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Good deal on 5K iMacs!

M

mcpix

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 13, 2005
303
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Well, not really, but almost. Electronics Valley has new 27" 5K iMacs (2015) with a 3.3GHZ i5 processor and a 2TB Fusion drive for only $1,299 on eBay. Plus, eBay is running a special promotion today with an additional $100 off (pspring20). I also had $400 in my Paypal account which brought my total price down to only $799.

I actually already have one of these at work, but I always wanted to have one at home, and now I do!
 
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mcpix said:
Well, not really, but almost. Electronics Valley has new 27" 5K iMacs (2015) with a 3.3GHZ i5 processor and a 2TB Fusion drive for only $1,299 on eBay. Plus, eBay is running a special promotion today with an additional $100 off (pspring20). I also had $400 in my Paypal account which brought my total price down to only $799.

I actually already have one of these at work, but I always wanted to have one at home, and now I do!
Click to expand...

I saw this a few days ago, trying to hold out for 2018 models, but it was tempting. I wasn’t sure if AppleCare+ was an option on a computer bought on eBay however. Were you able to add it?
 
I won't know for sure until I receive it, but the other one I bought on eBay last year (for $1,499) was new and I was able to add Applecare+ without a problem.

I was previously using my MBP with a 27" Thunderbolt Display, but the 5K iMac was just a better and more enjoyable computer to use for editing photos and videos.
 
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In December 2016 I bought a 2015 MacBook Pro from Electronics Valley via ebay. No problems, it's been fine.

I'm wondering if this is some kind of "overstock liquidation" vendor that has a deal worked out with Apple to "move out" new-old-stock extra inventory...
 
Richdmoore said:
I saw this a few days ago, trying to hold out for 2018 models, but it was tempting. I wasn’t sure if AppleCare+ was an option on a computer bought on eBay however. Were you able to add it?
Click to expand...

I purchased a 2015 MBP from Electronic Valley on eBay and was able to purchase Apple Care, the + was not available at the timer
 
mcpix said:
Well, not really, but almost. Electronics Valley has new 27" 5K iMacs (2015) with a 3.3GHZ i5 processor and a 2TB Fusion drive for only $1,299 on eBay. Plus, eBay is running a special promotion today with an additional $100 off (pspring20). I also had $400 in my Paypal account which brought my total price down to only $799.

I actually already have one of these at work, but I always wanted to have one at home, and now I do!
Click to expand...

Did you get this iMac yet? If so how you like it. Thinking about buying one myself at the 1299 price it still seems like a good deal.
 
The iMac I received was brand new in the box and works perfectly. I also checked the warranty status and it has the standard 1 yr warranty and AppleCare+ is available to purchase. I know some will hold out for the 2017, but for me it's the perfect choice and obviously a great deal!
 
I almost pulled the trigger on this again, but stopped myself before hitting the buy button on eBay.

I just think I would prefer a pure ssd vs fusion, and usb-c/thunderbolt 3 to future proof my next mac. I could defuse the drive into a 128k ssd, but I would not have enough space for everything. I could then put the user directory on a larger external usb3 ssd, but it looks kind of a hack to do that. I would worry that upgrades to macOS would somehow lose the user folder.

The other factor for me against purchase was hvec hardware encoding/decoding being 8 bit vs 10 bit, although I don't really know how important that is.

(The downside is my wife wasn't happy I wanted to spend $2,000+ on a computer, and let me know it......)

Still, thanks for checking on the AppleCare+ elegability, and enjoy your purchase. I think this is a great deal if you don't care about those hardware differences, or plan to upgrade more frequently than I plan to.
 
In my day to day use, the Fusion drive acts just like an SSD. I also have a 2015 MBP with a 512k SSD and I never feel like the iMac is slower when using Photoshop or FCP X. The iMac is just as quick and of course the 5k screen is great to edit on. I also thought about usb-c/thunderbolt 3, but since most of the external video card options are expensive I don't really ever see myself going that way. Plus, I actually have some legacy firewire drives and scanners I use and the TB2 to firewire adapter works great for me (I'm not sure if you can go TB3>TB2>Firewire 800).
 
Anonymous Freak said:
No, it cost $1199. Just because $400 was in a different bank account than the one you consider your main bank account doesn't mean you didn't pay that money.
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Ha! You're right I guess, but I like to consider my PayPal account "fun money" that I can use for computer, electronics or photo gear. If I simply put the money back into my checking account, it goes towards boring stuff like bills :)!
 
mcpix said:
The iMac I received was brand new in the box and works perfectly.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a good deal for a good machine. Congrats. I'm hoping Apple will migrate their improved iMac Pro cooling to the standard iMacs sometime before my next iMac purchase.
 
I decided to buy a 2017 apple refurbished model direct, vs the refurb deal here (but paid about $1000 more than this deal, chose one with an 512 SSD) it should arrive in a couple of days.

briloronmacrumo said:
Sounds like a good deal for a good machine. Congrats. I'm hoping Apple will migrate their improved iMac Pro cooling to the standard iMacs sometime before my next iMac purchase.
Click to expand...

I think it's a good bet that the next iMac will include elements of the iMac Pro cooling, but may lose other features like user replaceable ram. (I suspect that the iMac Pro is a test to see if Apple will offer store replaceable ram for other iMac models.)

I don't know if there will be a 2018 model, they may hold off until 2019 if they are working on a redesigned Mac Pro and/or Mac Mini. I'm just basing it on the 2015 to 2017 time gap to update the iMac, it use to be yearly before that I believe.

I understand that apple wants to prevent the Osborne Effect ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect) with it's computers, but it is hard to figure out the right time to buy with how secret they are with product updates/releasees.
 
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