it wasn't by much. Now I look at these videos, and it's crazy to see what you can get for less than $200! Anyone looking on the used market today is super lucky considering how many great deals there are lol

[@accordinglyryan]

My first brand new Mac was a Late 2013 15" rMBP, which I still have actually. One of the best generations of MacBook Pro for sure.

[@sunshine48213]

My 2015 i just bought off eBay this week for 301 was spotless..2.5 16 go ssd 512..i was so nervous when i opened the box but to my amazement it was in perfect condition with the box and both charging cords

[@gcaldwell012]

I love your channel. It’s always very informative. Also I want to add if you don’t get an original equipment hard drive for your Mac you will have problems because I did the same thing. I got an adapter and I got a regular and NVME SSD, and my Mac reboots constantly because apparently there’s firmware in the original equipment SSD that is lacking in an aftermarket SSD so I’m gonna have to spend a boatload of money to find a replacement hard drive from Apple, so it won’t continually reboot

[@victorumeling5299]

I have been really lucky with these. Have bought several 2012 i7 mb pros for around 60-80 $ cleaned them, repasted and put in 1tb ssd’s which i have gotten used for around 20-30$ and sold them for like 250-300$ because professionals like to use them. Newest project is a 2016 15 inch touchbar mb pro i got for 213$ fully functioning except the touchbar, 3 sticky keys and a bad battery. Just bought a new top case with working touchbar and keyboard + brand new battery for 100. Gonna put it for sale for like 650 again in a couple days

[@mandrax5472]

I've always gone for older macs. I even have an old Power PC MacBook so that I can run a CD that I use for training. And I always want to use AppleWorks (formerly ClarisWorks) the fantastic suite that absolutely has no equivalent today.. I subscribe to the 'dustbin of progress' concept where 'more is better'. After checking out a new mac in the Apple store here in Osaka I was moved to write to Tim Cook about the 'dustbin of progress' and asked him where it would end - more, more, more - even the system preferences has subdivisions now. I though the mac was originally designed to be more simple than a PC and you didn't need training because it was all so intuitive.

[@danielkirsch4351]

Hi Luke, great video and nice surprise. Have this same one with dedicated graphics card and love it ! BTW, which sad adapter do you recommend? Thanks

[@davidbillberg2203]

Finally back to looking at old computers. Nice

[@slalomie]

The retina MBPs and the pre-retina Air were workhorses. My 2013 Air is still going strong after replacing the battery. The things to watch out for is water damage, activation locked machines and loose or broken hinges. Also retina Pro batteries are glued and a pain to replace.

[@Jake-xx9xq]

It's not just the glue but its damn near impossible to find a decent battery for my 2015 Macbook Pro

[@ficcaflame]

That is a win win! I hope they continue to get cheaper and cheaper in price.

[@nathanafi]

macbook pros are incredible computers. I am literally still using my mid-2012 pro, now 11 years old. only replaced the battery once, and 2 harddrive cables over 11 years. crazy good quality machines

[@KRS174S]

Excellent video!

[@benjamindry3516]

I managed to get a fully working, decent condition 13inch 2019 MacBook Air for £600 ($750) and I love it. I adore it’s thin and light design and I don’t mind it not being M1 or M2 since all I really use it for is typing word documents and KZbin viewing. It’s fantastic and I’m so glad that I bought it.

[@jtandrew]

Nice find! It's frustrating that I have a 2015 27" iMac that appears to have a bad logic board... to fix it would be at least double the cost of what you just did. Honestly, I would be happy to use it as a display :)

[@iosifd2409]

Still using my 2011 17 inch , basic browsing , office , movies etc , it's just the wonderfull retro mac experience

[@vrucewayne]

Absolutely a great point, challenge is finding good deals in the rough esp when you live in tech san francisco.

[@HisameSymouri1995]

I just bought my first macbook pro the other day and I am loving it. I found an early 2011 macbook pro 13" for $120 and it even has been upgraded to 8GB of ram and a 1TB 7200rpm HDD. I hope to find a 15" macbook pro someday, hopefully slightly newer and around the same price. I am also going to be upgrading to an SSD and 16GB of ram for this 13" and i hope to get a 2013 or 2012 15" at least so it has a disk drive.

[@charlestodoroff6498]

I bought a 2014 Mac mini with an i5 and a 1 TB HDD for use as a media server for $92-total on eBay 2 weeks ago. It's not my daily driver but it does media very well.

[@jaycie4760]

I adopted a 2015 MacBook Air that I got for free, it has a broken screen but it boots fine and connects to an external display. I updated it to Monterey, and it works beautifully!

[@JoeBot21]

It is also possible that Big Sur likely going EOL later this year is effecting the resale value of this generation of macs. Certainly looks like it could make a good value linux machine though.

[@ted356]

Glad you’re taking time to do this. I recently got a MBP 2015 15” Retina for $100 without a storage device at a local thrift store. Picked up a used Apple SSD 512gb for $50. For about the price of a Chromebook, it’s working and runs Monterey just fine.

[@usernameiphone3gkid]

2015’s got recalled for bad batteries so beware. Happened to mine.

[@j.jester7821]

I am watching this on a 2011 iMac running high sierra. cant update the os anymore, but it still works great.

[@celestemangonya]

I just got a 13" Late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro for $150 total ($100 for the laptop, $50 for an NVMe SSD and adapter since it only had 128GB), but the thing is in absolutely mint condition. like no wear on the keyboard, 88 battery cycles (less than half that of my 2020 Intel MacBook Pro), 97% battery health, not even a scratch on it. I got it from my sister, and it was running the original install of Mavericks with basically no files or apps on it, so I'm pretty sure she got it and literally used it like 10 times and it sat in a laptop bag somewhere for the vast majority of it's life. It runs Ventura at an actually acceptable speed, the only bottleneck is the 4GB of ram, but even that doesn't slow it down ridiculously.

[@traviszick]

I got a mid 09 13” pro for 65 bucks! Super fun! Love that the prices are so good right now

[@RCALivingStereo]

I’ve bought and fixed like 10 MacBook pros 5 were retinas. Many all they needed was a new hd which I put in a ssd anyways Ones I’ve bought are 2012-2016 Many good deals out there

[@MauriceMercado]

WOw!!!! thats cool. Man I need one for my son for school. Thats a really great find. I recently brought my 2009 imac back to life by baking the GPU.

[@davidpayneii289]

Plain-old disinfecting wipes will take off that delaminating anti-glare coating. It takes some work, but it does the job VERY well.

[@hillstones]

The barcode looks like a company issued asset tag. Explains why the SSD was removed. Great find.

[@BriantDavis78]

I did a similar thing with a 2017 macbook air that my friend gave to me. Got a dataram nvme and installed Monterey and good to go! It was a $50 dollar project.

[@LeeStewart]

I bought the same year 15-inch MacBook Pro three years ago for £200 and despite upgrading the storage, replacing the battery and removed the lamination which was already beginning to peel, it was plagued by crashes caused by the dual-graphics card. I tried getting it fixed at a third-party repair shop, but the issues remained. I eventually sold it to an unwitting person for £200.

[@jellyjordy1154]

I remember a few years back in got a used mac because of you! It was a mid 2012 unibody MacBook Pro, had a 128gb SSD and 8gb of RAM for $500. I’ve had it for 3 years now and it finally kicked the bucket. I might get a retina MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air for $100-$150 on eBay as my next computer. Thanks!

[@zzz-cb3xe]

I have one in great condition, with new battery, barely used. Sat in my drawer most of its life because i needed a windows laptop. I will sell for $399 because of the new battery and condition. Let me know if you are interested

[@kjamison5951]

Based on your videos, and a friend who pushed me into Facebook marketplace, I picked up a 2011 MBP for $120. I use it at work for accessing and configuring internet routers. I dropped in 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD for resale value later. And then recently, I picked up a 2012 MBP with an i7 processor and I’m upgrading that to 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD. And I bought a 2015 MBP with 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD stick eight years ago that still runs great. I’ve upgraded the storage to a 1TB SSD stick but the RAM is soldered. And a MBA for $100 that has some issues I am still resolving. I’m hoping a new charging board will fix that.

[@FigWidIt]

I've actually been wanting a 2015 Macbook Pro 13 as an upgrade from my old 2013 Macbook Air. I already have the M1 Mac Mini as my desktop but would like a retina screen for my secondary device.