If you’re shopping for Apple products, often times you can save a chunk of change if you buy a manufacturer refurbished unit. No, not the legendary models pictured above. Apple’s refurbished products are usually from their current generation of products, or the preceding generation.
Apple’s refurbs come with a full warranty, the same as brand new models, and are also eligible for the excellent AppleCare Protection Plan. Sometimes the amount you save buying the refurb is enough to pay for this 3-year extended warranty and service plan.
Many computer professionals believe refurbished products are actually better than new ones that roll off the assembly line, because the latter was mass produced by robots and low skill workers, while a skilled technician examined, re-assembled and tested your refurbished product. I’ve bought a couple refurbished computers from Apple, over the years, and I’ve found them to be every bit as good as their full priced brothers.
Sometimes you can get deals on refurbished computers that are maxed out with many or all of the options (memory, hard drive size, the type of optical drive) that were available for that model. Or, as with the PowerBook G4 on which I am typing this, I got lucky, and the actual unit I got came with twice the memory and a larger hard drive than Apple promised.
The Apple Store online has an ever changing variety of refurbished products for sale. On the front page of their store web site, click on the red "Save" tag
to see their Special Deals page. The deals here come and go, and the prices change. So check back later, if you don’t see what you want. Usually, if you see a remarkably good savings, it will sell out very quickly, sometimes the same day. So it’s a good idea to figure out just what you’re shopping for, so you're ready to jump on a great deal, if you see one.
to see their Special Deals page. The deals here come and go, and the prices change. So check back later, if you don’t see what you want. Usually, if you see a remarkably good savings, it will sell out very quickly, sometimes the same day. So it’s a good idea to figure out just what you’re shopping for, so you're ready to jump on a great deal, if you see one.Small Dog Electronics, a little company based in Vermont, is another store that sometimes stocks competitively priced refurbs. These deals vary widely, over time, and they tend to have better deals on discontinued models. Just for example, as I write this, they have a very nice deal on my discontinued model of PowerBook. If you subscribe to one or more of Small Dog's free newsletters, you'll see the special deals that are only advertised in those weekly emails.
For more information on using the internet to find the best prices, read about finding good deals in this blog. And here are links to sites that sometimes sell or list refurbished products:
