Replacement power adapters for Macbook?

I have a MBP power adapter that had a short in it (where the thin cord connects to the brick) and has now completely stopped working. It is 3 years old and I am just out of Apple Care range.

I REALLY don't want to be price-gouged by apple and be forced to pay $80 for a new one. Anyone have any experience with more reasonably priced off-brand versions of power adapters? Like these on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Replace-MagSa...?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addOneStar

http://www.amazon.com/PC247-Replace...?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1323800031&sr=1-10

Maybe I will just get a used Apple one, but it seems like the design is not that good, contributing to this problem, so I may run into the same wire-fraying short in the cord problem with a used one... any advice welcome, thanks!

(Anyone want to speculate on what Apple's profit margin is on an $80 power adapter? I can see maybe some justification on higher margins on the products themselves, but to treat your existing customers this way, who have already forked it over for your products, to then hike the prices up so much on the replacement parts... why would you do that, except you want to make a killing on power adapters because there's not much a customer can do about it... It's certainly not the kind of business model I want to support. /end rant )

miles01110 said:

Since the Magsafe design has never been licensed to third-party manufacturers, you should only buy them from Apple.

Click to expand...

Thanks, good to know...

(It suddenly feels so cozy in here, locked into a proprietary racket where I have no other good option than to pad Apple's pockets with some more of my hard-earned. I'm not bitter, really. I think $80 is pretty reasonable for a power adapter. I mean, it's $30 more than an ipod shuffle, and I'm sure the R&D, parts, and labor that went into the shuffle is miniscule compared to what went into achieving the technological feat of supplying electrical power to a laptop. "It's like magic, so natural and intuitive, you just plug it in and it works." Hmm... now that I think about it, if I can come up with another $20 I could get an Apple TV instead, but I guess it wouldn't power my laptop...)

Huh, do you think that they came up with the magsafe design just to prevent 3rd parties from competing with them in this lucrative power adapter market... ? Nah, couldn't be. That surely had no part in it.

No, no exposed wires, but it's clearly just a short in the wire. For a few days now I was able to get it to work by changing the angle of the wire, but no more. I guess it couldn't hurt to ask them about it.

Thanks for the link to that article. I called the folks at apple tech support and they said that it may be covered because of this. (Although the short was where the cord attaches to the power brick, not the end that attaches to the computer.) Glad someone put together that class-action lawsuit. I think I'll take it in to my local apple store and see what they say.

(Oh, and "intellectual property" ---> intellectual monopoly. And yes, unfortunately apple are not the only ones who play the proprietary lock-in monopoly game and then overcharge for these things, but "that still don't make it right". )