How to exchange your MacBook, MacOS desktop or iPad

If you want to swap your MacBook, your iMac, your Mac desktop or an iPad for one of the new iPad Pro or Mac announced today by Apple, you risk getting a very good return . Apple's technology is known to retain its value long after its release on the second-hand market. That says a lot about the quality, but especially about Apple's durable software support for its older products. This trend is positive for both buyers, who will end up with a product that may continue to operate for years, and for sellers, who will make the bulk of their initial purchase.

There are many ways to redeem your old Apple products for cash, and whichever avenue you choose, you must first make sure your equipment is in good condition. You can easily get an additional sale of $ 50 to $ 100 if you have taken care of your technology because buyers will pay more for products closer to new condition.

Clean your equipment

The way you clean your Apple product varies a bit depending on what you are selling. You may want to apply a screen cleaner to your MacBook, iMac, or iPad before you sell it. In doing so, take note of any scratches or other flaws in the display and be sure to report them accurately during the sales process, otherwise you will likely encounter an unhappy buyer and no sales.

Remove all stickers from your technician and, if you have a can of compressed air, clean all ports and grilles. No more immediate reminder that your device is used than to forget to clean the trash port.

If you are selling a MacOS desktop computer, such as a Mac Pro or Mac mini, open it and gently remove the dust that has accumulated. If you want to add RAM to soften the transaction for buyers, you have a chance. It's an easy task if you have a 2013 Mac Pro or a mini Mac manufactured before the end of 2012. Unfortunately for my colleague Nick Statt, making improvements to his late 2014 Mac mini has proven much more complicated.

Perform a factory reset

Ensuring that your tablet or computer is properly cleaned is advantageous for both the buyer and the seller. What is the use of hardware that you can not access due to an unknown PIN? Depending on the product you are dealing with, the process of initializing the factory settings will be different, but it's easy.

How to clear your MacBook or MacOS desktop

On your MacBook or Mac OS computer, first make sure that all your personal files have been saved to an external hard drive via Time Machine or the cloud storage service of your choice. Once you have made sure that everything is duplicated and secured in a different location on your hard drive, you can clean your computer. Click on the Apple logo at the top and click restart. Once you have heard the start chime, hold down the Command and 'R' keys until the Apple logo appears. This will load you into the recovery partition of your hard drive, allowing you to erase your personal information once and for all.

Among the few applications available to you, open Disk Utility, and then click the first option listed under the name of your hard disk. If you do not change its name, it will probably be called "Macintosh HD". If you changed his name, you probably already know how to do all that. When this option is selected, go to 'clear' and confirm the selection. If you choose to clean your computer safely, wait a few hours for the operation to write to your drive several times.

Once this step is complete, you are ready to reinstall the operating system. Click on the red "x" to return to the recovery menu. Make sure your machine is connected to the Internet, then click "Reinstall MacOS" to restore the factory settings.

Picture of Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

How to erase an iPad

Before cleaning your tablet, enable iCloud to sync all the information you want to keep. Open the settings application and navigate to "General". Once you are here, scroll down to "reset", then press "clear all content and all settings". If prompted, enter your Apple ID password or password. run. It is much easier and faster to bring your iPad back to the factory settings than for any of the Apple computers.

Publish your Apple hardware for sale

So now you have cleaned your device inside and out. Now it's time to sell it and get some money that you can use to buy a new MacBook Air, a Mac mini, a new iPad Pro or something else. We've covered countless ways to organize a sale for your iPhone and the process is largely the same for selling your tablet or Apple computer.

You will meet enthusiasts from around the world who will probably be interested in your equipment if its price is good and in good condition. When it comes to where you can sell your technology, Swappa.com and Craigslist are still the best options, but for different reasons. If you sell a tablet or a laptop, you will want to use Swappa (it does not list desktop computers.) Unlike Craigslist, Swappa charges a fee to be able to post to its buyer market. This could be a blow for those who are trying to pull the last dollar from their sale. However, it should be mentioned that Swappa protects buyers and sellers with PayPal during the transaction process.

Comparatively, Craigslist does not distinguish between what you want to sell and does not charge you for listing your items. In fact, for better or for worse, it does not hold your hand at all. It will be up to you to set the meeting point, negotiate a price and finally decide how the money will be exchanged. It can be stressful, but also very simple and fast. I have had many good sales experiences on Craigslist, although you will always want to make sure you meet in public places and do not be afraid of an offer that seems too good to be true.

You can still use Apple's GiveBack sales service, which will give you Apple Store credits in exchange for your computer or iPad. On the Apple website, you can find out how much you can get for your device before sending it. You will simply need your serial number and access to its specifications to find the value. Apple will not pay you as much for your technology as it could be on the public market, but it's a good option if you just want to change technology without hassle.