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Awesome deal from Amazon.

R

radpanic

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 5, 2007
68
0
After a lot of research I think I found the best deal for a 2.4 20" iMac and I wanted to share the info:
Amazon is selling them for $1495.00. They also have a $75 MIR and no sales tax(if you live in a state without an Amazon presence). Plus, if you choose the free trial of Amazon Prime, you get free 2 day shipping! That brings the total to $1420 shipped!!
Like I said, I did a lot of research including refurbs from the Apple Store, MacMall(including all their B.S. rebates), pricegrabber, Google products, and everywhere else I could think of. Anyone else find a better deal? (man, I hope not, mine will be here tomorrow:D)

Oh yeah, they also have a $100 MIR for the 24"
 
stevegmu said:
$1399 from the Apple Store with a student discount. Free delivery, and no waiting for rebates.
Click to expand...

This brings up a good point. I checked today and I don't even think they verify your student status. You simply select your "school" in your area code and promise that you're a student. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Edit: Also, you're not including sales tax into that $1399 for those of us who have a brick and mortar Apple store in our states, so technically his deal would be better for a lot of people. Now, the best deal would be the refurbs..

Just because I already had it typed out, here's the number for the 24" iMac 2.4 using the .0625 Texas state sales tax. I took into consideration the the employee discount because a I might be able to have someone there purchase one (I think it's 15%, but I highly doubt they'd use their once a year discount of 15% for me). In the end I also figured in 4 gigs of 3d party ram. Really, I'm assuming for myself it's going to be a refurb or Amazon..the price difference between the refurb and Amazon only being something like $49 for a never returned iMac.

Apple store: $1,799.00
Sales Tax: $112.45
Total: $1911.45

Apple Store (refurb):$1,549.00
Sales Tax: $96.81
Total: $1645.81

Amazon:$1,794.00
Sales Tax: None
Rebate: $100 mail in
Final total: $1694

Apple Store (employee rebate): $1799.00
Rebate: $269.85
Total:$1529.15
Sales Tax: $95.57
Final Total: $1624.72

Mac Memory (4gb): $99.00

Final:
Store: $2011.81
Store (online Rfurb): $1745.81
Amazon: $1,894.00 ($1794.00 after MIR)
Store (employee): $1724.72
 
Vis said:
This brings up a good point. I checked today and I don't even think they verify your student status. You simply select your "school" in your area code and promise that you're a student. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

Well, they might not check, but pretending you're eligible for Edu discount when you're not is just wrong on so many levels. Just go with Amazon's deal.
 
CalMin said:
Well, they might not check, but pretending you're eligible for Edu discount when you're not is just wrong on so many levels. Just go with Amazon's deal.
Click to expand...

It's not the most profitable one anyway (it only takes off about $100), the best deal would still be Amazon.
 
Amazon is hands down almost always the cheapest option unless you're an employee of Apple or something.
 
Vis said:
--Snip --
Final:
Store: $2011.81
Store (online Rfurb): $1745.81
Amazon: $1,894.00 ($1794.00 after MIR)
Store (employee): $1724.72
Click to expand...



MacMall:
$1794 ($1694 after rebates)
Sales Tax: none
Sell "free printer" (after rebates) = $75
Sell "free parallels" (after rebates) = $70
Net cost: $1549

Even if you don't sell Parallels because you plan to use it you are in a better financial place because (after rebates) Parallels was free.
 
Mindflux said:
MacMall:
$1794 ($1694 after rebates)
Sales Tax: none
Sell "free printer" (after rebates) = $75
Sell "free parallels" (after rebates) = $70
Net cost: $1549

Even if you don't sell Parallels because you plan to use it you are in a better financial place because (after rebates) Parallels was free.
Click to expand...

Ohhh..nice find and another option! Thanks!

NM: I'm and idiot and see the printer and Parallels now.
 
Vis said:
This brings up a good point. I checked today and I don't even think they verify your student status. You simply select your "school" in your area code and promise that you're a student. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Edit: Also, you're not including sales tax into that $1399 for those of us who have a brick and mortar Apple store in our states, so technically his deal would be better for a lot of people. Now, the best deal would be the refurbs..
Click to expand...

All the Apple online store asks is that you check the box stating you are eligible to receive the student discount.

Amazon is not tax-free- at least in Virginia. I still pay the 5% whether I go to the Apple Store in Tysons 8 miles away, or buy online from Amazon.
 
ntrigue said:
I am required to input a Username and Password associated with my school server in order to log-in to the Education Store. I purchased Adobe CS3 and had to scan a photo student ID.
Click to expand...

That's an Adobe thing, not an Apple thing. I've bought my Apple products using a student discount (all legally) and never had to show any proof.
 
Just for giggles, and again because I'm in the process of pricing the options, I checked on the re-sale value of the "free printer" and "free Parallels" that come with the MacMall MIR deal.

I'm assuming the free printer is the probably the Stylus C120 Color Inkjet Printer. There are a few of them on ebay and they are mentioned as coming in a "package" deal. Those are selling for a whopping...$.99 cents. I have to assume it's pretty much a throw-away and not worth anything.

Unopened Parallels should fetch you about $30.00

Final:
Mac Mall: $1894 (Plus $100 MIR)
Parallels=$30 resold
Printer=Nothing
Total:$1764

Refurb still comes in ahead, but only by $18.00 or so. However, if you go the other route you get a unused mac but have to deal with MIR and turn around and sell the Parallels. Guess it's a toss up. In some ways, I wonder if having a Mac that's been looked over by Apple tech people (the refurb) might give you a better chance on not getting one with the gradient problem. In any case, I'm just spinning my wheels here until I get paid and can make the decision.
 
radpanic said:
MacMall(including all their B.S. rebates),
Click to expand...

I'm curious why you call them BS rebates. I got my $100 iMac rebate through them, along with free shipping and no sales tax.

For my company, we've received countless rebates through them when we buy computers--cash back, free printers, free RAM, etc. They've all been legitimate to us.
 
There's a few printers that you have an option of picking. Add a iMac to your cart and it'll ask if you want parallels and a printer and let you chose.]

Seems the C120 is the package printer this week.

I wouldn't discount being able to sell that for 60 bucks on craigslist. Nevermind nilly willy eBay.

If you search completed auctions I see the C120 going for 20-50+ship.
 
Mindflux said:
There's a few printers that you have an option of picking. Add a iMac to your cart and it'll ask if you want parallels and a printer and let you chose.]

Seems the C120 is the package printer this week.

I wouldn't discount being able to sell that for 60 bucks on craigslist. Nevermind nilly willy eBay.

If you search completed auctions I see the C120 going for 20-50+ship.
Click to expand...

Yea, It's a tough call.
 
Dimwhit said:
I'm curious why you call them BS rebates. I got my $100 iMac rebate through them, along with free shipping and no sales tax.

For my company, we've received countless rebates through them when we buy computers--cash back, free printers, free RAM, etc. They've all been legitimate to us.
Click to expand...

I can answer that with one example my friend:

*Free Shipping
*after mail-in-rebate

Seriously, a MIR for shipping?! Come on.
 
I bought my iMac on BF '07 from Amazon.
The price was $1429 - $75 MIR (already got it 2 week ago) = $1345
Two bad things are: I had to pay another $10 for a Leopard upgrade DVD and I couldn't upgrade the MM to BTMM.
But the price still beat that of Apple store because of the tax, which is $1399 * (1+7%) = $1498.
 
I also don't like MacMall's "rebates" -- in fact, for my MacBook that I bought in April, I never even got the rebates! I probably could have persisted but I wasted way too much time trying to get just the rebate information from them after my computer arrived. It seemed to me at the time that they made the process intentionally cumbersome. YMMV.

I bought my new iMac from the refurb store like I used to always do before the MacBook. It was marginally more expensive due to sales tax, but worth the lack of hassle.

--Chris

PS - Technically you're supposed to pay your state sales tax anyway if you live in a state with a sales tax and purchase an item tax-free out-of-state. :)
 
hempcamp said:
I also don't like MacMall's "rebates" -- in fact, for my MacBook that I bought in April, I never even got the rebates! I probably could have persisted but I wasted way too much time trying to get just the rebate information from them after my computer arrived. It seemed to me at the time that they made the process intentionally cumbersome. YMMV.

I bought my new iMac from the refurb store like I used to always do before the MacBook. It was marginally more expensive due to sales tax, but worth the lack of hassle.

--Chris

PS - Technically you're supposed to pay your state sales tax anyway if you live in a state with a sales tax and purchase an item tax-free out-of-state. :)
Click to expand...


How cumbersome? Copy UPC/Serial number off box, fill out form. Mail copy of Form, UPC/Serial and Copy of Receipt. Wait. Receive Check, Cash. Done.

No different than ANY OTHER rebate, ever.
 
Me too. Just pulled the trigger and ordered from Amazon a 20" 2.4GHz machine. Will be my first Mac. I'm a Prime customer and was able to get next day delivery for $3.99. I bought an iPhone and love it so much I thought I would get a Mac instead of a new Dell. The Mac will be used for handling the family photos and movies. Will post first impressions.
 
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