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Apple's M4 Mac Mini Base Model Sells Out on Website, with eBay Listings at Premium Prices
The base model of Apple's M4 Mac Mini is sold out on the company's website, with shortages extending to other configurations. Higher-storage models are delayed until June, leading to marked-up listings on eBay. Demand is fueled by the device's use for running local AI models.
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Apple's $599 M4 Mac Mini base model with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage is sold out on the company's retail website, with no options for delivery or in-store pickup, TechCrunch reported. Shortages have extended to other configurations of the base model, regardless of the amount of memory selected. This marks the first time the base model M4 Mac Mini has been sold out.
Models with higher storage of 512GB and up are only available to ship starting in June. Various configurations of the M4 Mac Mini are available for sale on eBay at higher prices than buying directly from Apple. As of Friday morning, M4 base models with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD configuration were selling on eBay at markups of $715-$795 for a new open box model.
The same configuration reached as high as $979 for an excellent refurbished version. Some lightly used pre-owned Mac Minis with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD configuration were selling on eBay for around $700. There was a single listing on eBay for a $925 brand-new M4 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage.
The popularity of Mac Minis for on-device AI models began with the OpenClaw craze and extends to alternatives like ZeroClaw, AI tools from Anthropic and OpenAI, Perplexity Computer, and other specialized local models. Apple has plans for a Mac Mini refresh, according to Bloomberg. The Mac Studio is now sold out across several configurations.
The MacBook Pro with 128GB RAM and larger SSDs is available to ship within a few weeks.
