happy, healthy, effective online living
Our church just broke ground on the construction of a new building on a patch of land we also recently purchased. Buildings are nice but they are only a means to an end for a church. The church isn’t the building, the church is the people in the building.
We had a fun time all together where the new structure will be, hopefully in less than a year. To see more photos I took from the celebration, see my Flickr set.
As both of my readers have no doubt noticed, I haven’t been very active online lately. Life ebbs and flows and it’s been ebbing more than flowing for some things of late.
Tonight my wonderful wife gave me a gift - an hour and a half to be all by myself at home (while it was still light outside!). I can stay up late - which I’ve been doing too much of lately - and be by myself, but my focus and energy are usually diminished.
Tonight my wife took the kids to our usual Wednesday night activities at the nursing home and I stayed home. I sat down at my desk and did one thing. It did involve my computer but just as a note-taking / info organization tool as I thought through and planned for a group discussion I’m going to lead on Saturday.
Refreshing doesn’t begin to describe the way I felt after being able to focus in a quiet, well-lit area without any other distractions.
One hour. One thing. No distractions.
It was like rain on a parched ground. I finished my thoughtful preparations. I got a sense of accomplishment. I relaxed.
We fill up our spare time and space thought cycles with so many extras that continually keep us distracted (see Twitter, RSS, tv, etc.) Multitasking can be valuable, but I’ve realized that you need to be able to have a time to do just one thing.
If you haven’t spent an hour doing one thing lately, give it a try.
As I mentioned, I’m now the proud owner of a MacBook Pro. I bought a MacBook new last year and loved it, but needed some more graphics power to do serious picture editing. I couldn’t afford a new MacBook Pro, however, so I started looking around for a used one.
I ended up with a great machine and I believe I got a good deal on it with a little work and some patience. There are certainly a lot of bad deals to be had, so perhaps the principles I followed can help you avoid some mistakes and hold out for the best deal.
Here’s my advice:
1. Look at places other than eBay. eBay has become so popular that there are people who are willing to pay crazy prices for stuff, probably just to feel the gratification of winning an auction. However, you can often find better deals on stuff from people who want to sell something quick and avoid the eBay fees. I always start with Craigslist and just check out what’s there. Look also for other sites that have classified ads - some blogs are starting to do this, along with some online merchants. If nothing else, just look at the selection and asking prices to get a good idea of the market.
2. Know the cost of a new one. When looking at used stuff, especially high-demand laptops like a MacBook Pro, it’s easy for the items to get bid up to a very high price - so high, in some cases, that it’s almost better to buy a new one.
I knew that I wanted a MacBook Pro - 17 inch was my first choice but I would settle for a good 15 inch. I checked around and found out that there were $150 rebates on new MacBook Pro’s, so I could get a new 17 inch core 2 duo for $2650 from Amazon with free shipping and no tax. Thus, it didn’t make much sense to pay $2500 for a used 17 inch core duo (which you can easily do on eBay). Similarly a new high end 15 inch MBP I could get for $2350 on Amazon.
I thus had my upper limits and decided that a good used model would have to come less than $250 off the new price to be viable. In other words, if a used one were within $250 of a new one, I’d buy the new one.
3. Know the specs. This is one of the most important things you can do when buying anything on eBay. For Macs, there are relatively few possible configurations that Apple offers, so it’s a bit easier than with PC’s. However, there are some important differences that aren’t always obvious between the models that you need to know to evaluate what you’re getting.
On the 15 inch MBP, there are currently 3 major revisions (A, B, C). Revision C, the current one, has the newer core 2 duo processors, while revisions A and B have the original core duo. Now, in each revision, the 15 inch model came with 2 choices of processor - Rev A had 1.83GHz or 2.0GHz; Rev B had 2.0GHz or 2.16GHz, and Rev C offers a 2.16GHz or 2.33GHz. So, if you see a 2.16GHz MBP, you’ll need to figure out if it is the high end Rev A or the low end Rev B.
Since the main difference between the high end and low end versions (other than the processor) is the video RAM (256M vs. 128M), it was very important to me to get a high end version with the additional VRAM. The best place I know of to see the details on all the revisions and models of Mac gear is the MacRumors guides pages - I used the one for the MacBook Pro and referred to it constantly as I looked at various offerings.
4. Always engage the seller. Always ask the seller a question, even if you think you know the answer. Usually there will be something you want to clarify about the listing, but even if there isn’t, it’s important to personally communicate with a real person who will potentially receive a large amount of your money.
You’ll be able to gauge how responsive they are, how polite or professional they are, how much they really know about the item they’re offering, etc. When communicating with the seller, be polite and courteous yourself and assume the best in the other person. But, keep your antennae up for anything that doesn’t make sense or suggests the person may not be 100% legit.
Remember that people get scammed all the time and the scams usually aren’t very sophisticated - a simple honest question and answer will keep most scammers away from you.
5. Check the serial number. An honest seller should give you the serial number of the Mac they’re selling if they believe you’re genuinely interested. If they don’t put it in their listing, ask for it.
Then, go to the Apple support site and enter it in. This will tell you 3 things: 1) whether it is indeed a valid serial number and a legitimate machine, 2) whether the basic specs the seller is quoting are true (be careful, though, as the Apple support site can be wrong about some things - the serial number on my new machine says it has a glossy display, when it really has a matte), and 3) the purchase date and when the 1 year standard warranty coverage will expire - you’ll have to buy AppleCare before that date if you want to extend the coverage.
Another interesting thing to do with the serial number is to use the Chipmunk web tool that some people in the Netherlands have setup that will decode your serial number and tell you the date it was made, the factory and possibly some other items.
6. Calculate your total cost. You’ll see a lot of choices on eBay of models that will come with different options - e.g. the amount of RAM. I wanted a full 2G of RAM, so when looking at systems that had 1G (the standard amount for the high end revision B model, which is what I ended up buying) I knew I’d have to add another 1G and so I added that cost to what I’d pay on eBay.
I created a spreadsheet on Google Docs where I tracked listings and added in the extra costs to get the machine to the baseline I wanted. I then compared the listings based on the final adjusted cost to see what kind of deal I was really getting. Also, don’t forget to add in the shipping cost.
7. Look for Buy It Now’s. On a popular item like a MacBook Pro, the auctions can get bid up right at the end. Some sellers add a Buy It Now option at a certain price, and they have an option of allowing you to make a counter offer. You should look at the newly listed items to find listings that others haven’t seen yet and you may be able to take advantage of a decent Buy It Now price or find a seller who is willing to negotiate with a counteroffer.
8. Look a lot and be patient. I actually became a bit obsessive over looking at eBay listings - looking at least twice a day for new listings and comparing the adjusted prices. I used RSS feeds on Criagslist as well to keep track of MacBook Pro’s being offered there.
I watched items and saw what the winning price was and compared it to the specs of the particular laptop. I looked it over and over and over until I knew exactly what was the lowest price I’d seen on a particular model, and what was the average price for that same model. I then knew right away what was a good deal and what wasn’t.
9. Buy based on market price, not original price. Remember, the price you pay for a used item should have absolutely nothing to do with what the seller originally paid for it. The price you pay for something used is determined by what someone will pay for it today.
The MBP’s with the core duo processor went down in market price when the new core 2 duo models were introduced, even though the new models had the same price as the previous models had. So what the person originally paid for it has nothing to do with what it’s worth today.
10. Most importantly, remember that if a deal seems too good to be true, it is. If you see something that is about 50% of what the going price is, then it’s most likely a scam. On a popular item like MBP’s where there are new ones being listed every day, you’re not going to see a huge variation in prices on legitimate items - the market just won’t allow it. Now, you may have a buddy that will sell you his for 50% of the market value, but that’s something different and just between you and your buddy.
I learned some of these things the hard way, and some I didn’t really think about until I completed my purchase. I think they helped me get a good deal on my MBP and maybe they can help you too.
You have any other tips? Let me know!
My Little Dirk Hosted on ZooomrI love to take my kids to the Galleria mall here in Dallas on Saturday mornings. If we get there before the stores open, we go down and watch the ice skating lessons. We then go up to the new little playground and play for a while. We usually have a “discussion” about getting some kind of edible or drinkable item, but always have fun.
If only the Galleria had an Apple store, we’d be all set. For that we have to go to either the Northpark or Willow Bend malls - they love to site on the iMacs and play I Spy.
For more photos from our time this past Saturday, see my Zooomr smart set.
Power Tool Hosted on ZooomrAfter seeing the MacBook Pro introduced over a year ago at the 2006 MacWorld, I knew right away that I wanted one. The cost was prohibitive for me, though. At the end of May, 2006, I was finally able to get a MacBook and then officially took the ranks of a Mac Switcher.
Going from a PC to a Mac was a quantum leap of effectiveness and productivity for me. It gave me an entirely new perspective on how I use a computer. Though I had been interested in photography for several years, it was after I began using a Mac that I was inspired to do more and get more serious about it.
Was it just because I was using a Mac? Not entirely, but the creative aura that surrounds the whole Mac experience really kind of got to me. I thought “I have a tool that a lot of creative professionals use” (or at least a tool related to the pro tools - the MacBook skimps on the video card and screen size) and so why couldn’t I try to do some of the same things? It was as if I had joined a creative community and therefore was inspired to be more creative myself.
I soon discovered, though, that the MacBook’s anemic video card, the Intel GMA 950 with its 64M of video RAM, just caved under the demands of image editing in Aperture. Adjusting colors, cropping, showing the loupe, adjusting levels would send both cores to 100% and I would get the spinning beach ball while it did its work. Aperture moves a lot of the processing to the GPU to offload the CPU, so it accentuates the shortcomings of any video card even more.
The 13 inch screen, while making the form factor of the laptop very nice for carrying around, limits the amount of stuff you can put on the screen at any one time.
It had gotten to a point that I was really slowed down in editing my photos and doing anything with them. It also just soured the entire Mac experience of power and elegance by having to wait so much for anything to work.
So, after more than a year of waiting, after making the switch to a Mac on a MacBook, I’ve taken the next quantum leap and upgraded to a MacBook Pro. I did a lot of watching the market on eBay, Craigslist and some other locations for used MacBook Pro’s - this took a lot of time and really distracted me from writing or doing much photographically over the past 3 weeks.
I finally found what I consider a good deal on a 15 inch, 2.16 GHz core duo with 256M of VRAM great condition MacBook Pro. I’m writing this on it now as my first post from it and I’m ecstatic.
Today I worked just a little bit with Aperture - importing images from my camera, searching for photos via metadata search, scrolling through photos in the just the browser and with the viewer visible. Wow, it just sings. It’s like I just got in a sports car after driving a 1993 Corolla around town - on strictly the graphics performance anyway. Overall the entire experience on the MacBook Pro seems smoother, faster, more responsive, but the main difference is on graphics-intensive items.
And, the backlit keyboard is very cool!
As a side note, I used the Migration Assistant for the first time in transferring my info from my MacBook to my new MacBook Pro - that is a sleek utility. It transfers everything - every setting, every preference, browser history, all items in the Library, every application, etc. I don’t think switching data between 2 computers could be any easier! Score another one for Apple and usability.
