01
iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio and Mac Pro
On an iMac the screen is the machine. The glass is bonded to the panel, so a crack, a delaminated coating or dead pixels take a large bite out of the offer, while a scuffed foot barely registers. We buy the 24-inch M1, M3 and M4 in every colour, the 21.5-inch and 27-inch Intel generations, and the 2017 iMac Pro.
Mac mini and Mac Studio are priced almost entirely on silicon and storage. A mini with an M4 Pro is a different proposition to a base M2, and a Studio on an Ultra chip sits far above a Max with 32GB. Cosmetics count for less on a box that lives under a desk.
The 2019 Mac Pro tower is quoted individually, because what is fitted inside moves the number a lot: tell us the processor, memory, drives, and whether it stands on wheels or feet.
02
Bringing a desktop in: what to carry, what to leave
A 24-inch iMac travels fine in a car boot with the original box or a thick blanket. A 27-inch is heavy and awkward: bring a second pair of hands and keep it upright rather than face down on the glass, which is exactly how screens get cracked on the way to being sold.
Bring the power cable. An iMac uses a specific one and a Mac Studio lead is not a standard kettle cable either. The Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse or Trackpad that came in the box add to the offer, as does the original stand if you moved to a VESA mount. No need to bring a monitor for a mini or Studio; we have displays here to test on.
03
Wiping a desktop: accounts, drives and what to unplug
Sign out of iCloud and switch off Find My before erasing anything. On an Apple silicon or T2 machine, Erase All Content and Settings clears the account and the data in one pass. Older Intel iMacs and Mac Pros have no such option, so the disk is erased from Recovery instead.
Unplug everything else first. External drives, Thunderbolt enclosures and RAID arrays are handed over by accident more often than you would think, and a Time Machine disk left attached walks out of the door with a copy of what you just erased.
On a Fusion Drive iMac, confirm both halves still work before you describe the machine to us. When the mechanical half fails, macOS often limps along on the SSD portion and nobody notices. Not a deal-breaker, just a repair we would rather price at the quote stage.
04
Studios, offices and multiple machines
A lot of these sales come from edit suites, design studios and architecture practices doing a refresh. We take the whole row rather than picking out the two newest machines and leaving you the rest, and payment on a larger deal can go by bank transfer against a single invoice for the lot.
For a collection we come to you; a 27-inch iMac should not be going down a stairwell in anyone's arms. Drives are erased on every machine we take, and on a collection we document the sanitisation unit by unit for your records.