Earlier manufacture date for Macs not sold DIRECTLY from Apple?

Third party vendors may have devices which are older since they may have been sitting in the third party vendor's warehouse waiting to be sold since these vendors likely bought them in bulk. There is a very real risk buying a laptop that may have been sitting in a warehouse for a while....the battery may have lost its charge which could permanently damage the battery. When buying direct from Apple, you will most likely be purchasing a device that has just recently been manufactured.

Otherwise the older manufacturing date is only an issue when it comes to warranty coverage. If the third party vendor is not able to register your purchase of the product with Apple, then Apple will consider the manufacturing date as the start of the warranty period unless you can provide acceptable proof of purchase from an authorized reseller. This could vary by region especially if a valid proof of purchase is required for any type of service.

No, that information is false for the most part. However, if Apple introduces new models and resellers still have stock of older models then they need to sell that older stock. It is your responsibility to find out from the seller what the model year of the Mac you are considering is.

Its just like buying a car, if the 2025 models were just introduced and your local car dealer still has 2024 models in stock they need to sell the 2024's. However they MUST disclose to potential buyers which model year the buyer is interested in.

To be honest, I almost ALWAYS buy my Macs directly from Apple. Best Buy and Costco many times only sell the base model of Apple products. Remember its your job as a consumer to determine what your needs are and buy the product that closest fits your needs. Going back to the car analogy, if you need to move a cord of firewood once a month then why would you consider a small 2 seater car just because its discounted??

If the computer is new (yes even if it's an older model) it still comes with a new model warranty and is eligible for AppleCare.

FWIW, the manufacturing date has no significance of a particular model. If you buy a 2023 model Mac, they are all the same.

askapple4me wrote:

I heard that Macs bought from Costco or Best Buy are older (have an earlier manufacture date) than Macs bought directly from Apple (either online or in Apple Store? Is this true? Prices or warranties are often better elsewhere, but I want the newest model of Mac.

There are a variety of different stores selling new Macs. I too prefer to buy directly from Apple, but have sometimes purchased from vendors like Adorama (authorized Apple sellers) simply because sometimes Apple had a longer wait for delivery of a specific configuration I wanted, usually one with additional memory and internal storage. Adorama, for instance caters to photographers who typically want higher end Macs so they frequently offer those configurations and sometimes can deliver them faster than Apple itself can. Sellers like Costco and Best Buy may be fine but they typically cater to the mass market community, not so much the higher end more demanding users, but more the buyers looking for the lowest cost. Hence they sometimes only have those minimal configurations in stock. All of them are reputable, so if they have what you need and there is a store nearby or one that delivers what you want quickly, there is no reason to avoid them. I don't think the prices or warranties are very different for any of these sellers, including Apple. I would only go with AppleCare to extend the warranty and those cost the same regardless of where purchased.

You can easily tell if the model being sold is an older model by checking its unit number.

What you need to watch out for is retailers selling older models without clearly identifying them as such.