Ground shipping is always free with a Mac purchase (from any of the Apple Stores). With these price reductions, buying through Apple can be a good deal, even though you will pay sales tax. Students, teachers, and education staff can save up to $200 on Macs by purchasing through the Apple Education Store. Any site you see on Brad's Deals is safe. And most of the time, shipping is free (or the price is discounted enough to make up for it).Ī quick note: if the website you are looking at has a shoddy design and the prices are too low to be believed, it probably isn’t an Apple Authorized site and may not be a trustworthy business. Finally, you can save on sales tax from many of these resellers, depending on your location.
B&H is currently offering a free six-month trial of Parallels Access 2.0 with your Mac purchase, and MacMall has a whole slew of rebate offers for free or discounted printers and free or discounted software.
The next big advantage is free software and rebate offers. At $824, it is 8 percent off the Apple Store's retail price. For instance, MacMall has the current lowest price on a new 11.6” MacBook Air. First off, they provide discounts off the retail price. There are a number of advantages to shopping at these stores. The big names in the game include: MacMall, Mac Connection, B&H, Buy.com, Best Buy and Abt Electronics. Apple Authorized ResellersĪpple Authorized Resellers frequently have the best deals on Mac computers and laptops. So where is the best place to buy a Mac? You’ll always find a better deal by getting online and checking out the alternatives in the form of Apple Authorized Resellers and Apple's own special pricing departments. But you should never buy a computer in the Apple Store, no matter how cool the hipster Genius makes you feel. By all means, go, check out the newest models, and take care of your repairs. With very few exceptions, the price for a Mac at the Apple Store will remain consistent from the day it is released to the day it is discontinued.Īpple’s done a great job catering to Mac fans with stores that are monuments to aesthetically pleasing design and staff that are as Apple-focused as the shoppers. On any given Mac laptop or desktop computer, you’ll always find the highest price at the Apple Store.
It's exactly the same computer as one purchased at any other authorized source. The ghost of Steve Jobs doesn't sprinkle magic iDust on it, and the Geniuses haven’t loaded it up with bonus software. There’s nothing special about a Mac purchased from the Apple Store.