Some advice and tips.
Nothing should be taken for granted and use at your own risk and discretion!
- If you can wait around, try and meet in person, or find a more local seller.
- See if you can transfer the original warranty - Apple Care especially, OR get a new warranty from a site such as SquareTrade or your local electronics store.
- Small splits are common, especially in the palm rest - this can be fixed or replaced
- Check for the legitimate reinstall disks for all software
- Check for all cords, look for scratches and any broken seals
- Look for any missing rubber feet on the underside - this will scratch surfaces if missing
- Make sure the screen isn't darkening at the edges - expect low screen life if it is
- If you can - ask for the serial number and check with Apple support to make sure it's under warranty
- Do a visual check for any major cracks/or broken screens. Maybe you can get it cheaper if it's still operational, otherwise screens are very expensive
- Do all the keys work and are not too sticky? Some wear and tear is ok. Do a quick typing test, such as "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" this phrase uses all the alphabet keys.
- Check the CD player, use headphones to make sure Audio works too
- Burn a CD if it has a burner
- Listen to the harddrive to make sure it sounds ok, if not don't buy it.
- SSD's, or Solid State Drives have a far more limited life than old spinning Hard Disks. Check the error count via SMART to make sure it's still healthy.
- Remember that all laptops life spans are usually fairly short!
Good Luck. Remember nothing is ever reliable.
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Secondhand Macbook | Macbook Pro - Advice and Tips