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UnawareTask

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 4, 2024
4
2
I bought what I thought was a new, sealed 2021 M1 Pro 16" Macbook Pro with 32gb of ram and 2tb of storage on Swappa for $1700. What I received was an M1 Max instead of the M1 Pro (everything else the same). And it was indeed sealed but there are about 6 minor blemishes and scratches on the top of the case (3 worst pictured below).

I'm thinking this definitely isn't new but is probably an Apple refurbished product. It was totally sealed in the box with Apple's unique little tab pull with the arrow on it (see pic below). And the accessories inside had Apple's parchment paper type plastic on them. There's no way all of this is faked right?

I could technically return it since they said new and it's hard to believe this could be new. But...I got an Apple refurbished M1 Max with bumped up specs for $1700 (without fees or taxes). The base model for this was $2500 from Apple refurbished directly last time I saw it. Also that $1700 is actually the average Swappa sale price for an M1 Pro so if the seller genuinely didn't know it was an M1 Max then they weren't selling it for a suspiciously low price. The box from Apple doesn't say the chip variant on it, they just say the number of cores, so it's not that ridiculous to think someone could get confused.

Am I being scammed? Is this stolen or something? I checked the serial number on Apple's site and it says coverage expired (which isn't unexpected for a 2021 Macbook) but nothing else. And of course I can't add AppleCare at this point. I checked system report and the battery cycle count is 2.

If I can be confident this came from Apple, even if it's refurbished, then I will definitely keep it because I care more about the savings than the minor blemishes and scratches. But I'm worried I'm missing something.
 

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If I can be confident this came from Apple, even if it's refurbished, then I will definitely keep it because I care more about the savings than the minor blemishes and scratches. But I'm worried I'm missing something.
More than likely the seller purchased it refurbished before selling it to you, and either made a mistake listing the unit or doesn't understand the difference in processor specs. The laptop boots up does it not or is it activation/iCloud locked?
 
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More than likely the seller purchased it refurbished before selling it to you, and either made a mistake listing the unit or doesn't understand the difference in processor specs. The laptop boots up does it not or is it activation/iCloud locked?

Yes, it boots up fine and I even wiped the disk in recovery and reinstalled macos successfully and was able to login to my Apple ID and iCloud with no issues.
 
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