Resale price does not mean anything if most units have hardware issues which was largely the case for most +5y macs when I looked for them out of curiosity.

Granted this is also the case of many brands but I found it was easier to find old thinkpad, fujitsu and dell business laptops in good shape than it was to find Apple ones.

Maybe this is biased and it has more to do with professional vs personal use. I guess you are a bit more cautious with a laptop your employer is lending you.