Is it OK to buy things with a student discount and resell them?

jgriggle

McKneff wrote: »

But if you sold it and the buyer found it faulty in say 9 months time, because they didn't buy it originally, the warranty wouldn't be worth a light.....


They wouldn't have an original proof of purchase.

Worse than that - you're the one who sold it which would make you the supplier and therefore legally responsible for any problems.

antrobus

guiriman wrote: »

There is most likely something in the terms and conditions of the student discount prohibiting this, so in that sense yes, it's an abuse.

Macworld says that;

"Purchases from the Apple Store for Education Individuals are not for institutional purchase or resale."

http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/apple/how-get-education-discount-apple-student-teacher-lecturer-3466634/

smartermind

guiriman wrote: »

There is most likely something in the terms and conditions of the student discount prohibiting this, so in that sense yes, it's an abuse. Other than that I can't see an issue, buying at one price and selling at a higher one is the basis of most businesses after all!

This may affect any installed software which is discounted as educational that may be included. A non student buyer may be deemed to be using it in breach of the software licensing terms and conditions. But other than that there is no moral dilemma. If you bought it, it is yours to sell and profit from.

When I was studying for a M.Sc. I got a disability grant to buy an AppleMac Pro. I was told that as long as I didn't drop out from the course, the laptop was mine to do with as I wished. Some software packages came with a limited one year licence which expired after one year and the software stopped functioning, which was a tad annoying. After I finished, I gave it to my son.

smartermind

jgriggle wrote: »

Worse than that - you're the one who sold it which would make you the supplier and therefore legally responsible for any problems.

Nonsense. As a private seller, it would be a case of caveat emptor or buyer beware! A private seller would only be liable if they made false claims and would not have to provide any ongoing warranty.

However if you made it your business to buy on student discount and sell on ebay, then as a business you would be liable.

smartermind

antrobus wrote: »

Macworld says that;

"Purchases from the Apple Store for Education Individuals are not for institutional purchase or resale."

The "not for resale" clause would be thrown out by a court of law as an unreasonable clause if it was a single purchase by an individual. However that wouldn't apply to educational software which is licensed and not sold (ie you never "own" it).

DeusXM

antrobus wrote: »

Macworld says that;

"Purchases from the Apple Store for Education Individuals are not for institutional purchase or resale."

http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/apple/how-get-education-discount-apple-student-teacher-lecturer-3466634/

That wouldn't actually apply in this case - this clause states 'institutional purchase or resale'. In other words, it covers companies, not individuals. Presumably this clause is here precisely to stop a private business (or indeed, a higher education institution) from using someone's access to the discount to purchase goods either for that business's use or reselling. But there's nothing here about a private individual purchasing and reselling.

On the 'moral' side of things, I see no issue. The discount you get on the product isn't substantial enough to mean you're likely to get a large profit so I wouldn't think this would cause any major issues for Apple suddenly finding loads of people buying Macbooks off students. You're also under no obligation to use your purchase for an explicitly 'student' purpose either - you just have access to a discount, in light of the fact that you're a student, and therefore likely to end up being in a wage band that can routinely afford expensive Apple gear once you graduate, and your initial purchase is likely to be funded by your parents who probably approach the idea of a laptop as being a 'value' purchase, and this gives you the ammunition for pester power.

So in other words, the Apple discount isn't really an act of benevolence on the part of Apple - it's a ploy to bring you into the Apple eco-system so that you never leave. So I wouldn't be worried about the moral implication of making a few quid on the side.

What I would say though is you'll be lucky to make a profit unless you sell direct, which is why I suspect this question might be a plant. I actually won a Macbook Air (when our house already has a Macbook Pro), so I listed it on eBay. RRP for it is £750. Guess how much I got for it once listing fees were complete? £530. And that was after relisting three times after finding my reserve price of £640 was still too high for a £750 item.

The buyer got a great bargain, and I got a nice profit because I had no acquisition costs. With your discount, you'd have to pay £638 for the same item, so if you then sold it on eBay, you'd actually be down more than £100.

So if you're going to sell it, do it through Gumtree or your uni's classifieds.

esuhl

There's absolutely nothing wrong in doing this. Apple offer to sell goods to you at a certain price, you sell to the public for a higher price. That's how all businesses work.

It would be illegal (as far as I'm aware) for a company selling you something to put conditions on what you do with your own property (so long as you don't infringe intellectual property rights). So you would be well within your rights to buy a hundred laptops and sell them all on eBay.

The only "complications" are that, if you did this as a "one off" private sale, the buyer wouldn't get a warranty... And if you did this as a business, you would have to register for tax, become liable for faults under the Sale of Goods Act, and would have to negotiate/register with Apple if your customers are to receive the normal warranty.

Once again, I don't see how simply buying and selling goods could be seen as illegal or "against the spirit" of some kind of offer! This is how all shops work.

Talent

Yes, go for it, what can they do? Ban you from purchasing....

pablakeman

One thing to think about is your tax liability. If you were to do this often, it would constitute a trade and therefore you would be liable to be taxed on it.

I know this is thinking outside of the box, but just getting a student discount doesn't mean you are a student, and being a student doesn't prevent you from earning over your personal allowance (last year I had a very lucrative part-time job that paid me £1000-£1500 a month while being a full-time student - the joys of online marketing - and those figures are 1000 or 1500, rather than estimating comission, i got a payrise in the last two months)

So, not answering your question, but the taxman may have an issue!

tallgirld

There's nothing wrong with what you done. It belonged to you and you sold it. In future do not tell anyone what you have done as they are probably just jealous!

Anyway I am due to buy an Iphone 6 next week you couldn't get it cheap for me could you? :-)