Any pros/cons to buying a Mac from an authorized dealer....

Take your credit card or cash and go buy.
There is no difference.
Warranty is the same.

I have purchased Macs from:
CompUSA (because they had a great inside-the-store Apple rep, 2.3 miles from my house)
WorstBuy (ditto)
Amazon (no sales tax)
Apple Store (1.3 miles from my house, instant gratification)

Enjoy your new Mac.

The main difference would be that Apple Stores are staffed by Apple employees. There are probably strict guidelines about what they can say and what they cannot say. That's understandable. And they are very helpful and informative about the products themselves, like a product brochure is informative (stress the positive points).

An authorized dealer sells Apple products, just like they sell products from any other company. They still want to sell you the product, but they can probably say what they want to say. That can be good or bad; they can tell you something that is not true (either intentionally or because they are misinformed). But they may be more forthcoming with other details.

I usually buy from an authorized Apple dealer that I've been doing business with for a long time. They usually offer me memory upgrades and software at discounts that Apple Stores don't offer, making the cost of the total package significantly less than I can get from an Apple Store.

As long as you have the AppleCare Protection plan, it doesn't make any difference. If there is a problem with it later, you can have it serviced or replaced either at an Apple Store or by calling AppleCare directly.

If the 'authorized dealer' is a system integrator who installs/maintains/services
systems for business accounts, they're likely to be FAR better informed than
the pseudo-geniuses at an Apple Store.

OTOH, Apple Stores are probably easiest to deal with during the first few weeks
after purchase. You can return/exchange with little/no hassle for 14 days, and
they can replace (rather than repair) defective products for the first 30 days. But
after that, I see absolutely no advantage to buying direct from Apple.

OTOOH, Apple's 'corporate partner' and educational discounts are available
only from an Apple Store or apple.com.

Looby

A major difference would be the return policy. An authorized dealer may have one that's better or worse than Apple's. Check into under what circumstances you can get a full refund, how much time you have to make a return, if you'll be charged a restocking fee, etc.

Full disclosure, I am an Apple Specialist, Authorized Reseller, Training Center, Service Provider and Direct Dispatch Service Provider, among a lot of other things.

If you are talking about these guys:

http://www.firsttech.com/

they are first rate, and will provide you with an experience different than that of the Apple Store.

The Apple store is prohibited from supporting you once you pass their threshold, unless you call them or walk-in. If you need any onsite work you are out of luck. Authorized providers are required and given other incentives, to keep their staffs highly trained and motivated. And also remember that many independent Apple Specialists have been in business longer than Apple Stores have existed. My stores are less than 20 miles from seven Apple Stores, and we have expanded, this year putting a new store less than 1.5 miles from a flagship Apple Store. The Apple Specialist channel is under intense competition, and in order to survive, they must offer exceptional customer experiences, or they are SOL. This fact is a great thing for the consumer.

But like any sales situation, including the Apple Store, caveat emptor.

I would add this, if you find that an Apple retail store isn't up to par for any reason, please complain directly to the store manager your issues. We are just end users here.

You can also contact Apple at any of the various locations here:

http://www.apple.com/contact/

In general Apple retail will not install 3rd party RAM, at least that's been my and other people's experience. Many third party resellers will do such installations, and some will even find a way to install hard drives safely. None of the Apple retail stores I know of will do that for you.

Bringing it in to service at some Apple retail stores, you often will need to hold on to your original RAM and hard drive, and any other hardware that shipped with the machine before they are willing to diagnose the machine for a hardware issue. So if you swap hardware, keep the old hardware in case it needs to be repaired.

Authorized dealers have told me they have to order parts from a generic hardware wholeseller for Apple products, whereas Apple when you deal with Applecare directly has a centralized repair center for some machines which can get some repairs done quicker. Your mileage may vary. When I've called AppleCare, they have told me repairs that take longer than 3 attempts or 3 weeks often can be asked to be changed to replacements. But again this may have changed.

Whether any of these are general policy or not, is unknown, as we can't question policy on this board.

You may not like the "I don't know", but in general a lot of things Apple does not outline for end users clearly. So all you are going to get is general experience and not a definitive answer.