# Rent a Mac



## teknikz (Nov 20, 2006)

Greetings

Im sick and tired of scouring Ehmac & Craigslist for a used mac to tide me over until September when I plan on purchasing a macbook pro.

I have even considered messing with x86 nonsense 

But common sense prevailed and I decided not to.

Is their anywhere in the GTA where I can rent / lease a Mac , preferbly a Macbook Pro for about 3months


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## RunTheWorldOnMac (Apr 23, 2006)

Why not buying it now? Are you waiting on the Leopard Lottery?  

Cheers,

Scott


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## teknikz (Nov 20, 2006)

RunTheWorldOnMac said:


> Why not buying it now? Are you waiting on the Leopard Lottery?
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Scott


Leopards more like a plus

I chose rather then charge it or have the parents (im a student) charge it. To scrimp and save and get leopard and an iPod along the way.

But im REALLY finding the PC world unbearable , i usually love being on the computer. But this is getting just plain painful.


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## teknikz (Nov 20, 2006)

If anyone is selling a decent desktop / (preferbly) laptop in the 500-600 area let me know


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## vacuvox (Sep 5, 2003)

teknikz said:


> Is their anywhere in the GTA where I can rent / lease a Mac , preferbly a Macbook Pro for about 3months


In my experience renting Macs is pretty expensive. A 3 month rental will likely cost the same as purchasing a refurb MBP from the Applestore. It is actually much more cost effective to BUY the Mac and then resell it a few months later at a depreciated price.


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Funny that's what I told him 

We do that all the time for clients that need an intermediate solution between rent and lease.

Sell an open box unit with a guaranteed buy back depending on the time needed.


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## CanadaRAM (Jul 24, 2005)

You are looking at about 12% per month of the purchase price for a short term rental. So til the beginning of Sept. that's about 48% of the price to purchase. The only time this makes sense is if you KNOW you do not want to own any of the current models, but you do need to use a machine. Or if you have a short term project, like a 3 month movie shoot, and no capital budget.

Go buy a MacBook now for $1399, then sell it in September for $ 900


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## applebook (Aug 4, 2004)

If you offer $1000 on Craiglist, you should be able to score a used original MacBook. 

The prices on the AlBooks are quite attractive ATM, and since they're already been discontinued - esp. the 12" - I doubt that you'd lose too much money if you resold it in a few months, assuming that you buy it for a good price.


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## iMatt (Dec 3, 2004)

MacDoc said:


> Funny that's what I told him
> 
> We do that all the time for clients that need an intermediate solution between rent and lease.
> 
> Sell an open box unit with a guaranteed buy back depending on the time needed.


This thread should probably be merged with the other, but this one is newer and has a better title, so I'll post here.

Let me say that in my situation I'd do this deal with you in a heartbeat IF I were in the GTA.

Since I'm not, though, there's an element of risk that tips the scales toward local rental: if something goes wrong (shipping damage, hard drive failure in week 3 of my project, whatever), the distance factor turns a hassle into a crisis. 

Buying in the hopes of reselling on the open market in a month or two (as others have suggested) also has its costs and downsides. If Apple releases updates or new models, my cost goes up. I must charge GST/PST on the resale, thus reducing my pool of potential buyers -- and the longer it goes unsold, the higher my cost.

And, finally, both buy-and-resell options require the full purchase price up front.

What it comes down to in my situation is the need to hedge against risk to the greatest extent possible. I have a fairly lucrative project to deliver on a tight deadline, and if I can pay a couple of hundred dollars to reduce or remove one of the factors that could mess it up (potentially costing me thousands of dollars in lost business), that's money well spent. It also happens to be peanuts next to the cost of putting somebody competent in front of the computer. 

In other words, going out of my way to save a couple of hundred on a business expense like this sounds like a false economy to me. If it were a machine for personal, non-business use, it would be an entirely different story.


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## AquaAngel (Feb 16, 2007)

HUmmm, well the one i have now was a leased G5 dp 1.8 and i couldn't afford to buy it, so i had to go and lease it and i had a 2 years contract with arbutus leasing. True i knew about the scam of interests and all, but all is paid off and i now own it. 100% mine now and looking forward to get another one so my dad can have this one, and me getting the latest one for my games, map making and hardcore graphics/games stuff. all the goodies to push a mac to it's limits.


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