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Too Good To Be True?-eBay

fastlanephil

fastlanephil

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 17, 2007
1,289
274
I see someone is selling heavily discounted "new" 2013 Mac Pros on eBay during the Black Friday Specials. They all seem to be the base model with processor upgrades and the option of upgrading the storage and memory. They are selling the 8 core for $3750. Apple retail price is $4999. :eek:

I don't see anything about an Apple warranty, an Applecare option or a serial #.

Someone with a shrink wrapper or worse?
 
Sounds fake. Apple resellers make too little money on Apple products. The most they can do is give you cost price in the hope you will return again as a customer or put some accessories in the basket.
 
If you have to ask if its too good, then chances are it is. It does smell fishy.
 
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weaverra said:
That 30 business day handling time is a common tactic. You can't file a complaint until after the expected time. By that time it's normally too late.
Click to expand...
Exactly this. Paypal gives you 40 days to file a complaint of non delivery. If he can stall you off for that long through shipping delays then the money goes through. I even had a seller give a phony UPS shipping code to try to stall, claiming the mistake must be on UPS.
 
The guy seems to have a lot of positive feedback and has been on ebay since 1998.

Maybe he knows something we don't know. Like a Mac Pro refresh in late January.
 
Question asked and answered...

So, I just posted this question to him and got a response within 2 minutes...

Dear donfullerphotog,

All of my systems are built to order. I allow extra time in the ad but I quote between 2 and 4 weeks

On 11/29/14, 8:00 PM, donfullerphotog wrote:

Shipping: donfullerphotog sent a message about Apple Mac Pro 8-core 3.0 GHz with 25MB of L3 cache #171558644775

Why is the shipping and handling time so long?

- smschaefiv

----------

But he also has a base 6-core machine showing the same long handling time...
 
Peace said:
I'm guessing the OP is referring to this :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Mac-P...8644775?pt=Apple_Desktops&hash=item27f1b12c27

Only problem is it has the D300. I don't think Apple even sells the 8-core with the low end graphics.

[edit] I looked at Apple's online store and it looks like this system is the low-end one with the 8-core instead of the quad core.

It's a CTO system so it could be used.

[/edit]
Click to expand...

Yes, that's the seller. They have an excellent rating and a pretty long history of selling, including Mac Pros, but I've noticed that everyone on eBay has an excellent rating.

They have the same deal on a six core for about $2800.
 
weaverra said:
That 30 business day handling time is a common tactic. You can't file a complaint until after the expected time. By that time it's normally too late.
Click to expand...
Kind of eclectic and random sales history...$5 embroidery patches and bitcoin mining contracts then $3K Mac Pros? Why is the nMP listed as "space grey?" It's black. Why would an "8-core" with "25 MB L3 cache" be "powered by a single 3.0 GHz Quad Core 22-nm Xeon E5-1620v2 processor" with "10 MB L3 cache?"
 
cinealta said:
Kind of eclectic and random sales history...$5 embroidery patches and bitcoin mining contracts then $3K Mac Pros? Why is the nMP listed as "space grey?" It's black. Why would an "8-core" with "25 MB L3 cache" be "powered by a single 3.0 GHz Quad Core 22-nm Xeon E5-1620v2 processor" with "10 MB L3 cache?"
Click to expand...

Technically, it is space grey. The machine isn't black in person, only in Apple renders. It's actually shiny and silver.

But the rest of it does look shady. I'd stay away personally. Could be a good seller whose account was hacked. That happened to my Ebay account back in 2004/2005ish. Someone guessed my password (or I fell for a phishing scam, either one), and proceeded to list about 5,000 random items, most of which being Coach bags. The prices were marked down 30 or 40 percent, so buyers jumped on it quickly (I also had and still have a great Ebay rating, so that probably eased buyer's concerns). What actually happened is the guy had no product whatsoever, changed over my account's Paypal to his, pocketed the money, and ran.
 
I'd avoid. nMP GPUs are a couple years old now, after the refresh you can probably get a new machine for $3,999 that is close to what the 8 core currently offers.
 
These sound suspiciously like Apple discounts or bulk pricing. My guess is the guy has a special contract and he's reselling off that contract when he shouldn't be.

He may be batching up the orders to avoid ordering one at a time and looking suspicious. That could explain the 30 day wait time.
 
Looks like Apple corporate discounts.

I get twice yearly batches from a contact of mine with iOS and Mac products here in the UK but have absolutely annihilated my allowance until next year now, the last 15 retina and 2 iPhone 6's were sold last night and my 'Xmas apple shop' is now closed till probably February. I may be able to get a few more iOS devices next week, 16gb 6's likely but Mac will be very doubtful. Lead time on a 6,1 was 2 weeks for standard spec and nearly 4 for BTO.

Though I sell for more than that discount ratio and I always sell out quickly, but can't get brand spanking new products with a long back order time like the iMac 5k. Apple would rather sell to users at full price then sell to corporate with discount.
 
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It is too good to be true - STAY AWAY

Regardless of the seller's rating, he is not a reliable seller and could very well be a very shrewd scammer. Complaints have been filed with PayPal and Ebay. Feel free to message me if you want a more detailed explanation of my experience. Suffice it to say, STAY AWAY!
 
rftpa said:
Regardless of the seller's rating, he is not a reliable seller and could very well be a very shrewd scammer. Complaints have been filed with PayPal and Ebay. Feel free to message me if you want a more detailed explanation of my experience. Suffice it to say, STAY AWAY!
Click to expand...

Post here for the forum please. Did you buy one?
 
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