How can they sell MacBook's so cheaply on eBay?

[stolpioni]

I'm thinking of purchasing a 15 inch Macbook Pro with Retina since my laptop just broke down (the top of the line one, 16gb ram, 512GB ssd etc)...and on ebay I can find one for about $2200, which is about 600 bucks less compared to Apple Store.

How can this be? Will I get a fake china-copy of a Mac if I purchase at that price? I thought Apple wanted to keep the prices up on their stuff, and not let individual retailers sell them for several hundred dollars less than they do themselves.

Another question on the side: Should I wait for Haswell 15 incher or will it not matter? The only reason I'm not getting a 13 incher is because apparently the Haswell upgrade is going to be huge for that one, but not so huge on the 15 inch.

 

[maflynn]

Here's a quick list of what I came up with.

1. Some may be stolen
2. Some may be scams
3. auctions sometimes end below market value if no reserve is set.

 

[ramram55]

you can sometime get good one, some maybe refurbished.
Rule of thumb is get the serial # as soon as you win the bid, and check with apple site for its date of purchase and registration.
Some are honest sellers I have bought 2 of the Cmbp so far, no problem.

 

[Yahooligan]

They're so cheap because they're not authorized resellers.

http://salesresources.apple.com/sp/catalog/

You may be buying a grey-market item which will have no warranty, you may be buying a product that, while new, doesn't have the full warranty period left (The authorized reseller activates the warranty when sold, so if the eBay store bought the laptop on June 16th and you bought it on July 16th then you will only have 11 months of warranty), etc.

It's assumed that people are aware of this and it's reflected in the price. So, buyer beware. I would check Amazon or even Apple's Refurb catalog, you can get a great deal on a refurb unit and they come with a warranty but I think people are catching on to the refurb units so it may be hard to find one with the specs you want.

 

[sonicrobby]

Sometimes there may be cosmetic damage that may make it harder to sell. Mine was $600 less than retail on ebay, I guess because it had 1 scratch on the bottom and was less appealing to others.

 

[saturnotaku]

Here's a quick list of what I came up with.

1. Some may be stolen
2. Some may be scams
3. auctions sometimes end below market value if no reserve is set.

4. Some people got new computers for work.
5. Some people upgraded.
6. Some people need fast cash to pay unexpected bills.

There are plenty of other legitimate reasons, too.

 

[Yahooligan]

4. Some people got new computers for work.
5. Some people upgraded.
6. Some people need fast cash to pay unexpected bills.

There are plenty of other legitimate reasons, too.

True for individuals selling them, however I was under the assumption that the OP was referring to actual eBay stores selling "new" products.

An individual selling something they used can be sold at any price they want, so that doesn't really fit into what the OP is talking about, IMO.

 

[Interstella5555]

Who are "they" and how in any way can Apple prevent individuals from selling something on an auction site?