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Best Way to Buy a Mac

Verto

Verto

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 20, 2005
582
0
Denton, TX
I bought my iMac off of the Apple Online Education Store, and ended up paying 1570 for the iMac(BTO options), plus 121.68 in taxes. Some have reported getting a better deal buying over the phone, so what's the word with that?

And what is your opinion on buying from Amazon? Does this end up being cheaper since most people do not pay tax on it, plus any kind of rebate you get on top of that? Assuming you weren't needing BTO, or the Printer Offer, would that be a better choice? I'm wanting to get a Mac Mini in the near future possibly, but I'm trying to figure out how to save the most money.
 
Verto said:
I bought my iMac off of the Apple Online Education Store, and ended up paying 1570 for the iMac(BTO options), plus 121.68 in taxes. Some have reported getting a better deal buying over the phone, so what's the word with that?

And what is your opinion on buying from Amazon? Does this end up being cheaper since most people do not pay tax on it, plus any kind of rebate you get on top of that? Assuming you weren't needing BTO, or the Printer Offer, would that be a better choice? I'm wanting to get a Mac Mini in the near future possibly, but I'm trying to figure out how to save the most money.
Click to expand...

I bought my PowerBook using the Apple Devlepor Discount. The student membership for the year was $99 and gave me a one time use discount of 20%. It also got me a upgrade disc for tiger, a full install disc for tiger, and a bunch of t-shirts. It did not give me a discount on Apple Care though. So i went to an Apple Store and used my student discount on that.
 
Apple's Special Deals page is a great way to save money if you don't need the latest rev machine.
 
I hope you ARE a student/teacher and not abusing the program.

Your best deal for a mini would be slightly used or a refurb since the edu discount is a measly $20...
 
Re:

The best way is definitely through your college bookstore, if it's untaxed. I was able to get my powerbook last week at my bookstore for $1800 out the door, thanks to the educational discount and untaxed($350+ in savings).
 
I would say amazon.com. I dont own a mac yet but i am gonna buy an ibook soon off amazon.com because its $899 there and $999 on Apple. I dont know about you but I would much rather save $100 on the same exact model, never opened or used computer.
 
sigamy said:
Apple's Special Deals page is a great way to save money if you don't need the latest rev machine.
Click to expand...

Yes, the Refurbished section has some very nice deals going on. The Mini would be used for her to check email, web browsing, Yahoo Messenger, and some light Office use - nothing serious, and certainly nothing requiring a top of the line model. The only thing I didn't like was the 40GB hard drive. IMO, 60 or 80 should be standard across the board. So, the HD upgrade would be a possible BTO need, or I'd go with the middle 1.42.

And yes, I am a poor college student.
 
to me, it appeared if one is buying a cheaper apple product, like a 12' ibook, even with edu discount, it would be cheaper to buy it from amazon with the $100 rebate, because rebate + no tax > apple edu discount
 
biohazard_6969 said:
whatever you do, DON"T do it at an apple store
Click to expand...

I have to disagree. I purchased my first Mac (a PB) at an apple store and immediately plugged it into an outlet there to make sure it worked fine. Turns out that it was a DOA (screen wouldn't turn on at all), and since I was right there next to the people who had sold it to me they apologized and quickly swapped me out with a new working one. It would have been a much bigger hassle if I had ordered from the apple store online, or anywhere else for that matter to explain and rectify the problem. If you are a student, you can get the education discount at the store. In short, I think people should buy their Macs at Apple Stores if possible (unless they need something BTO).
 
so amazon has no tax?

i am probably going to buy the new 17in imac with edu discount which would be 1200 for the comp +70for tax from the apple store

amazon offers it for 1300, but with a 125 mail in rebate....so thats 1175......amazon doesnt have tax on this? how could that be?
 
derajfast said:
so amazon has no tax?

i am probably going to buy the new 17in imac with edu discount which would be 1200 for the comp +70for tax from the apple store

amazon offers it for 1300, but with a 125 mail in rebate....so thats 1175......amazon doesnt have tax on this? how could that be?
Click to expand...
It's a grey area. Really you are supposed to pay the tax on the purchase, but most e-commerce retailers (out-of-state) leave the taxing up to you.

Apple must charge tax because they have an office in nearly (if not every) state and therefore must abide by state tax laws.
 
But Amazon doesn't offer BTO models right? Only base models meaning the smaller HDD size and RAM?
 
what do you mean give you the choice? where does it say "do you want to pay tax on this item" ......isnt it just included in the subtotal
 
derajfast said:
what do you mean give you the choice? where does it say "do you want to pay tax on this item" ......isnt it just included in the subtotal
Click to expand...
April 15th.
 
but its sales tax.......im 17 so i dont have to do much of anything on april 15th aside from my stocks
 
cdubb213 said:
I got the 30 gb video ipod for 287.00 Canadian with my student discount what an amazing deal.
Click to expand...
Where did you find the 30 gig ipod video for that price?? :eek:

A student discount at the Apple store won't bring it anywhere near that price.
 
PrOeliuM said:
I have to disagree. I purchased my first Mac (a PB) at an apple store and immediately plugged it into an outlet there to make sure it worked fine. Turns out that it was a DOA (screen wouldn't turn on at all), and since I was right there next to the people who had sold it to me they apologized and quickly swapped me out with a new working one. It would have been a much bigger hassle if I had ordered from the apple store online, or anywhere else for that matter to explain and rectify the problem. If you are a student, you can get the education discount at the store. In short, I think people should buy their Macs at Apple Stores if possible (unless they need something BTO).
Click to expand...
I agree. I've bought all my hardware from the local Apple store. Got my discounts, and good service. I will be buying all my stuff there.
 
SteveMcQ said:
But Amazon doesn't offer BTO models right? Only base models meaning the smaller HDD size and RAM?
Click to expand...
Correct. That is one drawback-- and for my laptops, I usually wanted more than the stock configuration for HD storage.
 
I recently bought the newest Powerbook 15.2" on Amazon.com.
I saved 6% sales tax. on $1999.98US, or roughly $120US
And I get the $200 Amazon Rebate, so I get the Powerbook for the same price as Apple's education discount.
Evn though I am a student, it was cheaper to buy at Amazon. Though I will have to pay a slighly higher Applecare fee when I buy it. Because the cheaper Applecare only applies at time of purchase with a new computer.

I'm looking forward to my new Powerbook.
Next I have to buy a sleeve and more Ram.
 
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