Apple gave used-Mac sellers a four-week deadline. They aren't blinking yet.
Being on the current Mac generation has cost a premium over Apple's own list prices — even secondhand. Tuesday's announcement started a countdown on that arbitrage. On day one, sellers mostly held their asks.
Used Mac asking prices did not fall on announcement day. Of 12 current-generation listings our crawler priced before and after Apple’s M6 and M5 announcement, 10 were unchanged and two fell by 3% and 5%.
Hours after Apple announced the M4 Max Mac Studio’s replacement Tuesday — same $2,499 starting price, shipping Sept. 22 — the used M4 Max Studios on the market were still asking an average of $3,399. That is 136% of the list price of a machine that just became last generation.
Sellers, so far, are not blinking.
Why used Macs were selling above Apple list price
Current-generation Macs have carried a premium over Apple’s own raised list prices since the June repricing — including secondhand. Median asking price as a share of current list, by condition, observed Aug. 21-24:
| Config (current list) | Third-party new | Used |
|---|---|---|
| Mac mini M4 16/256 ($799) | 125% | 94% |
| Mac mini M4 16/512 ($999) | 121% | 95% |
| Mac mini M4 24/512 ($1,199) | 125% | 108% |
| Mac mini M4 Pro ($1,599) | 100% | 106% |
| Mac Studio M4 Max ($2,499) | 121% | 127% |
| Mac Studio M3 Ultra ($5,299) | — | 111% |
Third-party sellers of new units were asking 21-25% over list on most configurations. Used units asked at or above list on everything but the base minis. The premium bought one thing: having the machine now, instead of after Apple’s quoted 37-to-91-day wait.
Did used Mac prices fall after the announcement?
Tuesday’s announcement attacked every input of that trade at once. The new generation restores the withdrawn 64 GB mini and 128 GB Studio memory tiers, which had made the used market the only market. New units ship Sept. 22, which puts a four-week fuse on “available today” as a selling point. And every current-generation machine in service became a soon-to-be-prior-generation machine that morning.
The asks barely moved. Of the 12 current-generation listings our crawler priced both before the announcement and after it Tuesday, 10 were unchanged. Two sellers — both of M4 Pro minis — trimmed: one from $1,749 to $1,699, one from $2,250 to $2,137, cuts of 3% and 5%. Nobody slashed. The M3 Ultra Studios that had been asking around double list still held asks above $5,000.
A 12-listing panel over one afternoon is a first reading, not a verdict. It is also the honest one: the widely felt intuition that resale prices crack the moment a successor is announced is, on day one and in our data, wrong. Repricing seems to wait for shipping trucks, not press releases.
When used Mac prices could fall
The calendar does the work from here. Every day toward Sept. 22 shrinks the value of “in hand today,” and the first delivered M6 and M5-generation machines start the trade-in wave that puts thousands of current-generation Macs on the resale market at once. Sellers holding 127%-of-list asks are betting they find a buyer before that happens.
The same-listing panel grows with every crawl cycle, and the next readings come this week and on Sept. 22.
About the data: Asking prices observed by our crawler across roughly 35 retailers, marketplaces and refurbishers, Aug. 21-25, for the exact current stock configurations. Auction bids are excluded throughout — a bid is not a price — and scam-shaped listings are filtered out. The same-listing comparison covers listings our crawler priced both before and on announcement day; it is a small panel and will grow with each cycle. Asking prices are not completed sales.