WTF?! If you've ever taken something to a trade-in/pawn store, you'll probably know the pain of being offered a fraction of what you paid. But imagine handing over $52,000 for a Mac Pro and finding out the trade-in value is $970 just four years later. Who would perpetrate such a blatant rip-off? Step forward, Apple.
You might remember when Apple unveiled the new Mac Pro at its WWDC event in 2019. Designed for professionals, 3D artists, musicians, video editors, and other creatives, it starts at $5,999 but those who want the top specs can push that figure beyond $50,000.
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
David Imel, a researcher for tech YouTube channel Marques Brownlee, tweeted that they tried pricing the $52,199 Mac Pros at the company's office to determine their trade-in value. The machines can still be purchased from Apple's website, complete with Intel Xeon W processors and dual Radeon Pro W6800X graphics, for the same price, so one would expect Apple to offer a fair amount of that money for trade-ins. Sadly, the company thinks $970 is a fair amount.
Accepting Apple's offer would mean the Mac Pro price has depreciated by more than 98% since its purchase in 2019. You could always put the money Apple is offering toward a new iPhone 14 Pro or a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, though you'd have to pay the difference as both devices cost more than $970.
Apple is applying these generous trade-in offers to more than just Mac Pros. Another person tweeted that they were offered $720 for their late 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max, while a Redditor wrote that their base model M1 Pro laptop trades in at $725, marking a 63.7% drop in value in just a single generation.
Apple isn't alone in this sort of behavior, of course. Most companies will offer stupidly low trade-in prices on expensive goods that are only a few years old---you're usually better off selling them on eBay. But firms do occasionally offer promotions in which buyers are offered generous amounts for their old devices if they buy a specific product. Samsung, for example, offered up to $1,200 off the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and a free Galaxy Watch when trading in an old device, even one that was cracked.