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Where are good places to buy refurbished macs besides apple?
- Thread starter Steve Adams
- Start date
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Bigwaff
Contributor
Amazon sells “renewed” machines. These are inspected by a “third-party” and sometimes cheaper than Apple’s refurbished machines. You decide whether the savings are worth the risk. I view Apple’s refurbished products as the same as new. Amazon’s are probably ok.
FreakinEurekan
macrumors G3
I would only buy from Apple, for warranty reasons. Refurbs come with full 1-year warranty.
Boppi
macrumors regular
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TechRunner
macrumors 68030
I've had tremendous luck with Apple refurbs and wouldn't buy one anywhere else. For some resellers, "refurb" means wiping everything down and making sure it powers up and loads the OS. Apple refurbs are truly refurbished and include the same warranty as a new Mac.
I wouldn't risk my money anywhere else, but everyone has different needs, so you buy what meets yours.
I wouldn't risk my money anywhere else, but everyone has different needs, so you buy what meets yours.
Fishrrman
macrumors Nehalem
TechRunner has it right above.
If you want "refurbished"
and
Want quality
then
The ONLY place to buy from is Apple's online refurbished page.
Buy from Apple, and you KNOW what you're getting.
From anyone else, and...?????????
If you want "refurbished"
and
Want quality
then
The ONLY place to buy from is Apple's online refurbished page.
Buy from Apple, and you KNOW what you're getting.
From anyone else, and...?????????
boppin
Suspended
Here in Germany, there's a company called reBuy. They sell all sorts of hardware. If there's a defect, they try to repair it or give you an equivalent device. This probably exists in other countries as well.
3 years of rebuy guarantee
Tested used goods
Up to 50% cheaper than new
21-day return policy
3 years of rebuy guarantee
Tested used goods
Up to 50% cheaper than new
21-day return policy
mvdrl
macrumors member
I agree with the recommendation to try OWC - Other World Computers, aka macsales.com. I usually purchase from the Apple refurbished store, but OWC units are generally cheaper and they often have a very wide selection, especially if you don't mind an older machine. And their customer service is excellent - on the one occasion that I wasn't happy with an iMac (my fault for not checking the specs carefully), they made the return / exchange process very simple.
The issue is I am looking for an M2 or m3 Pro 14 MBP, all apple has now are M5s and they are still bonkers expensive. Amazon has a great warranty and return plan if bought from their renewed store.
I went on macsales.com. Place looks shady af. They have a 32gb 16 inch macbook pro M1 Max listed there, as soon as you click on it, if you are not reading, it's actually 16gb 512 regular pro model. NO THANKS.
bradman83
macrumors 68000
Apple will always be your best bet because they include a one year warranty, even if the product as originally sold would be out of warranty.
Best Buy's Geek Squad Certified Refurbished has good prices and a 90 day warranty, so that at least gives you a window to see if there's anything immediately wrong with the item, but their consistency isn't as good as Apple's.
Best Buy's Geek Squad Certified Refurbished has good prices and a 90 day warranty, so that at least gives you a window to see if there's anything immediately wrong with the item, but their consistency isn't as good as Apple's.
Timpetus
macrumors 6502a
They are an extremely legit business, they've been around for decades servicing the Mac market. Their Mac listings usually say "up to" whatever the top spec is that they have in stock, but it will show you the most affordable model first. I've bought many upgrades and drive bays from them, and they've always been great to deal with. Almost bought Macs from them several times, but haven't pulled the trigger on one just yet.
BSDnostalgia
macrumors 6502
I have purchased Apple refurbished from Apple -- which were like new, and, used, from a place in Tampa Florida called
"Mac of All Trades" which sells good used, tested, sometimes upgraded things. They were great 7-8 years ago when all the still-repairable Intel stuff was getting to be fairly cheap. I haven't bought anything recently in the no-right-to-repair Apple Silicon era, so, I can't testify on how things have been lately, but, back in the day, I got some very good values there. https://www.macofalltrades.com/
"Mac of All Trades" which sells good used, tested, sometimes upgraded things. They were great 7-8 years ago when all the still-repairable Intel stuff was getting to be fairly cheap. I haven't bought anything recently in the no-right-to-repair Apple Silicon era, so, I can't testify on how things have been lately, but, back in the day, I got some very good values there. https://www.macofalltrades.com/
cateye
macrumors 65816
Apple Refurb Store inventory can change several times a day. Their refurbs range from M1's on forward, and even occasionally some Intel machines coming off long-term business leases, but you have to be focused to get what you want as you competing against lots of people who are all watching for the same stock.
Use a site like Refurb Tracker to watch for specific configurations (you can specify broad categories like "M3 Pro MacBook Pro" or hyper narrow like "M3 Pro Silver 14-inch MacBook Pro 16GB 512GB") It'll ping you with an email when stock is available, but be ready to act because stuff can go out of stock in minutes.
Apple refurbs are like-new with full warranty (as others have indicated). Amazon Refurbs are fine, and pricing is better, but you're rolling the dice on both warranty and quality. If you're OK with that, it can be a good option as well.
If you are not reading what they wrote, that doesn't make them 'shady'. It means messed up.
What Macsales has on their site is.
For example
" ...
Apple 14 Macbook Pro ( M1 series, late 2021)
https://eshop.macsales.com/configur...silicon-14-inch-late-2021?sku=UAOP1HS42XXXXXD
Available with:https://eshop.macsales.com/configur...silicon-14-inch-late-2021?sku=UAOP1HS42XXXXXD
- Memory up to 64GB
- Storage up to 4.0TB SSD
- Up to 10-Core Apple M1 Max Processor
- Up to Apple Silicon M1 Pro 16-Core GPU
- 3 x Thunderbolt 4 Ports
- Built-in 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax Wi-Fi
- Supports up to macOS 26.x Tahoe (Current Version)
There are "up to" in several places there. The link is for all the MBP 14" models of that series. So there is no individaul model there.
Know who also uses the phrase "Up to" ... Apple. MBP marketing page.
"
Up to 8x faster AI performance
...
- Up to 6x faster ...
"
MacBook Pro
Find the best MacBook Pro for you with the M5, M5 Pro, or M5 Max chip. Built for AI. Up to 24 hours of battery life. Liquid Retina XDR display.
www.apple.com
Some of the other offerings may have multiple processor choices. They can only sell what they have .
Macsales doesn't carry every possible refurb/used MBP. And neither does Apple. \
This is about he layout of the offerings. Apple has a left hand navigation bar where can pick out which mac model to get a subset and then showed all the subsets there. mac sales has the product offering by release group. Click on that and see configuration options. Just two different ways of navigate a sometimes large list. Macsales is more of a legacy set up to back when Macs had more configuration choices. Macsales could do a memory/storage upgrade for you also when that was possible.
Boppi
macrumors regular
You spent a few minutes with that post above, and it's on point.
I thought the op was looking for older, more affordable hardware not usually seen on the Apple refurb site, while most in the thread are rolling on about ("I wouldn't risk my money anywhere else") and/or only buying refurbs from Apple. Okay, cool. Whatever.
That's why I posted the link.
There's nothing shady about the site or the company.
I thought the op was looking for older, more affordable hardware not usually seen on the Apple refurb site, while most in the thread are rolling on about ("I wouldn't risk my money anywhere else") and/or only buying refurbs from Apple. Okay, cool. Whatever.
That's why I posted the link.
There's nothing shady about the site or the company.
Last edited:
It seemed that way to me. It clearly listed 32gb 1tb model among many other 16/512 models. But when you click on the 32gb model it brings up at 16 512 device. That's misleading IMO.
mvdrl
macrumors member
they're definitely not shady... very legit and been around for years. But I can understand why you might have a different impression on first checking out their site. I've ordered from macsales 6 or 7 times, and each experience has been excellent; it's been very clear what I was ordering, including full specifications, and its condition. Once you're used to their site and their "up to" descriptions, it's all very clear.
I've purchased from the Apple Refurbished site and also had good experiences buying/selling on Swappa -- much safer and reliable than FB Marketplace and that ilk.