Buying a Mac around Sept. 22: secondhand until the new machines ship, list price after

As of Sept. 16, 2026, nothing new arrives before Sept. 22. Apple’s U.S. store dates the M6 and M5 Pro Mac minis and the M5 Max and M5 Ultra Mac Studios available starting 9.22, and when we read it that day it listed no M4, M4 Pro, M4 Max or M3 Ultra configuration at all. For the six days left, a Mac in hand means secondhand or retail stock already on a shelf.

Asking prices for the four models Apple replaced are down 11.9% across 134 matched offers, comparing each offer’s last ask on or before Aug. 25 with its latest ask through Sept. 15; the median offer fell $103.26. That is what waiting has paid so far. It is not a forecast of what those asks do once the replacements ship.

This page is a fulfillment comparison: what can be in your hands, when, and at what price. Our announcement-day used Mac price panel tracks the broader movement in asking prices.

The Aug. 25 tables below are kept as that day’s reading and labelled where they were not re-checked. Jump to what waiting has cost or to what changes when the new Macs ship.

Mac prices and delivery dates before Sept. 22

On Aug. 25, 2026, the cheapest base-configuration M4 Max Mac Studio we found was $2,689 used, $190 more than the $2,499 M5 Max that replaces it — and the M5 Max is new and faster. The cheapest new M4 Max shipping that day was $3,000, $501 over the M5 Max. The Mac mini side was friendlier: the M4 Pro mini was in stock at major chains at or below its $1,599 list, $129 under its successor’s $1,699. The squeeze was a Studio problem.

Config	Cheapest new shipping then	Cheapest secondhand	Replacement, from
mini M4 16/256	$899	$650 used	M6, $899
mini M4 Pro 24/512	$1,570	$1,395 used	M5 Pro, $1,699
Studio M4 Max 36/512	$3,000	$2,689 used	M5 Max, $2,499
Studio M3 Ultra 96/1TB	—	$5,250 used	M5 Ultra, $5,499

The first three columns are the Aug. 24-25 reading and were not re-run on Sept. 16. The replacement prices are Apple’s announced starting prices for the base configurations, re-read Sept. 16 in its Aug. 25 announcements for the Mac mini and the Mac Studio. All four are dated Sept. 22.

Our Aug. 25 tables carried Oct. 5 and Oct. 12 dates for the two Mac Studios. Those were the delivery windows apple.com quoted for a new order that day, not Apple’s announced date: the Aug. 25 release dates both Studios available starting Sept. 22, and the store still showed available starting 9.22 on Sept. 16. We cannot say what a new order placed today is quoted, because the store pages we read on Sept. 16 displayed no delivery estimate to us.

Can Apple deliver a current Mac before Sept. 22?

No — and on Sept. 16 Apple was no longer selling the machines the question is about. Its Mac mini and Mac Studio store pages that day listed only M6, M5 Pro, M5 Max and M5 Ultra configurations, and a direct link to an M4 base-configuration Mac mini resolved to that same new lineup rather than to a product page, a redirect notice or a not-found error.

Outgoing model	List, Aug. 25	Quoted delivery, Aug. 25	In Apple’s store, Sept. 16
mini M4 16/256	$799	Oct. 1-8	Not listed
mini M4 Pro 24/512	$1,599	Oct. 1-8	Not listed
Studio M4 Max 36/512	$2,499	10-12 weeks (about Nov. 17)	Not listed
Studio M3 Ultra 96/1TB	$5,299	13-14 weeks (about Dec. 1)	Not listed

On Aug. 25, ordering an outgoing model from Apple meant it arrived after its own replacement — about six weeks after, for the M4 Max. On Sept. 16 that order cannot be placed at all. Both readings answer the same way: Apple is not a route to an M4 or M3 Ultra machine before Sept. 22. Not listed describes Apple’s own store on Sept. 16 and says nothing about chains, resellers or refurbishers, which still hold stock.

The lowest configuration Apple’s store listed on Sept. 16 matches each replacement row above: M6 at 16GB/256GB, M5 Pro at 24GB/512GB, M5 Max at 36GB/512GB and M5 Ultra at 96GB/1TB.

The Aug. 25 retail reading found the same pattern away from Apple. CDW’s M4 Max Studio listing read item backordered. Sweetwater’s read temporarily out of stock, with a Sept. 30 estimate. One specialist reseller showed both Studios at list and in stock on Aug. 24; by the next evening, both listing pages returned not-found errors. A list-price M4 Max was a price on a screen, not a machine in a box.

The M3 Ultra rows in that reading are thinner — four secondhand listings — and wider. The cheapest used ask, $5,250, sat just under Apple’s $5,299 list. The median of the four was $6,437, and a refurbisher asked $6,975 with one-to-two-day shipping. The M5 Ultra starts at $5,499.

Which Mac minis can ship before Sept. 22?

On Aug. 24-25 the M4 Pro mini was in stock at four chains — $1,570 at Costco and Walmart, $1,599 at Best Buy and B&H — with two-day and next-day shipping. No premium, no wait, $129 under the M5 Pro’s $1,699. We did not re-price those chains on Sept. 16, so treat the figures as that day’s reading rather than today’s.

The base M4 mini sat closer to the line in the same reading. B&H had it at the $799 list on Aug. 25; by evening the same listing read $899 — exactly what the M6 costs. Other at-list listings were marked unavailable, and in-stock big-box asks started at $1,050. Used was the one channel clearly under list, from $650. Our tracker’s Sept. 15 catalog put the median M4 mini ask at $820 across 445 offers, a figure that spans configurations and conditions rather than the exact 16GB/256GB machine.

What waiting has cost, by machine

Across the four models Apple replaced, 134 offers our crawler priced on both sides of the Aug. 25 announcement are down 11.9% through Sept. 15: 101 ended lower, 24 unchanged and nine higher, with a median change of −$103.26.

Model	Matched offers	Total change	Median change	Replacement, from
Mac mini M4	69	−5.7%	−$50	M6, $899
Mac mini M4 Pro	19	−11.3%	−$200	M5 Pro, $1,699
Mac Studio M4 Max	29	−12.5%	−$400	M5 Max, $2,499
Mac Studio M3 Ultra	17	−14.6%	−$500	M5 Ultra, $5,499
Intel-era Macs Apple did not replace	112	−3.9%	$0	—

The four machines Apple replaced fell while the 112 Intel-era machines it did not replace barely moved, 32 of them lower and 72 unchanged. That makes the Intel row a comparison group rather than proof that the announcement caused the decline. The base mini is the row where waiting saved least, a $50 median drop across 69 offers. The M3 Ultra row shows the largest median drop, $500, but it rests on 17 offers that move in $500 steps; read that row as a direction, not a price. The M4 Max Studio is the largest well-populated row, a $400 median across 29 offers, 27 of them lower. Every figure here is an asking price, not a completed sale.

Our announcement-followup panel reported a 10.7% decline across 127 matched offers through Sept. 5. That is the same method with an earlier comparison date; the panel has since grown to 134 offers as more of the same listings were re-observed.

Should you buy a Mac now or wait?

With six days left, a machine in hand before Sept. 22 means secondhand or in-stock retail, and Apple’s own store has stopped offering the third option: on Sept. 16 it listed no outgoing configuration to order at any delivery date. On Aug. 25 that week cost at least $190 over the M5 Max for an M4 Max Studio, while an in-stock M4 Pro mini at $1,570 sat under its successor. Asks for the M4 Max Studio have since fallen a $400 median, so price the specific listing in front of you against the M5 Max’s $2,499 rather than against our Aug. 25 figure.

For anyone who can wait, the used asks for the machine they would have bought are lower than they were three weeks ago, by a $50 median at the base mini and $400 at the M4 Max Studio. If you land on secondhand, our M2 Pro versus M4 and M6 comparison prices the two used minis against the $1,099 M6 at equal memory and storage.

Apple’s prices and ship dates are published commitments. Everything else here is an asking price on a particular day. We are not projecting where asks go next — this window between announcement and first deliveries has no recent precedent under a supply shortage.

For the value comparison beyond delivery dates, see our Mac mini and Mac Studio price-performance analysis. If you still need to pick a Mac mini, match your situation to a buying route. The matched panel behind these tables is rerun daily; the Aug. 25 tables stand as that day’s reading.

What changes when the new Macs ship

From Sept. 22, the timing question disappears and a price question replaces it: every replacement is available at a published starting price — M6 mini from $899, M5 Pro mini from $1,699, M5 Max Studio from $2,499, M5 Ultra Studio from $5,499 — and the outgoing M4, M4 Pro, M4 Max and M3 Ultra are secondhand goods that Apple itself no longer sells new. How long any given configuration takes to arrive is a separate matter; Apple’s store displayed no delivery estimate to us on Sept. 16, and we quote none.

To choose between Amazon, B&H and Apple for a specific memory and storage configuration, and to see which tiers only a custom build reaches, read where to buy a new Mac mini.

If you own one of the four replaced models, three dated observations point the same direction. The 134-offer matched panel is down 11.9% through Sept. 15 while the 112-offer Intel comparison group moved −3.9% with a $0 median. Apple’s store listed no new M4, M4 Pro, M4 Max or M3 Ultra configuration on Sept. 16, so the remaining new supply is whatever channels already hold. And replacements arriving in September put the machines they replace onto the secondhand market. We are not putting a number on how much further asks move, because we have not measured a single post-ship day.

Here is the pre-ship baseline the next reading will be measured against. These are our tracker’s Sept. 15 catalog figures, across all configurations and conditions, so they are not comparable with the exact-configuration prices in the Aug. 25 tables above:

Outgoing model	Offers, Sept. 15	Median ask	Lowest ask
Mac mini M4	445	$820	$573
Mac mini M4 Pro	118	$1,745.36	$1,149
Mac Studio M4 Max	122	$3,079.06	$1,949
Mac Studio M3 Ultra	88	$7,425.84	$721

A lowest ask is one listing, not a market price: the $721 M3 Ultra ask sits far below the rest of that pool, and a single outlier that clears our filters is still a single outlier. The medians span memory and storage configurations, which is why the M4 Max median sits above Apple’s old $2,499 list for the base machine.

Our tracker runs daily and its latest reading is Sept. 15. The first run that can contain a post-ship asking price is Sept. 22’s, and the first full day of them is Sept. 23. Until one of those runs is in, there is no post-ship reading on this site, and any percentage claiming one is not ours.

The instruction that survives the date is the same one that applied before it: price the specific listing in front of you against the replacement’s published price — $899, $1,699, $2,499 or $5,499 for the base configurations — rather than against any median on this page. A median describes a pool of listings. You are buying one machine.

Where to buy, before and after Sept. 22

Four routes, cheapest first.

• The Mac you already own, $0. Against our Sept. 2 median of $749 for a used base M4 mini, the gap to a new $899 M6 is $150 — not a reason to replace a machine that still works. If you are buying anyway, the 10-minute inspection checklist is what to run the day it arrives.
• Secondhand, priced channel by channel. Where to buy a used Mac mini and the price floor and what each channel covers compare Swappa, PayMore, eBay and the rest, though those medians are our Aug. 21-26 snapshot rather than today’s asks.
• Apple certified refurbished. Our dated stock check found Mac minis from $849 on Sept. 2 with a one-year limited warranty. Apple’s refurbished Mac page returned no Mac mini listings at all when we read it Sept. 16; that store restocks without notice, so check it yourself rather than trusting either of our readings.
• Amazon Renewed, refurbished listings. Find Amazon Renewed Mac minis. That link opens search results rather than a specific product, and we quote no Amazon price, seller or availability. Amazon Renewed carried the highest channel median in our Aug. 21-26 snapshot, so it is the protection choice rather than the price choice.