My Mum has just got a new MacBook Air to replace the MacBook she got in 2009. And she got the MacBook because she moved to a retirement village with not enough room to accommodate her iMac, which she passed on to a friend of mine who promptly had a stroke and never used it.
So are these ancient artifacts, from 2006 and 2009 worth anything?
It seems criminal to consign them to an environmentally friendly death, but really, what use are they to anyone?
Any suggestions?
Comments welcome
I don’t know about the 2006 model but I still use a 2010 MacBook Pro for some things. Admittedly, it’s a 17″ version and I maxed out the RAM to 16GB but it’s had light use and should go on for a few years yet. If they can be updated to a new(ish) version of OSX I would think a school or college could make good use of them. I donated some old PCs to a friend’s church where they have a volunteer who checks them over and passes them on to people who can’t afford to buy their own machine. As you say, better than going to landfill.
Yep – I’m posting this on a 2010 MacBook Pro. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. It’s running El Capitan like a dream, still handles some fairly weighty apps (mostly MainStage, which is very resource hungry).
Blank the thing and someone will happily buy it.
I do what dave’s friends do; recondition the software (i.e. remove all trace of previous owner and carry out a major decrapify) and then pass on via adverts on our local Freecycle group website, but only with Windows machines; never having owned an Apple lappy, I’d have no idea where to start.
Have you tried to find if there’s a local recycling group who will do the re-homing for you?
I’m still using a 2009 MacBook (only light use these days since I got an iPad!), but it still runs fine. It’s running Yosemite just fine apart from a long start up routine if it has been shut down rather than in sleep mode. Battery life has declined a bit, but I think my MacBook has got a few years life still left in it.
I think it should be possible to sell it on eBay, or to donate it to a charity. The main concern with that, though, is ensuring all private data is securely deleted/destroyed.
What everybody said. Gumtree is the least hassle if you want to sell them, and if you’re not looking for top dollar they should move fairly quickly.
I’m struck by what you say about your mother moving to a retirement village with not enough room for an iMac. The ads for these places make them look enormous; are they lying?
She could actually fit it in, yes, now that my Dad’s not around any more. But she loves her laptop, gets it out every day in the afternoon to check her email, the weather forecast and play Code cracker