Places To Go To Get Good Deals On Macintosh Computers

Apple does not sell anything cheap, and this is widely known to be true. However this doesn’t mean you have to pay full price as long as you know where to look for deals on Apple hardware.

Saving cash on Apple products starts by knowing where not to shop.

Never shop at an Apple store

Unless you have someone you know in college (Apple always gives instant discounts to college students), you will always pay full price in an Apple store.

Go to the Apple store to try, but never to buy.

Never shop new at Apple.com

The emphasis here is on new, as there is a refurbished area that I’ll talk about in a moment. When buying new from Apple.com, again you will pay full price and it’s not smart to go there to buy any new Apple products in an attempt to save money, because you won’t.

Here’s a few places where you can literally save over $1,000 on the purchase of a Mac, be it desktop or MacBook:

Low End Mac

Contrary to the title of the site, this place has routinely updated deals for Apple products across the Internet. The first button to hit on LowEndMac is Deals. For whichever product you pick, make sure to scroll through the entire page as the links to get the deal are always near the bottom and not in plain sight.

Admittedly, sometimes it is true that Apple.com does have the best price, but if that’s the situation for whatever you were looking for – don’t buy because in a month or so someone else will have it for less, and usually by at least $75 or more.

Mac of All Trades

I consider this to be the absolute best web site on the Internet to get seriously good deals on a Mac computer. They have prices that are literally half of what you would pay for the same on eBay, and being they are an authorized Apple reseller, any refurbs/repairs are done right the first time.

The best part about Mac of All Trades is that they sell everything Apple. All computers including the big-and-bad Mac Pros, all peripherals, you name it, they have it.

And it just so happens they’re located in Tampa, Florida – right where PCMech is based. Buying from Mac of All Trades is buying from an American company.

Crucial

Crucial only does one thing – RAM. That’s it. But they do a darn good job at it.

Buying RAM from Apple.com is one of the biggest rip-offs out there – just as bad as buying RAM from Dell. The quality is proper, but the price is not. You will literally spend double or triple the price for RAM sticks for your Mac buying from Apple.com, but not from Crucial.

It’s very important to note that you must purchase RAM that is compatible with your Mac, as the way it works is different. You can’t stick PC RAM into a Mac and expect it to work, because it won’t. Why? Because Mac RAM is unbuffered while PC RAM is buffered.

Crucial makes it stupidly easy to buy RAM for Mac. On their main home page, select “Apple” for step 1, your product line of Mac (such as MacBook Pro) for step 2 and model for step 3. After that you’re presented with selections and prices instantly.

Other memory sellers state their RAM is compatible with a Mac but many times it isn’t – but you will never have this problem with Crucial when it comes to your Mac, and you will save a TON of cash in the process besides.

Apple.com refurbished

Apple does have a refurbished area, but wow is it buried.

Here’s how to get to it:

1. Go to store.apple.com
2. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.
3. Look to the left sidebar for the tiny link that says “Refurbished Mac” and click it.

From there you’ll see the deals listed. Prices for the items will be anywhere from 15 to 30% off.

I will say however you’ll probably find a better deal for the same stuff at Mac of All Trades. You’re best off checking both Apple’s refurb area and Mac of All Trades to see where the best deal is.