Overpriced Mac minis are flooding eBay amid shortages of the sold-out machines, which have turn into a well-liked device for operating on-device AI fashions like OpenClaw.
This week, stories indicated that the $599 M4 Mac mini base mannequin with 16GB RAM and 256GB of storage is offered out on Apple’s retail web site, with no choices for supply or in-store pickup. The shortages have since prolonged to different configurations of the bottom mannequin, whatever the quantity of reminiscence chosen. That is the primary time the bottom mannequin has been offered out, some retailers famous. In the meantime, fashions with larger storage (512GB and up) are solely out there to ship beginning in June.
Consequently, eBay has turn into a secondary marketplace for these in-demand computer systems. On the positioning, varied configurations of the M4 Mac mini can be found on the market at larger costs than if shopping for direct from Apple, which is not an choice.
Apple’s power-efficient Mac minis have turn into fashionable units for testing and operating at-home, on-device AI fashions, starting with the OpenClaw craze however now extending to OpenClaw alternate options like ZeroClaw, different AI instruments from Anthropic and OpenAI, Perplexity Pc, or different specialised native fashions. In contrast to some PCs, Mac minis additionally run quietly and are typically extra dependable for twenty-four/7 use, in contrast with laptop computer computer systems.
The scarcity of the units additionally comes alongside an industry-wide reminiscence crunch and plans for a Mac mini refresh, in response to Bloomberg. Nevertheless, refreshes of product strains haven’t led to shortages earlier than.
Apple didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
This excellent storm of provide chain stress and elevated demand for AI-friendly machines has inflated the costs of used shopper electronics.
As of Friday morning, M4 base fashions with the 16GB RAM/256GB SSD configuration have been promoting at markups like $715-$795 for a brand new, “open field” mannequin, and as excessive as $979 for an “wonderful” refurbished model. Some “calmly used, pre-owned” Mac minis with this configuration have been promoting for round $700 — greater than $100 greater than the value of a brand new base mannequin.
There was additionally a single itemizing for a $925 brand-new M4 Mac mini with the identical 16GB RAM and 256GB storage; the itemizing warned in brilliant crimson textual content: “Final one.”
Whilst you nonetheless could possibly rating a fairly priced refurb should you hold an in depth eye out (or should you win an eBay public sale the place the bid has began at a lower cost level), it appears that evidently the demand for the gadget goes to maintain costs up till Apple’s provide chain refreshes.
And now that the Mac mini is unavailable, Apple has begun to see elevated demand for the Mac Studio, too. That laptop is additionally now offered out throughout a number of configurations.
As Ars Technica identified, you possibly can nonetheless get a MacBook Professional with 128GB RAM and bigger SSDs inside a number of weeks, and even the brand new and fashionable MacBook Neo continues to be transport inside two to a few weeks. This implies the actual subject is shopper demand for the Mac mini itself.
Once you buy via hyperlinks in our articles, we could earn a small fee. This doesn’t have an effect on our editorial independence.
