Friend was moving across the country, didn't want the hassle of craigslist. Point is, you can keep your ear to the ground and find some interesting stuff in the Apple space.
I'm not an Apple partisan; my last gig was Android development. But the idea that there's this massive barrier to entry is a complete joke.
As for the Mac mini that you talked about, that's a far cry from the 27" iMac with the i5 that you originally described.