William Gallagher
Apple accepts the 2019 Mac Pro in trade-in for any new Mac, but the fraction users can now get of their original purchase price won't buy an M2 Pro Mac mini.
If a buyer spent $53,000 — without display — on a full-configured Mac Pro in 2019, well, they presumably needed it. They presumably had the budget too, and they have also now had a couple of years in which to enjoy it.
Even though Apple has delayed replacing it with an M2 Apple Silicon processor, though, there's no question that one is coming. Consequently new users are best off waiting — but surprisingly, existing users are probably best off keeping their machines.
That's because the trade-in value that Apple will give for a 2019 Mac Pro is minuscule, according to Twitter user David ImeI.
Just tried pricing out our $52,199 Mac Pro's at the office for trade in, which you can still buy from Apple, $52,199.
— David ImeI (@DurvidImel) January 17, 2023
What else has dropped 50x in value in 3 years.. besides crypto? pic.twitter.com/pRESBQBoT4
Apple isn't the only firm to offer trade-in prices, and of course a Mac Pro user could try making a private sale. But if there are no general figures yet for sales and alternative trade-in firms, that drop in value from Apple is precipitous.
Possibly it feels more so because of the line "trade it in for a gift card." You can get Apple gift cards for up to $2,000.
But it's the image of replacing fifty grand of hardware with a single, emailed redemption code that hurts.
Imel looked into his potential trade-in value as Apple released the new Mac mini. His quoted $970 would buy a base model M2 Mac mini, but he'd still be over $300 short on the price of the M2 Pro model.
Of course, Imel works for Marques Brownlee — YouTube's MKBHD. The Mac Pros have already paid for themselves several times over, which is the entire point of "Pro"-grade hardware actually used by professionals.
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Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Andrew Orr
19 Comments
I’ve been waiting for the new Apple Silicon Mac Pro to drop to see how it affects the used market price of the 2019 Intel Mac Pros. I’m interested in a workstation that can handle at least 1.5TB in main memory and have been looking at the Z8 which can handle up to 3TB but even though the engineering software I would be using runs on Windows it would be nice to also be able to run macOS.
Does anyone ever purchase a computer expecting a return on investment? Maybe he should complain about losing $20k driving a high-end car off the dealer lot too 🙄
This can't be real. In 2021, I traded in my 2017 iMac 27" (not a Pro iMac) for an M1 iMac and received $1200 in trade-in value from Apple. No way does a $52,000 Mac Pro workstation depreciate to $970 trade-in in three years. NO. WAY. Let's remember that simply putting wheels on the Mac Pro is a $700 option.
FYI: Apple's web site clearly says that the maximum trade-in value for the "computer" category is $1250. Should be obvious that a $50K system isn't the intended target for this kind of program.
This entire article is totally whacked. If anyone was offering up used 2019 Mac Pros configured at the price levels implied in this article there would be lines of resellers around the block to snap them up. The Pros in the 50K original price range are still magnificent machines for software development for any platform you desire. These "old" machines would be a dream platform for running multiple Windows 10/11 VMs.
I would also assume that the vast majority of people who buy machines of the caliber of $50K Mac Pros use them for generating revenue that greatly exceeds the cost of the Mac - plus they depreciate the Mac over whatever the depreciation schedule is for this type of business purchase, probably in the 5 year range depending on gov't incentives. Unless you're giving your kids brand new Ferraris for their 16th birthday, and there are plenty of people who do, these are business tools that get purchased for precisely calculated economic reasons.