[chabig]

I have a friend who is a switcher, and although he likes his Powerbook, his family can't stand it. So he offered it to me.

It's a stock 12" Powerbook:
256MB RAM
40GB hard drive
No airport card
Combo drive

He's asking $1500, and I know it wouldn't be worth that much, BUT he bought the 3 year Applecare for it, and he's also transferring his Office license.

Do you think those last two items make the package worth $1500? I need advice.

Thanks,
Chris

[Luca Rescigno]

It's $1400 for a refurbished model identical to that one. AppleCare costs $350 for PowerBooks, and Office costs... well, don't take the price of Office into account fully, it's way overpriced. I think $1500 is an okay offer for the machine except it'll probably be updated VERY soon and as such it'll be worth less soon after you pick it up. If you buy it now, you'll be doing your friend quite a favor.

[chabig]

That's kind of what I was thinking. I have bought quite a few of Apple's refurbished machines and I very happy with them. You're right, that model is $1400. I didn't really know what the Applecare and Office would be worth.

I think I will at least wait until the end of next week before doing anything (just in case Sep 16th is magic).

Chris

[BkueKanoodle]

Apple care = 350 for 3 years, comes to about
$9.70 a month. Multiply 9.70 times eachmonth left on the apple care warranty and you have the value for apple care

Regardless of whether you think Office X is overpriced, it still has a retail value.Even considering that as a student it would cost you 199 it does have intrinsic value.

Lets say he bought his 12 inch when it came out, that would mean roughly 29 months left on the applecare. Thats a 282 dollar value, plus 199 for office and you have almost 500 dollars of non hardware value right there.

The greatest hit to the depreciation of that Powerbook came the moment he took it out of the box. Apple releasing a new version is not going to ding it that much.

A used wallstreet still sells for about 700 and thats 3 years old!

Even refurbed 12 inch base like that still retails for 1500 in the store.

What am I saying? Yes 1500 is a good deal. People have a tendency to devalue something in their own mind if its not the latest greatest, especially on these boards, but real world book value is usually higher.

Heres a used auction with an ae and an extra 256 but without the Applecare and office. right now its at 1500 and by the time it closes in 20 some hours I can bet it will be higher.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=14909

[Luca Rescigno]

I haven't seen used Wallstreets going for $700 except at PowerMax which is historically way overpriced for laptops. Normally they're more like $250-$450 depending on the configuration and the degree to which everything works. $700 is more like a price for a low end Pismo, a high end Lombard, a high end clamshell iBook, or a low end dual USB iBook.

Because of the Apple Care, $1500 is certainly a fair price. Apple Care is worth a lot. Office is worth something but I wouldn't add more than $150 or $200 to the value because of it. Incidentally, I just got Office v. X for free today from my school (although it's just a bare CD with the words "NOT FOR RESALE" on it).