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Where is a good place to buy macbook pro parts online

Hi, I have a 2010 MacBook Pro that stopped turning on. The Apple Store diagnosed it as a logic board failure and quoted an astronomical price to fix it. I bought this new and paid a lot for it. I would rather fix it affordably and buy a new one next year at some point. Right now, I just do not have the funds for either Apple's repair or a new one. I am wary of eBay, and most other places are very pricey for the logic board. I plan to use the guide at iFixit.com, but definitely not their parts, as they are selling them for more than the going price of my MBP. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), 15" 2010

Posted on Nov 7, 2014 10:47 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 7, 2014 11:48 AM

Alright, here is the skinny. You pretty much have 3 choices: Apple, iFixit/similar, or eBay. Apple will charge so much that you will just have to buy a newer model. Many people do this, and get, say a new 13" MBP or Air instead of the 15" they are used to. iFixit, Powerbookmedic, and some others are good what they do, have long warranties, and are expensive. eBay sellers are often not so good, have shorter or no warranties, but are cheaper. In the end you have to choose. I run a one-man Mac repair shop in Santa Fe (don't worry I won't promote it), and once I have narrowed down where a part can be found, I will offer my customers the choice of, typically, a higher-priced repair with the matching warranty from iFixit or similar, or a lower-priced repair with a part I found on eBay, with a shorter warranty. Almost always, they will choose the eBay part and save, quite often, a few hundred dollars.


One thing I will say, eBay has improved drastically on the returns side. In terms of returns and refunds, I have had 0 problems of, I don't know, 200 things I have bought there since about 2012. Before that, this was not the case. They have come to strongly favor the buyer in any given situation.


I will usually "vet" a seller on eBay by asking them a few questions, and make sure they know something about what they are doing, and aren't just ripping parts out of Macs and reselling them. Actually, this is exactly what iFixit does, but they at least have some knowledge and good customer service. I will then bookmark the sellers I trust and browse them for parts when I have a repair to perform. The best recent one I have discovered is iPros, they are at


http://stores.ebay.com/ipros


I mention them specifically because I see they have your board on sale. They used to have like 1000+ feedback, I wonder if they changed accounts or something? In any case, I have bought 3 logic boards from them, and they have all arrived in water-proof, ESD-proof, double-sealed packaging, which so far is unique to them. I personally give a 90-day warranty for repairs, which is almost matched by their 60-day one. They should change it to 90 days, as most decent shops will offer that or longer.


In any case, you are talking about hundreds of dollars upfront and then, in your case, performing the repair yourself, which can be a little scary if you are new. Just make sure to at least get a wrist strap. Probably radioshack or similar, or, again, eBay - there are some generic ones on there for a dollar or two.


If, on the off-off-chance you are in Santa Fe, I would do this for you, but even then, I see you are trying to save some money. Just be careful and take your time. Good luck!

7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 7, 2014 11:48 AM in response to Josiah83

Alright, here is the skinny. You pretty much have 3 choices: Apple, iFixit/similar, or eBay. Apple will charge so much that you will just have to buy a newer model. Many people do this, and get, say a new 13" MBP or Air instead of the 15" they are used to. iFixit, Powerbookmedic, and some others are good what they do, have long warranties, and are expensive. eBay sellers are often not so good, have shorter or no warranties, but are cheaper. In the end you have to choose. I run a one-man Mac repair shop in Santa Fe (don't worry I won't promote it), and once I have narrowed down where a part can be found, I will offer my customers the choice of, typically, a higher-priced repair with the matching warranty from iFixit or similar, or a lower-priced repair with a part I found on eBay, with a shorter warranty. Almost always, they will choose the eBay part and save, quite often, a few hundred dollars.


One thing I will say, eBay has improved drastically on the returns side. In terms of returns and refunds, I have had 0 problems of, I don't know, 200 things I have bought there since about 2012. Before that, this was not the case. They have come to strongly favor the buyer in any given situation.


I will usually "vet" a seller on eBay by asking them a few questions, and make sure they know something about what they are doing, and aren't just ripping parts out of Macs and reselling them. Actually, this is exactly what iFixit does, but they at least have some knowledge and good customer service. I will then bookmark the sellers I trust and browse them for parts when I have a repair to perform. The best recent one I have discovered is iPros, they are at


http://stores.ebay.com/ipros


I mention them specifically because I see they have your board on sale. They used to have like 1000+ feedback, I wonder if they changed accounts or something? In any case, I have bought 3 logic boards from them, and they have all arrived in water-proof, ESD-proof, double-sealed packaging, which so far is unique to them. I personally give a 90-day warranty for repairs, which is almost matched by their 60-day one. They should change it to 90 days, as most decent shops will offer that or longer.


In any case, you are talking about hundreds of dollars upfront and then, in your case, performing the repair yourself, which can be a little scary if you are new. Just make sure to at least get a wrist strap. Probably radioshack or similar, or, again, eBay - there are some generic ones on there for a dollar or two.


If, on the off-off-chance you are in Santa Fe, I would do this for you, but even then, I see you are trying to save some money. Just be careful and take your time. Good luck!

Nov 7, 2014 11:10 AM in response to Kappy

Kappy, I don't think you read my question. You focused too much on your embedded link. I am on a bit of a budget, and as I said in my post, iFixit's prices are more than the street price of my MBP. Obviously, eBay is cheaper, but I have had a few problems with returns in the past, and don't want to mess around with something this expensive.

Nov 7, 2014 12:03 PM in response to skolton

Thank you for the enlightening post, "skolton." At least one person read my question properly. So, for the logic board to my 2010 MacBook Pro, which has an i5 chip, iFixit is $999.95 (lol?), and the eBay seller iPros is $358.05 on sale. I see that the iFixit one doesn't come with fans or other parts, whereas iPros does. So, what would any rational human being do? I had set my budget at $400, and if the repair costs more than that, then I would just buy a second-hand MacBook of some kind off craigslist to get me by until next fall when I should have the budget for a new awesome one. I am going to get it now and post back here after installing. Then I can stop posting off my 2006 Dell tower. 😟

Nov 7, 2014 12:14 PM in response to Josiah83

If you are in the USA, go back to Apple and inquire about a "depot repair." They send the computer to the same central refurb facility that prepares the refurbs Apple sells through its web store. Assuming the damage is not caused by abusive damage and the case requires no repairs, they charge a flat fee of aound US$315 to fix whatever they find wrong. It takes about a working week instead of same-day as the expensive Aple store repair.


Everyone who has used this option and posted back here were ecstatic with the outcome.

Nov 7, 2014 1:23 PM in response to Allan Jones

Well, this just in, my MacBook Pro actually has liquid damage. How do I know? Because my younger brother just confessed. He had borrowed it for 2 days to work on a demo in Garageband, and then called me saying it wouldn't turn on for some reason, but he would go ahead and bring to the Apple Store for me. When I posted earlier today I was under the impression that it had just mysteriously stopped working. What he didn't tell me was that he had spilled "a few drops of coffee" on it. So Apple already said no to a "depot repair" or other cheaper option. Apparently, even if this still had Applecare, it wouldn't qualify due to liquid damage. So, my decision to buy the part off eBay is re-affirmed, but my faith in my little brother is not. Since I already purchased it and it's marked as shipped, it's kind of a done deal anyway. He has promised to pay me back over the next month, so all told I am only temporarily out of the $375 that I spent today. The part is supposed to arrive Monday, and I will post back with my success, or (please no) lack thereof. I'm placing by the heater vent tonight and if it starts working on its own again, I will just return the part. iPros said if it was unopened there would be no restocking fee. Thanks everyone for the info.

Where is a good place to buy macbook pro parts online

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