Right to Repair and Apple Hardware
Jonathan Brax has repaired, refurbished and resold electronics since 2008 and is the founder of Techable and SellMac. Repair decisions are a daily part of that work: which machines are worth fixing, which parts can be sourced, what a repair costs against what the finished device sells for. Most of that exposure is Apple hardware, so he can speak to how repairability and parts policy show up in practice rather than in the abstract.
For media inquiries: jon@techable.com
Why this topic matters in practice
Repair is an economic decision as well as a technical one
Whether a fault can be fixed is only half the question. The other half is whether the cost of the part, the labor and the testing time land below what the finished device is worth. When parts are expensive or slow to source, the same fault that is routine on one model can make another model uneconomical to repair, and the hardware gets parted out instead.
Parts availability changes what stays in circulation
Where parts are widely available, older machines keep moving through repair and back into use. Where they are scarce, controlled or only sold as large assemblies, the practical repair options narrow to harvesting components from other units. That is one reason working hardware still ends up disassembled.
Software restrictions can outweigh hardware condition
Activation locks, pairing requirements between components and diagnostic tools that are not broadly accessible all affect whether a physically sound machine can be returned to service. A device can pass every hardware test and still be unsellable because of a software state the current holder cannot clear.
Repairability affects what happens to a faulty unit
When a model is straightforward to open, test and service, a faulty unit is more likely to be economical to return to service. When it is not, the same fault can push the machine toward parts recovery. That difference is one of the factors Jonathan weighs when deciding what to do with a device, and it is a reasonable thing for reporters to ask sellers about directly.
Questions Jonathan can help with
- How do repair restrictions affect whether a used device is worth fixing?
- What makes one model economical to repair and another not, when the fault is the same?
- How does parts availability change what happens to a device at end of first life?
- What role do activation locks and software pairing play in whether hardware gets reused?
- How does repairability affect a device's resale value over time?
- What does a repair-versus-parts decision actually look like inside a resale operation?
Working on something along these lines? jon@techable.com
Current observations
What Jonathan is seeing in day-to-day operations at Techable and SellMac. These are his observations from that work, not measured data or a claim about the market as a whole.
Parts pricing moves the line, not policy alone
The threshold between repair and teardown moves whenever part cost or device value moves. Two identical machines received months apart can get different treatment for that reason.
Software state can be a blocker
A device that is physically fine can still be held up by an activation lock or an account left attached. Until ownership is cleared by the original owner, the hardware condition does not decide the outcome.
Repair capacity is a constraint too
Even when a repair is economical on paper, technician time is finite. Volume decides which repairs are worth queuing.
Related work
- Techable News · June 2026M-Series Changed Everything and Most Resellers Haven't Caught Up
A look at how Apple silicon changed Mac resale economics and the assumptions used by secondary-market sellers.
Technically reviewed by Jonathan
Background
Jonathan Brax is the founder of Techable, an electronics e-commerce business, and SellMac, a device trade-in business. He has worked in the secondary electronics market since 2008, across acquisition, evaluation, testing, repair, refurbishment, trade-in, resale, reuse and parts recovery. Most of that work involves Apple hardware, including Macs bought from consumers, businesses and liquidations, then tested, graded, repaired where it makes sense, and resold or parted out. He is based in the Chicago area and speaks from day-to-day operating experience rather than research.