I’ve had Macs for a decade now. Bought my first one (a G4 mini) after watching the this Jobsnote launching it in January 2005. I bought my second Mac in the summer of 2007, a black plastic MacBook.
In December of that same year we replaced the horrible plasticky Dell box in the Kitchen with a shiny new aluminium iMac. And there it has sat, running for more than 7 years.
It’s still going strong, it’s even running Apple’s latest version of OS X 10.10 Yosemite on that original hardware as it was delivered way back then.
The iMac served as our family computer and as a second DVR to our Sky+ box (using the excellent Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus). But now the family each have their own devices, laptops, smartphones and tablets and it’s no longer being used much.
A quick search of Gmail turns up my original order, I paid £1,111.55. I sold that machine yesterday for £325, returning almost 30% of the purchase price.
Box Down from the Loft & Ready for New Owner
There are few, if any, tech purchases you can make that will give that sort of exemplary service and still retail a significant value after so many years.
Mac’s are not cheap, but in this writers opinion they provide value for money. Bye bye iMac, you served us well.
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*chuckle* … In the spirit of the old Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles advert – it’s good but you should see the secondhand price of our kit. 🙂
Rather intreaguing, almost the reverse of my position.
I’ve been though a plethora of home assembled PCs using several (10 I can remember) Linux distros. Last year I bought a Mid 2007 iMac for £300 and replaced the HDD with a 500GB SSD. It is now set up to dual boot between OSX and Linux. I just need the time to install Linux.
So, what did you go to? Laptops, tablets and phones?
@Phil – Your Mad-Fi stuff is bonkers money 🙂
@Robin – This is still my machine of choice although I built a PC for a special use just last month (more on that soon). Rest of the family have MacBooks, iPads etc.
Couldn’t agree more, you pay for what you get, and as you say, years of use and a good return on the investment when all is said and done
“There are few, if any, tech purchases you can make that will give that sort of exemplary service and still retail a significant value after so many years.”
Sonos ?
@Craig – I’d say probably yes. You sold any used zoneplayers? What sort of prices did you get? Thanks
The original ZP100s (10 years old) still sell for £200-£250 on ebay, IIRC cost £300 new 10 years ago. That surely beats your 30% on the 7 year old Mac 🙂
@Criag – just had a look on eBay and the last 2 ZP100s old made £290 and £295! Incredible 🙂
Real return for your money?…check this out. I bought A science of Cambridge MK14 in 1979 ish for around £40. Had to make it myself but boy did i learn a lot about programming. sold it two years ago for £350!!!
@Simon – nice, but thats a whole different scenario.
I believe lots of tech will become valuable (the new antiques) once they are decades old and rare and significant. I have an original IBM XT in the loft I’m hoping will be valuable one day 🙂
@mark mac call , about Tech valuable We cańt forget the Macintosh Plus with his mouse , certainly thé Best antiques money can buy !