Buying a like-new macbook pro at Amazon

sounds like your a mac hater... lol an overpriced machine? I just am replacing today my 7 year old macbook pro that is still runnig FINE (giving it to my nieces and nephews) and just got a open box macbook pro fom Best Buy... Apple does NOT care where the machine came from..... They do care when it was registered as at the time of purchase its when it's warranty kicks in... For instance the one I brought today (955 for a mid 2010 i7 15") has until Jan 28, 2012 left of it's warranty... That means who ever had it before mustve purchased it Jan 28 of this year.... You have up till the end of the first year warranty to add MacCare Protection ( Which I did for mine for $239, yes you can get the educational discount on the warranty up till that point as well, now my like-new mac has till Jan 28 2014 for coverage) I also brought a used Ipad off craigslist (purchaser brought this May, I still have till next May under warranty) You can check any apple product your going to buy by checking the serial number on selfserve.apple.com than select coverage information on the right of the screen... it will tell you how long the machine has left of its warranty...Hope this helps....

John

Do you have a link to the item you are referring to on Amazon.com?

The term "like new" implies "not new". If you are purchasing a used machine from an individual, "like new" to them may not be what you are expecting. Any original warranty on the machine would still be applicable. If the original owner had purchased AppleCare, that extended warranty can be transferred over to you as well. If the original owner had done anything to void their warranty (spilled water, dropped, etc) then you would not have any warranty coverage. I would expect the seller to disclose this, but not all sellers of entirely honest and you may not even be aware of such a problem until such time as you find you need service.

Frankly... for a $200 difference, I'm not sure I would purchase a used machine from an individual. As has been mentioned, Apple's refurbished machines come with a full warranty and are generally very highly rated in terms of quality and you will get similar or better savings than you have mentioned here.

If you want to buy a like new, but refurbished Mac that Apple warranties for a 1 and up to three years with paid AppleCare, then visit their refurbished page on their site.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

However Apple will charge sales tax of the state your living in because they maintain a store somewhere.

Now you could buy new online elsewhere and not pay sales tax provided the site your buying from doesn't have a physical location in your US state ( Amazon is in Washington State), also you get the 1 year Apple warranty as it's a new machine, and thus can buy AppleCare.

You can't buy AppleCare or get a warranty from Apple for a used machine, unless it's from Apple Refurbished.

If you qualify, you can opt to get a educational discount from Apple, but they still charge sales tax/

If your really scraping to get a Mac, then I suggest you put it off or buy a cheap PC until you can save up more money.

There are all sorts of other things you need with a Mac, a case, storage, software, gadgets etc., and so forth that also eats into your wallet.

Also unless your getting the MacBook Pro 2.2 Ghz or better models, the ones below that are really not much better than generic $600 Window PC's you get at the office store. Same cheap shiny screens and poor overheating integrated graphics.

Why pay $1500 for something you can get for half price that does the same thing and dies in the same amount of time?

If you need a powerful laptop and have to spend over $2000 to run heavy duty programs, then a MacBook Pro is worth it over a same powerful Windows PC.