Need Advice in purchasing a used Mac.

[paulwgraber]

Hi I will be purchasing my wife an Imac for Christmas. She does graphic art with adobe. I will also need it for some gaming mainly with older titles and transferring old Hi8 video home movies and VHS tapes over to it. I can't afford a new one so was wondering what a good option price per permance model would be. 2014, 2015 and so on. I want it to be somewhat future proof. What options should I look for? Any earlier models better than others? Would like a 27". Looking for your advice. Thanks.

 

[chscag]

The best place to buy a used iMac is from the Apple on line refurbished store. However, although you can save around 15%, don't expect any fantastic discounts. You need to look for yourself and decide. All their iMacs are warranted the same as new ones are and you can even add Apple Care.

Stay away from eBay and Craig's list unless you really know how to purchase used without getting fleeced.

 

[paulwgraber]

Any particular models to stay away from? Some better than others capability wise? 2014? 2015?

 

[ferrarr]

Obviously, the newer the iMac, the more future proof it will be.

Someone I used to work with, 8 years ago, swore by MacOfAllTrades. Here's their iMac selection, https://www.macofalltrades.com/shop/apple-desktops/imac/. I never bought one from them, but they seem to have a good following of customers.

Personally, I've used eBay and craigslist to buy used Macs. I know what I want, and I take my time. Be patient, and be ready to act quickly.

What I would look for is an iMac, with a 256 or 512 GB SSD drive, not fusion or standard hdd. 27" models can add more ram, so get one with 8GB, then price out more ram from Crucial. Be sure to see how much video memory each machine comes with, as the more the better.

Good luck.