I love Macs, but the prices are effing ridiculous. I’ve recently discovered a way to help defray some of that cost. As a corporation, I’m sure this is not their largest secret…but here’s a small secret you may not know about: Refurbished Macs. There’s an entire selection of discounted Apple stuff that is not publicized at all. You can’t navigate to it from the homepage, and even on the Apple Store page it’s relegated to the bottom left corner, well below the fold, in a box marked “Special Deals.” The box contains pretty images of rainbow-colored iPods, but refurbished Macs are relegated to one line of text in tiny font.
Once you click on “Refurbished Mac” you are taken to a wide selection of refurb goodness – Macbook Pros, Macbook Airs, iMacs, Mac Pros and more. These are used Apple products that undergo a refurbishment process, including full cleaning, testing, repair and repackaging. Apple certifies that all defective components have been replaced and everything is fully functional. They stand behind their certification by issuing the same full 1-year warranty as with new products, and you can purchase Apple Care for certified refurb items at the same price as new.
Depending on the retail cost, savings on refurbished gear can be substantial. High-dollar units like the iMac go for $300-$500 less than retail, Macbook Pros and Airs are $200-$400 cheaper, and iPods offer savings of $20-$40. Remember when the Macbook Air first came out and it was $3,000? Now you can get a refurbished newer model for $1,099 — just $100 more than a new Macbook.
Pro tip: If you don’t see exactly the model you want, keep coming back to check (or reloading the page of you’re truly obsessed like me), because the inventory changes constantly. If you DO see exactly the model you want, grab it, because it may not be there a few hours later.
So what’s the quality like? Well, I was a bit skeptical myself, but this week I decided to check it out. On December 23rd I found a refurb 13″ Macbook Pro for $300 off retail, and ordered it. Apple offered free overnight shipping for the holidays, but said it would take 3-5 business days to ship, so my earliest expected arrival date was December 30. Much to my surprise, later that same evening I received shipping notification, and by 3 pm on December 24 – just 26 hours after I ordered it – my shiny new toy had been Fedexed to my doorstep. After a 10-hour day at work (who works until 6 pm on Christmas Eve?) it totally made my day.
Just for fun, I waited until Christmas morning to open it. There isn’t much about this on the Apple website, but Amazon makes a big deal out of Apple’s “Frustration-Free Packaging” and they aren’t kidding about that. Inside the shipping carton, there was no inner box, no tape to struggle with – the Macbook was simply suspended by a piece of soft foam at either end. On top, nestled perfectly into a niche in the foam, was a long rectangular slider box, quietly marked “Apple Certified.” This box contained the power cable and adaptor brick, a booklet marked “Everything Mac,” a CD slipcase marked “Everything Else,” and a polishing cloth.
The Macbook itself was wrapped in clear cellophane, which I opened to find a perfectly clean, pristine, like-new unit, inside and out. Not a scratch or a smudge to be found anywhere. I booted it up and it started up just like a brand-new Mac — with Snow Leopard, no less. I spent the entire day (OK, so I have no life) putting it through its paces, and so far everything has worked perfectly. It blows my EEE PC out of the water, which is to be expected, and it also easily performs as well as my beloved 24″ iMac…but that’s a whole other post. If everything continues to be good, I will be completely sold on the refurb concept. I can’t see any reason to go back to paying full retail price for fabulous-but-overpriced Macs.
As a side note, Amazon has Speck satin-finish hardshell cases for the Macbook Pro on sale for $38, which is $10 cheaper than the Speck website…and yes, they come in pink.
This post was powered by delicious coffee and leftover holiday chocolate chip cookies.
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