I'll Be In the Market for a New 15" MBP Soon, but I'm Not Sure Where to Get It

[Uberman5000]

I'm presented with a few rather tiresome dilemmas on my path to a glittering new MacBook Pro to replace my old 13" Core 2 Duo unit (which I bought immediately before the release of the Core i7's, ). Among them is my Canadian location, and the strong Canadian dollar. Several web outlets can get me the 2.0GHz 15" Pro at a reasonable price, such as MacMall or B&H Photo Video, but the problem is that none of them will ship here, and arranging for a contact in the States to bring it up here for me is a dicey option. If I could get one from there, I could save anything up to $250 with the discounts and favourable exchange rate, and that's no amount of money to sneeze at. Canadian online retailers would sell it to me for $1850, in Canadian dollars, and buying locally is even less appealing option, since my province has an extortionate 15% sales tax.

A lot of people have suggested I buy refurbished, but deals on the particular MacBook I'm after don't often come up on the Apple Canada store, and I can't actually get the computer for another few weeks, when I've saved up the funds.

An appealing option, that I didn't think was going to be appealing, is eBay. There's a lot of reseller deals on at the moment, in anticipation of back to school sales, and since they're in US dollars, I would save on the exchange rate, and since it would be considered a private sale, I wouldn't be charged absurd taxes. Might need to pay duty, but it's pretty easy to circumvent that.

Speaking of back to school, a friend of mine is also a teacher at community college, and if he was to buy the computer on my behalf, I could save $100 on it, and there's a deal on now where I would get a $100 gift card for the Mac App Store. Certainly I could think of one or two things I would like to use that on. And as far as I know, any duty or other taxes are included in the price listed on the website. I tried going through the checkout, and the only added-on cost was a small recycling fee. I'm not sure if more costs will be added on later, but I very much doubt it.

Which seems like my best option? What are some pitfalls I should be weary of? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[randomrazr]

I'm presented with a few rather tiresome dilemmas on my path to a glittering new MacBook Pro to replace my old 13" Core 2 Duo unit (which I bought immediately before the release of the Core i7's, ). Among them is my Canadian location, and the strong Canadian dollar. Several web outlets can get me the 2.0GHz 15" Pro at a reasonable price, such as MacMall or B&H Photo Video, but the problem is that none of them will ship here, and arranging for a contact in the States to bring it up here for me is a dicey option. If I could get one from there, I could save anything up to $250 with the discounts and favourable exchange rate, and that's no amount of money to sneeze at. Canadian online retailers would sell it to me for $1850, in Canadian dollars, and buying locally is even less appealing option, since my province has an extortionate 15% sales tax.

A lot of people have suggested I buy refurbished, but deals on the particular MacBook I'm after don't often come up on the Apple Canada store, and I can't actually get the computer for another few weeks, when I've saved up the funds.

An appealing option, that I didn't think was going to be appealing, is eBay. There's a lot of reseller deals on at the moment, in anticipation of back to school sales, and since they're in US dollars, I would save on the exchange rate, and since it would be considered a private sale, I wouldn't be charged absurd taxes. Might need to pay duty, but it's pretty easy to circumvent that.

Speaking of back to school, a friend of mine is also a teacher at community college, and if he was to buy the computer on my behalf, I could save $100 on it, and there's a deal on now where I would get a $100 gift card for the Mac App Store. Certainly I could think of one or two things I would like to use that on. And as far as I know, any duty or other taxes are included in the price listed on the website. I tried going through the checkout, and the only added-on cost was a small recycling fee. I'm not sure if more costs will be added on later, but I very much doubt it.

Which seems like my best option? What are some pitfalls I should be weary of? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

if ur truly canadian u would know our tax is 13% not 15% LOL

buy it at the apple store or apple online store to get the education discount, becaue thats a good savings right there.

this is best cause ur buying it directly from apple, so if u have any trouble, its hella alot easier for them to help you since u bought it direct.

 

[Minhthien]

if ur truly canadian u would know our tax is 13% not 15% LOL

buy it at the apple store or apple online store to get the education discount, becaue thats a good savings right there.

this is best cause ur buying it directly from apple, so if u have any trouble, its hella alot easier for them to help you since u bought it direct.

IF!!! You are a truly Canadian you should know each Province have different tax rate! Ex. BC HST are 12%

op, Wait until the United State No Tax Weekend and drive down there pick up one at best buy! You might or might not need to pay tax when coming back!

 

[Uberman5000]

if ur truly canadian u would know our tax is 13% not 15% LOL

That's Ontario's provincial tax rate. I live in Nova Scotia, and our tax rate is 15%, the highest in the country.

This is something a lot of Ontarians struggle with, but Ontario does not compose the entirety of Canada.

buy it at the apple store or apple online store to get the education discount, becaue thats a good savings right there.

this is best cause ur buying it directly from apple, so if u have any trouble, its hella alot easier for them to help you since u bought it direct.

A lot of people have been encouraging me to buy refurbished, since I get basically the same service with a basically-new computer, and the big tradeoff is that I get it in a plain brown box, rather than the shiny white one with the handle. I'm no big fan of the refurbish, though, since it's first come, first serve, and I daresay the MacBook I want wouldn't stick around until I have the money together.

The $100 gift card at the Mac App Store is appealing, though. Certainly the $100 off the top and that gift card as well would pretty easily match the savings I'd get from trying to get it from the States, without all the headaches. The refurbished MBP would be better than both of them, though, if my timing is good.

op, Wait until the United State No Tax Weekend and drive down there pick up one at best buy! You might or might not need to pay tax when coming back!

When is Tax-Free Weekend? Isn't that in, like, November or something? The expense it would take for me to drive to Maine, get the computer, and drive it back across the border without drawing the ire of customs probably means it wouldn't, on the whole, be worth it.

 

[Dark Void]

Did you buy the 2010 13'' right before the 2011 models hit? I did the same thing, I bought my MBP in December and then the current models came about in February.

If you are concerned with getting it as cheap as possible, I would lurk eBay, Craigslist, and the Apple Refurbished Store once you have the funds at hand.

 

[Minhthien]

I heard next week is the tax-free weekend!

 

[Uberman5000]

Did you buy the 2010 13'' right before the 2011 models hit? I did the same thing, I bought my MBP in December and then the current models came about in February.

Yeah. This often happens to me when I buy computers, so time is of the essence to fetch this new one before the pace of technology decides to kick me in the balls again. Hopefully the refresh between the current MBPs and the new ones won't be quite as great a leap forward as the difference between the C2D and the i7...

If you are concerned with getting it as cheap as possible, I would lurk eBay, Craigslist, and the Apple Refurbished Store once you have the funds at hand.

eBay is one of the sources I have my eye on, though I'm worried their service will be a lot dicier than getting it from Apple. Craigslist also isn't commonly used around here; we tend to use a classifieds site called Kijiji.

The refurbished store is possibly the best option, as a lot of people have been recommending it to me, but I have some qualms about it, aside from availability issues. They get the same service from Apple as new ones, but I'm concerned about things like cosmetic damage, and if it may take longer to ship a refurbished unit here, or if it may be missing some features, like a free OS X Lion upgrade, or restore discs, or the iLife suite.

I heard next week is the tax-free weekend!

Much too soon, unfortunately. I need to wait at least three weeks to save up my paycheques.

 

[Dark Void]

Yeah. This often happens to me when I buy computers, so time is of the essence to fetch this new one before the pace of technology decides to kick me in the balls again. Hopefully the refresh between the current MBPs and the new ones won't be quite as great a leap forward as the difference between the C2D and the i7...

I was a little upset at first because it was my first Apple purchase and I had no knowledge of releases and stuff. It worked out in my favor, though, I prefer the 320M in the 2010 model and the P8600 Core 2 Duo is a good processor, plus the fact that I had it for two months that I wouldn't have had it if I had waited until February for whatever reason.

It was a Christmas gift for myself nevertheless. ; )

 

[Uberman5000]

I was a little upset at first because it was my first Apple purchase and I had no knowledge of releases and stuff. It worked out in my favor, though, I prefer the 320M in the 2010 model and the P8600 Core 2 Duo is a good processor, plus the fact that I had it for two months that I wouldn't have had it if I had waited until February for whatever reason.

It was a Christmas gift for myself nevertheless. ; )

The MBP I have now was meant to be a stopgap between the 2007 aluminum iMac I had and a proper new computer later on. This MacBook Pro basically has the exact same specs as that old iMac: same processor, hard drive and RAM, but slightly lower-end graphics and screen resolution. I got it mostly because the iMac tied me down too much: most of the work I needed to do was out of the house. I got this MacBook because it cost the exact same as the price I got for selling the iMac.

So now the time has come to truly upgrade my system, and with the new quad-core i7 15" MBPs, my timing couldn't be better. I need something with discrete graphics, improved multitasking and a bigger hard drive, since I was doing a lot of highly technical work on my iMac that this MBP isn't really cut out for, like computer animation, video editing, and running Windows on Parallels Desktop. I just hope I can get everything arranged soon, because I don't want to get my new computer days before the next refresh... though this next refresh will probably be more of a refinement than a huge power bump. Still, it remains that it's imperative I upgrade before summer's end.

One other consideration with my purchase is that I don't have a credit card, and I'd rather not use someone else's, like my parent's card, because I don't want to be in dutch with anybody. This makes getting it from the refurbished shop difficult. At least with eBay, I can pay it with PayPal, which can use my bank account. Then again, if I get a new one with an education discount, my teacher friend's going to have to use his card anyway, but again, going through someone else seems like it could easily be disastrous.

 

[randomrazr]

id take a brand new one with the discounts, better deal.

i hate refurbs. i want a computer that only is only TOUCHED BY ME LOL

 

[madisonfaye]

Hey I feel your pain, I just came from NS (after having lived in Michigan) and the jump in tax was insane.

With that being said, which is more cost effective for you. Driving to Maine and buying one? Or just buying it there in NS (or having one shipped to you)?

Also, there is the option of having it sent to a friend in the US, and having them re-ship it to you. I'm not familiar with how much shipping costs would be though.


Where would you be buying it from in NS? Best Buy?