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Alleged Apple eBay Store Offers Better Deals than Apple Refurb Store

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MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,490
30,731



In late 2012, a new Apple seller appeared on eBay, offering Apple-certified refurbished products. The storefront, known simply as Refurbished-Outlet, is believed to be run by Apple itself.

As 9to5Mac pointed out in November, the Refurbished-Outlet seller makes the same promises that Apple does when selling refurbished products on its online Apple Store, with a full one-year warranty and a quality inspection by Apple.

Refurbished-Outlet has quietly sold over 10,000 Apple products, and as of late (via dealnews) the store has been selling products at a steep discount, offering cheaper prices than can be found in Apple's own "Special Deals" refurbished store.

For example, Refurbished-Outlet was previously offering a 13-inch MacBook Air with a 128GB SSD for $899. Apple charges $999 for the same refurbished setup. Currently, Refurbished-Outlet has an 11-inch MacBook Air with a 1.8Ghz processor, 4GB RAM and a 256GB HD for $949, while the same laptop is $1,049 from the Apple Store.

A fourth generation 32GB iPod touch can be purchased from Refurbished-Outlet for $179, which Apple normally charges $209 for. A 32GB Wi-Fi + Cellular third generation retails for $599 in the Apple Store but can be purchased for $549 from the eBay store.

refurbishedoutlet.jpg
Though Refurbished-Outlet offers some products at discount, several share price listings with Apple's official refurbished store. For example, the 2.4Ghz 17-inch MacBook Pro with 4GB RAM and a 750GB hard drive is $2,079 on eBay, and $2,079 in the Apple Store.

Prices are unpredictable and inventory changes on a daily basis, but the Refurbished-Outlet does offer significant discounts on Apple-certified refurbished products. Neither Apple nor eBay have confirmed that Apple is running the store directly.

Article Link: Alleged Apple eBay Store Offers Better Deals than Apple Refurb Store
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/03/08/alleged-apple-ebay-store-offers-better-deals-than-apple-refurb-store/
C

cxny

macrumors 6502
Jan 13, 2004
335
0
New York
Is this a way to save on tax (NY) or do they collect it? Too scared to test it out so I didn't buy accidentally!
 
R

rusty2192

macrumors 6502a
Oct 15, 2008
997
81
Kentucky
Has anyone bought from them and tried taking the device in for warranty service? That would be the main risk I could see if this was a scam.
 
gnasher729

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
Three possibilities:

1. It's Apple. Strange.
2. It's a dealer who decided you can make money by selling lots of products at low margin with minimal investment, all perfectly legit.
3. It's a dealer doing the same things but taking some shortcuts with taxes etc. which might be possible for a while.

We'll find out eventually.
 
A

allenhuffman

macrumors newbie
Mar 10, 2004
15
0
Where does it ship from?

Both iPads I ordered from Apple refurb store shipped directly from China... Anyone used the eBay store to see if it's also factory direct versus some place with a warehouse of used stuff?
 
baryon

baryon

macrumors 68040
Oct 3, 2009
3,877
2,924
Ships exclusively to the US. This is definitely Apple, otherwise they'd be bypassing the fact that their products cost 50 times more in the EU.
 
Squilly

Squilly

macrumors 68020
Nov 17, 2012
2,260
4
PA
Since when does Apple have an eBay store? Oh nevermind. Sucks eBay takes another 10% just to sell there. Surprised they do.
 
N

noverflow

macrumors regular
Jul 4, 2002
188
0
My guess is that it is a 3rd party certified apple retailer/repair senter. (I used to work for one.)

Apple offers up huge pallets of refurb things at amazing prices but it is all "as-is". Most of it is working (about 10% not), but you dont really know what you get (I think). So you test it all out and sell what works, and piece together the other things.

because they are authorized repair centers, they can fix it and offer it as refurbished.
 
I

InfoTime

macrumors 6502a
Jul 17, 2002
500
261
noverflow said:
My guess is that it is a 3rd party certified apple retailer/repair senter. (I used to work for one.)

Apple offers up huge pallets of refurb things at amazing prices but it is all "as-is". Most of it is working (about 10% not), but you dont really know what you get (I think). So you test it all out and sell what works, and piece together the other things.

because they are authorized repair centers, they can fix it and offer it as refurbished.
Click to expand...
I was going to post that it had to be Apple - who else can sell refurbished items. Now I know :D

I'd be curious to hear from people who've bought from that seller. When I buy refurb items from Apple you can't tell them from new. You get all the accessories and other items. Just the box being brown is about the only thing different I've noticed. If a reseller is buying a palette load of stuff and fixing and selling it I'd be surprised if they could package it like Apple does.
 
N

noverflow

macrumors regular
Jul 4, 2002
188
0
Good point. The pallet of stuff I have seen did not come with apple boxes from what I remember. But I dont know, maybe they have the same brown boxes?


InfoTime said:
I was going to post that it had to be Apple - who else can sell refurbished items. Now I know :D

I'd be curious to hear from people who've bought from that seller. When I buy refurb items from Apple you can't tell them from new. You get all the accessories and other items. Just the box being brown is about the only thing different I've noticed. If a reseller is buying a palette load of stuff and fixing and selling it I'd be surprised if they could package it like Apple does.
Click to expand...
 
jlc1978

jlc1978

macrumors 603
Aug 14, 2009
5,476
4,261
One possibility is it gives Apple a way to dispose of excess inventory w/o having refurbs always available in their online store. If they did that, they risk converting new sales to refurbs; by keeping availability tight they avoid getting people used to refurbs always being available.
 
B

Bunyak

macrumors member
Aug 15, 2011
77
3
jlc1978 said:
One possibility is it gives Apple a way to dispose of excess inventory w/o having refurbs always available in their online store. If they did that, they risk converting new sales to refurbs; by keeping availability tight they avoid getting people used to refurbs always being available.
Click to expand...
This makes sense, especially for products beyond the start of their life cycle.
 
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