Second hand macbook advice

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My son is wanting a macbook, I know nothing about them apart from they are expensive brand new.
I'm looking at 2nd hand ones on amazon and CEX, how old is still a decent one.
He needs at least 8gb ram for some Adobe programs he needs for Uni
Can anyone offer any advice.
I'm looking at about £500 budget am I being totally unrealistic at finding one that's not ancient at that price.
Thanks

I don’t know the answer to your questions but just saying I have had very good experiences with the Bookyard. They specialise in parts and repairs and refurbished Macs (the latter through a website called click4mac owned by the bookyard). They are the sort of outfit that would give you advice even if not buying

I bought through Backmarket, which had good customer service and the MacBook has lasted me really well. They'll also give good advice if you want to drop them a message.

I would buy refurbished directly from Apple. I bought my mac refurbed in 2017 (it was a 2015 model) and it still works great. One thing I would say is that some adobe software is absolutely fine on 8g ram, other less so. If he is planning on using Premier Pro or any kind of 3d modelling software, 8g is not great at handling it.
Certified Refurbished Products - Apple (UK)

You need one for which apple will continue to provide security updates for the next few years.

£500 is a good budget! It should let you shop for a MacBook Air from 2020 with the M1 chip. The M1 was a big deal for Apple: those computers are fast, their batteries last ages, and Apple will support them for longer than the "i" series computers that they were selling in 2019 and before.

There are quite a few on eBay around £500-500. The Apple refurb store or Cex will give you very solid guarantees, but you'll pay for that.

If you could find one with 256GB storage, your son might thank you, but I think that'd take it nearer £600. Personally I'd buy an M1 with the lowest specs over an earlier model with more storage, but maybe you want to consult with him!

(oh, the lowest-spec M1 has 8GB RAM, so you're good there; any 4GB Macs will be older)

There's nothing to break on them that isn't cosmetic, so if you find one without cracks, scratches etc. and has a power supply, I'd go for it.

Good luck!