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Rodster

macrumors 68040
Original poster
May 15, 2007
3,177
6
Typically when does Apple begin to sell the current model as a refurb? I've purchased refurbs before and they look new.
 
The iPad mini and 4th-gen iPad refurbs appeared on March 14, 2013 for $30-50 discounts. They were first released on November 2nd 2012. The iPad Air was released on November 1st, so maybe March. This isn't typical though.

Do you really want to wait that long? There are deals ranging near $479 right now. If you can wait a few more weeks, and wake up early, you should be able to catch a sale on Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

I know where your coming from - I bought a 1st gen iPad and a mid-2010 MacBook Pro refurbished and they both have held up perfectly to this day.
 
Another option is open box items at Best Buy. That is how I bought my iPad Mini in January this year. They are usually 7-8% off list price.
 
I'm all for Apple-sourced refurbs when available; I wouldn't hesitate to buy one.

I also don't think $50 savings is worth waiting for months to get.

You can already get 5% off any ipad model just by either buying at Target with their RedCard or if you have a Discover card go through ShopDiscover.com to Bestbuy.com or Walmart.com and get 5% cashback (double-check exclusions though; they're excluding ipad air from apple.com which is why I didn't mention it)

Best bet if you're willing to wait for Black Friday / Cyber Monday is stack whatever BF deals come out with either Target Redcard or ShopDiscover.
 
Yeah refurbs are the way to go at least for me. I own an iPad 2 that's going on 2 years and it still works great. :)

Holding out till March 14 may not be so bad as it'll give me time to see if Apple might release another iPad model to compete with Air. If Apple hadn't treated my iPad 2 like it's a current model i'd probably be all over an iPad Air.

See Apple you need to axe the iPad 2, lol. :p
 
I think refurbs are worth it if you don't mine the current tech. I bought the first gen rMBP on there and am extremely happy with it.

But I would think its not worth waiting 3-6 months for a product, especially if its under 100 dollars of savings. I would find the best price now and get it personally.
 
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