Going to N.Y. - where to buy an iPad?

New York is a large state, where in New York will you be? There's an Apple store in Albany, one in Syracuse, one in Rochester and several in NYC. There's also Best Buy, those are more prevalent and also carry Apple devices.

 

B&h photography are good for anything computer wise.

It's by Maddison square gardens.

 

If you are visiting Long Island, Microcenter is the cheapest. If not, it may not be worth the commute.

 

Tekserve is a really cool independent Apple Authorized Reseller. Beyond them I would probably go with one of the NYC Apple stores... 5th Ave, Upper West Side, Soho, Grand Central...

 

Any place that is 'authorized' by Apple to sell iPads is going to sell them at the Apple price, unless there is a temporary sale on. Any place that is selling iPads at a large discount is definitely not authorized by Apple to sell Apple products. Unless you know what you are doing, be wary of deep discounts. Or... just be wary.

Also consider that prices for goods in the USA do not include tax, so there will be sales tax added. New Yorkers can chime in and advise whether it's worth a little drive or train trip to get out of the city to save the city sales tax. (In the US there may be State, County, and City sales taxes. Depending on where you are may be paying no sales tax, or sales tax at all 3 levels.)

Don't forget you may be liable for customs duty/VAT when you return to Sweden.

Don't mean to rain on your day... but you may be better off spending your money on a lot of pastrami on rye sandwiches.

Have a great trip. I love visiting NY.

 

Should be ok.

I brought the origonal ipad back from florida in 2008 and the mini in Jan just gone and no one cared. The were both still in the box as well.

 

You could always visit the Apple store down on 57th Street.

It is the one in all the pictures.

 

Remember that $499 is without the 8.875% sales tax, so it's rather $543. Also, you'll likely have to pay import taxes at the airport, so that the $600 for the iPad in Sweden might actually be less expensive.

 

As a foreigner you probably can buy taxfree. Otherwise it's a gamble if customs will find it when you get back to Sweden. Get rid of the box and paperwork before leaving New York. For warrant reasons it's good idea to send the invoice to you home adress by mail (or email if you can work that out).

 

In theory, this only works if they ship it out of state. You don't get to skip paying the tax just because you've got a passport. If they hand it to you, they have to charge tax. However, in practice it may be possible to find someone who will pretend to ship it, and then hand it to you. None of the big stores will do this however. They don't need the sale badly enough to risk the rather serious consequences of tax evasion.

I wouldn't risk it. But that's just me. Unless you travel much, people can be forgiven not realizing that many rules are reversed at the border. For instance - customs is under no obligation to prove that the iPad was bought in NY. If they have any reason for suspicion, you have to prove where it was bought. And if you can't prove it was bought at home they get to hold it until you can and/or they can assess you a fine. Technically, it's called smuggling ... and if they are having a bad day can toss you in jail. Usually, for something like this you simply get the fine and lose the iPad. At least that is extent of the trouble if you caught entering Canada. Sweden may be more or less tolerant of smuggling.

I would suspect any electronic goods in the possession of someone coming back from NY City are going to be examined. In the case of the iPad it will be pretty obvious that it was not bought in Sweden since there will be no Swedish WiFi places listed, or Swedish Apps bought, etc.