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Please, give your GOLDEN comments to make my dreams true at weekend. Macbook Pro 17''

It might be US dollars macmania82 is talking about, as he is from Poland. You can't buy from the US Apple Store from abroad, so refurbs are out of the question for him. I wonder if buying from the US is an option at all. In fact, buying from the UK might be the best option, as the pound is nearly level with the euro right now. Meaning that a new £2000 17" MacBook Pro will only cost €2300 euro. I wouldn't even think of buying from the US right now, when doing so from within Europe...

EDIT: Yes, €2300 is a lot more than $2600, but when buying from the US there will be a lot of added cost, as there's no VAT in the US. Buying within the EU is really the smarter option, I think. What do you guys think?
 
Bengt77 said:
It might be US dollars macmania82 is talking about, as he is from Poland. You can't buy from the US Apple Store from abroad, so refurbs are out of the question for him. I wonder if buying from the US is an option at all. In fact, buying from the UK might be the best option, as the pound is nearly level with the euro right now. Meaning that a new £2000 17" MacBook Pro will only cost €2300 euro. I wouldn't even think of buying from the US right now, when doing so from within Europe...

EDIT: Yes, €2300 is a lot more than $2600, but when buying from the US there will be a lot of added cost, as there's no VAT in the US. Buying within the EU is really the smarter option, I think. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

i think it might be cheaper to take a vacation or get a real friend in the US.
 
Bengt77 said:
It might be US dollars macmania82 is talking about, as he is from Poland. You can't buy from the US Apple Store from abroad, so refurbs are out of the question for him. I wonder if buying from the US is an option at all. In fact, buying from the UK might be the best option, as the pound is nearly level with the euro right now. Meaning that a new £2000 17" MacBook Pro will only cost €2300 euro. I wouldn't even think of buying from the US right now, when doing so from within Europe...

EDIT: Yes, €2300 is a lot more than $2600, but when buying from the US there will be a lot of added cost, as there's no VAT in the US. Buying within the EU is really the smarter option, I think. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

It is, but Apple UK will not ship outside the UK, just like the US store will not ship outside the US. You can order in any store, but the shipping address needs to be in the country of the store. So unless you have a friend local to the store you can use as a dropbox, you are SOL.

That said, I have one of those friends and buying from the UK saved me about 500 euro compared to the local store and the price including VAT was within 10 or 20 bucks from the US price with the exchange rates at the time.
 
throttlemeister said:
It is, but Apple UK will not ship outside the UK, just like the US store will not ship outside the US. You can order in any store, but the shipping address needs to be in the country of the store. So unless you have a friend local to the store you can use as a dropbox, you are SOL.

That said, I have one of those friends and buying from the UK saved me about 500 euro compared to the local store and the price including VAT was within 10 or 20 bucks from the US price with the exchange rates at the time.
Click to expand...
I understand the actual Apple Store won't ship outside the UK, but any other authorized Apple reseller most likely will. And as prices are pretty much set by Apple, you can't go wrong.

fartheststar said:
i think it might be cheaper to take a vacation or get a real friend in the US.
Click to expand...
It might indeed be cheaper to do either and forget about the MacBook Pro. ;)
 
fartheststar said:
lol, good point. :) I was comparing Euro to USD.

€ 2300 = 3 202.29 U.S. dollars

Your thoughts about a reseller may be his best bet :)
Click to expand...
Yes, I thought so too. Until I tried several online stores via Kelkoo UK. None offered the option to ship outside the UK, so buying from eBay sellers might be the way to go. I just found these offers*. Pretty good, if you ask me. No need to go for a last generation model, in my opinion...

*) One advice when buying an expensive item over eBay: only do business with Power Sellers with impeccable reputaion.
 
Bengt77 said:
. Pretty good, if you ask me. No need to go for a last generation model, in my opinion...

*) One advice when buying an expensive item over eBay: only do business with Power Sellers with impeccable reputaion.
Click to expand...

Agreed. OP: Pay attention to this guy. It's ok to get excited about a dream computer again. Just use common sense, and if you see something you want, don't be afraid to ask for advice on the auction, etc.
 
Bengt77 said:
Yes, I thought so too. Until I tried several online stores via Kelkoo UK. None offered the option to ship outside the UK, so buying from eBay sellers might be the way to go. I just found these offers*. Pretty good, if you ask me. No need to go for a last generation model, in my opinion...

*) One advice when buying an expensive item over eBay: only do business with Power Sellers with impeccable reputaion.
Click to expand...

Thanks for links :) They look really fine, but I worry about warranty and condition matters when I buy from eBay :( when I buy from apple shop, if sth goes wrong, I can go back to shop. but from ebay, I always worry :( maybe it is silly worrying, but I have never bought anything from shops like ebay, especially so high price thing like a macbook pro! what should I pay attention on to buy on ebay?
 
If you only want to buy from Apple, you're restricted ty buying from Polish authorized resellers. Prices will definitely be way higher than any price you'll find on eBay and even in the US Apple Store. For example, in the iSpot web store, the prices seem pretty high: $3800 for the new 17" unibody MacBook Pro and $2950 for the previous model. You will have guaranteed warranty buying from them, though.
 
Bengt77 said:
If you only want to buy from Apple, you're restricted ty buying from Polish authorized resellers. Prices will definitely be way higher than any price you'll find on eBay and even in the US Apple Store. For example, in the iSpot web store, the prices seem pretty high: $3800 for the new 17" unibody MacBook Pro and $2950 for the previous model. You will have guaranteed warranty buying from them, though.
Click to expand...


I know prices are crazy here :( offffff! thats why I could not think about Unibody at all, I hardly could save money for Penryn! but when I found the graphic card defect problem about penryn, my dreams all ruined :(

thats why I started to look for alternatives :( like
Sony Viao: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...0151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644570896
Dell Studio 17: http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop_studio_17?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19

What do you think about such alternatives? I can install leopard on these laptops as well I think

I feel so bad myself to waste money for any dell, sony ... laptop :(, but what else i can do
 
Lone Deranger said:
Be patient... wait until after WWDC next week... then re-evaluate. Don't give into the temptations of the cheap, horrendous Dell/Sony junk. You will kick yourself if you do.
Click to expand...

What can change after WWDC? prices will not obviously go down for 1000-2000$ or Penryn Graphic Card problem will not be magicly fixed in a day!

I will wait of course. but this is the another problem. I cant wait long. I had DELL XPS M170 for over 2 years, i was happy actually, but it is dead since few week ago! now I have no laptop for my job (freelance web design, graphic design).
 
macmania82 said:
What can change after WWDC? prices will not obviously go down for 1000-2000$ or Penryn Graphic Card problem will not be magicly fixed in a day!

I will wait of course. but this is the another problem. I cant wait long. I had DELL XPS M170 for over 2 years, i was happy actually, but it is dead since few week ago! now I have no laptop for my job (freelance web design, graphic design).
Click to expand...

You should have bought the Dell with three - or better: five years - of warranty then. Dell offers those warranty extensions at very reasonable prices, and I can tell you from experience that Dell's service is unbeatable. No other company comes even close to Dell's standard service.

If you buy the Mac without AppleCare, you will most likely face a similar situation (Macs are also just computers that eventually fail) and as you've said so yourself, you do not have the money to buy another computer before the next four or five years.

You are asking for opinions, and here is the one that you most likely do not want to hear: Do NOT buy an Apple computer when you are on a tight budget. Buy another Dell, but this time purchase it with the extended warranty. And if you can afford it, you should buy a Dell business notebook with Pro support (guaranteed four hours same day service) and not just the standard next-day business support. The main differences between the two service options are that with the Pro support Dell guarantees the availability of spare and replacement parts -and- you will get a Dell technician on the phone within less than two minutes and won't be on hold in a call center. Just try to get something like that from Apple.

Leaving the gorgeous design and the Apple brainwashing marketing machinery aside, that MacBook Pro is just a tool to get a job done. It is a tool for you to make money, and as such it has to be dependable. When you're done with the bean counting, you will most likely have found out that with your budget and in the country where you live you are much better off with a branded PC (business) notebook from either Dell or HP.

Furthermore, your existing (software) tool set and experience lies in the PC world. It is hard to come up with a rationale for leaving that behind just to get a hip Mac.

PS: I privately own a 17" PowerBook G4 and my company notebook is a Dell XPS M1530. Of course, the PowerBook, as old as it already is and disregarding its dead battery and NVRAM issues, is a much more beautiful machine than the Dell. But the Dell is the tool that helps me earn my money, it's reliable, works perfectly fine and if there should be a problem, I just call Dell and they send someone to my office to fix it. THAT'S WHAT COUNTS.
 
Hey Winni, thanks for great and detailed post!

You are right that I really dont wanna hear that "DO NOT buy mbp" :( you even can see from my nickname that how much i want that. and how much i sacrificed for years to save money for a Macbook pro Penryn, finally I have the money but this graohic card problem ruined my dreams!

i think it is better not to waste hard-saved money for problematic mbp. My second address is always DELL, (after apple). I used long years and i was very happy! but recently I like Sony Viao design as well.

What do you think for these laptops;
Sony Viao: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...0151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644570896
Dell Studio 17: http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop_studio_17?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19

I want keep money as much as I can. now I have 2500$ and if i spend 1000$ for dell, i will put the rest 1500$ on a corner for Macbook Pro :) and continue to put more on until I buy a Macbook pro 17''! probably it is sadly just not right time for me for a mbp :(
 
Hi,
in case you don't know the refurb section in the apple online store, you might want to check this one out: there are two mbp 2.5 early/late 2008 in the german store, one with hires display and 4 GB ram, one with normal resolution and 2GB Ram / 250 HD for a lower price at 1630 Euros. They are fine machines, tested and often brandnew, with full apple-warranty.

here you have a good overview of the refurbished products available:
http://refurb.me

regarding the graphic card thing:
if your graphic-card (8600) might fail, apple will repair it for free for the next three years!! that means, they extended their warranty for the graphic card from one to three years, just like if you had an applecare especially for your nvidia chip....

and all this for a very good price. I would recommend to check this out and see if you can get a delivery to poland from the german store. it should work, I think.

(I also have a refurb classic 17 inch mbp 2.5! great machine, really love it!!:p)


cheers,
icanboogie
 
icanboogie said:
Hi,
in case you don't know the refurb section in the apple online store, you might want to check this one out: there are two mbp 2.5 early/late 2008 in the german store, one with hires display and 4 GB ram, one with normal resolution and 2GB Ram / 250 HD for a lower price at 1630 Euros. They are fine machines, tested and often brandnew, with full apple-warranty.

here you have a good overview of the refurbished products available:
http://refurb.me

regarding the graphic card thing:
if your graphic-card (8600) might fail, apple will repair it for free for the next three years!! that means, they extended their warranty for the graphic card from one to three years, just like if you had an applecare especially for your nvidia chip....

and all this for a very good price. I would recommend to check this out and see if you can get a delivery to poland from the german store. it should work, I think.

(I also have a refurb classic 17 inch mbp 2.5! great machine, really love it!!:p)


cheers,
icanboogie
Click to expand...

Thanks for advice icanboogie

Refurbished was my first choice actually, but I have problem about location. I cant get any refurbished to Poland :( thats why I had to go for brand new!

about graphic card warranty, I read at forums that, mbp owners send their laptop to apple, apple repair it, after a short while it happens again , than again .. .. ... probably i would be extremely mad in such case and even smash it to wall!!:mad: you pay extremely high money to a laptop that makes you trouble!! no way... especially with my bad luck, it definetely would happen me.

Ps, I'm very happy for you that you have no problem with your mbp :)
 
Bengt77 said:
I don't know what the status is of your possible purchase, macmania82 but have you read this news? Might be what you need to feel safe buying an older model.
Click to expand...

Thanks for link Bengt77, it really made feel in more safe : ) I still couldn't buy a mbp, I keep searching for good price...
 
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