Perpetual Apple Product Deals, Steals, and other Price-Busting Kung-Fu

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cateye

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  • #1
    There's been a long-running thread in the GESC for people to post especially good deals on games, and the mods of the AV Club started a similar thread for AV-related products, so I thought I might trial the same thing here, especially as Black Friday is rapidly approaching.

    The purpose of this thread is as a central location for people to post especially good deals they find on Apple and Apple-related items. The ground rules:

    • This is not a thread for arguing about deals, Apple's price matrix, or anything else. Something along the lines of, "I bought that combo iPhone Charger and Banana Thrower last Black Friday. Works great, and that's a good price," in reply to a deal someone posts is fine. "I can't believe how expensive MacBook Pros are, these deals suck" is not.
    • No affiliate links or other shenanigans. Links should be un-obfuscated and lead directly to a product page or deal information.
    • Deals should be for first-party Apple products, or third-party items that are solely intended for use with other Apple products. No general technology items. iPad deal? Yes. Logitech iPad keyboard case deal? Yes. Samsung T7 deal? No.
    • Broad deals (e.g. a site-wide 20% off coupon) are fair game. Link to information about the coupon, or describe where people can learn about it.

    Let's see if this is useful! I welcome any feedback, as well.
     
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    xoa

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  • #2
    cateye said:
    Deals should be for first-party Apple products, or third-party items that are solely intended for use with other Apple products. No general technology items. iPad deal? Yes. Logitech iPad keyboard case deal? Yes. Samsung T7 deal? No.
    Click to expand...
    Are you thinking hardware only, or software as well? And what about refurb (perhaps with some restrictions on either Apple only or very reputable established players like OWC)? Apple tends to maintain pretty tight control over pricing on their own new kit, even 5-10% off is uncommon and tends to be restricted to major shopping days. 3rd party exclusive accessories do get more, though some of the most useful deals in terms of cost (like a fancy display) aren't Apple-only. Software of course has the most pricing flexibility of all, and there can be some really nice Mac software everyone should have that sometimes has very solid discounts. But at the same time there is a lot more volume of rando stuff there so not sure if that swings too far in the other direction.

    Still, an interesting idea and experiment!
     
    cateye

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  • #3
    xoa said:
    Are you thinking hardware only, or software as well? And what about refurb (perhaps with some restrictions on either Apple only or very reputable established players like OWC)?
    Click to expand...

    Good questions. I think Mac (or iOS, or iPadOS) software deals are a great thing to feature here. Plus, it's nice way to surface things that people may find useful and recommend to others. "I use Foo.app for my banana throwing trajectory tracking. It's a great Mac-only app, here's a link to 30% off."

    I'm not sure I want to get into policing the source of deals. I think "caveat emptor" applies, and want to think that reader recommendations will come largely because they themselves have bought from that source and had a good experience and not just "I found this random deal from an ultra sketchy website. Good luck!" Maybe the guidance would be: Post offers only from sources you yourself would feel comfortable buying from.

    I get that there aren't huge discounts to be had on Macs in particular because of Apple's price controls. But there are often more significant deals on things like closeout models—I bought my current MBP on closeout from B&H Photo, for example, for a far greater discount than Apple would ever have "allowed" when it was the newest model. There's still tons of new-in-box deals on M1-class machines, and now we'll likely see M2 machines with solid savings as well. Plus, things like iPads or AirPods or other 2nd-tier Apple items often get more substantial partner discounts. Like, I don't understand who would buy AirPods direct from Apple when Amazon is constantly discounting them—The USB-C AirPod Pros were $189 on Amazon last time I checked, which is a sweet 25% discount.

    Ultimately, this thread should be what people want to make it. I have no idea if it will be useful or of there are already too many sources for Apple "deals" that this becomes just more noise.
     
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  • #4
    xoa said:
    Apple tends to maintain pretty tight control over pricing on their own new kit
    Click to expand...
    That's not nearly as true as it used to be; the base M1 mini (list price $699) was regularly on sale for $599. AirPods, AirPods Pro and iPads are regularly reduced too. Older stuff (new old stock) can be reduced significantly.
     
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  • #7
    xoa’s point about refurbished models is the deal that I would always recommend. I’ve been buying Apple Refurb Macs for years now - yet Apple keeps that option pretty quiet, for obvious reasons. So many (non-tech) people don’t know they can save a non-trivial amount on effectively new, if not cutting-edge, Apple stuff.
     
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    cateye

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  • #8
    kefkafloyd said:
    if you have a Micro Center nearby.
    Click to expand...

    And if not, move close to one. :D MicroCenter is one of those stores that you instantly wonder how it can still exist. It's like an old-school nerd emporium with every possible PC part, plus they're an Apple Authorized reseller, plus their pricing generally beats everyone else, particularly on Apple products. But you have to buy in person, no mail order (for Apple gear).

    There's one about a 45 min. drive from me and every time I've been there it's packed, so I guess that's the answer of how they survive. People know to seek them out.
     
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    JimCampbell

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  • #10
    Sulis said:
    I’ve been buying Apple Refurb Macs for years now
    Click to expand...
    Absolutely. My current M1 MBP is the first non-refurb I've bought after (I think) four or five refurbs that have been absolutely perfect. I failed my saving throw vs Teh Shiny* on the M1 but I'm pretty sure I'll be back to a refurb M2 in the next year or so…

    *Although, in my defence, I was desperate to ditch the Intel MBP I was using, which was hot, noisy, had terrible battery life… and if that wasn't enough, it had developed the strobing Touch Bar fault into the bargain.
     
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    cateye

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  • #12
    Noticed some excellent deals on Apple-genuine iPad keyboards on Amazon this morning, some as much as a third off:

    Apple Smart Keyboard Folio for iPad Pro 11-inch / iPad Air: $109.00 (list $179)
    Apple Smart Keyboard Folio for iPad Pro 12.9: $159.99 (list $199)
    Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro 11-inch / iPad Air: $199.99 (list $299)
    Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro 12.9-inch: $245.98 (list $349)

    Have never really thought I needed or wanted one of those fancy Magic Keyboards for my 11-inch iPad Pro, but a third off is hard to pass up. Mulling.
     
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  • #13
    cateye said:
    Noticed some excellent deals on Apple-genuine iPad keyboards on Amazon this morning, some as much as a third off:

    Apple Smart Keyboard Folio for iPad Pro 11-inch / iPad Air: $109.00 (list $179)
    Apple Smart Keyboard Folio for iPad Pro 12.9: $159.99 (list $199)
    Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro 11-inch / iPad Air: $199.99 (list $299)
    Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro 12.9-inch: $245.98 (list $349)

    Have never really thought I needed or wanted one of those fancy Magic Keyboards for my 11-inch iPad Pro, but a third off is hard to pass up. Mulling.
    Click to expand...
    I grabbed mine for something like half off from Wal Mart and am very pleased with it at that price.
     
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  • #16
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  • #18
    For anyone unaware, Apple now sells refurbished AirPods 3 for $30 off the regular price (although they appear to be unavailable/sold out at the moment).

    At that price, they’re only $10 more than a new pair of AirPods 2 (or $20 more if you get the MagSafe case), which to me is a much better deal: the AirPods 3 sound way better, have better battery life, support spatial audio, and can perform more functions via the force sensor (like play/pause, mute, etc.). I picked up a pair recently and they seem indistinguishable from new.
     
    Mhorydyn

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  • #20
    Galberras said:
    So where do y'all go for iPad refurbs? I've only done that through the Apple refurb store...

    I need to help a daughter get a replacement on the cheaper end of the iPad Pro spectrum.
    Click to expand...
    Just Apple for refurbs. Those ones I trust ~as much as their new products and they include the same warranty. A random shop 'refurb' may be a floor model or some other nonsense.
     
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  • #21
    Mhorydyn said:
    Just Apple for refurbs. Those ones I trust ~as much as their new products and they include the same warranty. A random shop 'refurb' may be a floor model or some other nonsense.
    Click to expand...
    Seconding this. Bought multiple refurbs direct from Apple over (probably*) twenty years and they've all been indistinguishable from new.

    *I'm getting old, and I can't exactly remember…!
     
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  • #23
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  • #25
    jaberg

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  • #26
    The Greg Williams G-Grip is currently marked down to $49. $20 off. This is a grip/shutter to improve iPhone ergonomics for photography. I’ve received favorable reviews from iPhonography friends, but the cost had me making do with a clamp-on Ulanzi Cap Grip for my dedicated photo walks. Apparently my magic number is “fifty bucks” because I’m placing one under my Yul birch.

    Of course it could be used with a phone from another manufacturer. I think this one squeaks by the “intended for Apple” rule. If not, I beg forgiveness.
     
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    cateye

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  • #27
    Hold on, let me check with the Orbiting HQ

    (wall of computers in the background with lots of Blinken Lights™ spring into action with a great eruption of beeps and boops; a bank of printers to the left begin spewing forth dozens of pages of form-feed paper covered in dot matrix printing)

    Says here the product passes muster as Apple-oriented and the post will stand. Proceed with savings!
     
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  • #30
    Serif (the makers of the Affinity suite of design apps) have a 30% off spring sale on their products. Individually, $49 for Mac apps and $13 for the iPad apps, but $114.99 for the “V2 license” that includes Mac and iPad versions of Photo, Designer, and Publisher (their versions of PS, Illustrator, and InDesign).

    The cool thing that compelled me to post about it is that they honor upgrade pricing on the V2 licenses even if you only own one previous version of their software. So, in my case, my old copy of Photo was enough to drop the full suite cost from $114 to $85. Affinity apps can be quirky, but for the equivalent of 1.5 months of a CC subscription, it’s a pretty great deal.

    There’s no direct link to the spring sale, but here’s a link to the upgrade: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/store/upgrade-offer/
     
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  • #31
    Honeybog said:
    for the equivalent of 1.5 months of a CC subscription, it’s a pretty great deal.
    Click to expand...
    Just to second this recommendation. If you're not absolutely tied into the Adobe suite for some reason (I have two regular clients who want my work as live, editable .ai files, which is about the only thing you can't export from Designer) then Photo, Designer and Publisher will do the job of PS/AI/ID for about 90% of users.

    All the major formats are available in the export options and are rock solid. Both Photo and Designer will do a creditable job of correctly opening .psd and .ai files respectively. Last time I checked, Publisher won't open .indd files, but it will open .idml, so it's not an insurmountable task moving your Adobe workflow over to the Affinity suite… and the price can't be beat. :)
     
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  • #34
    kefkafloyd said:
    Woot has M1 Ultra Studios (64GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 48 core GPU) for $2200. These are technically still viable for AppleCare too.

    computers.woot.com

    Apple Mac Studio with M1 Ultra (Early 2022)

    Apple Mac Studio with M1 Ultra (Early 2022)
    computers.woot.com computers.woot.com
    Click to expand...
    That as the same model as I bought when released. This thing has been the ultimate workhouse. Dead quiet, fast, and reliable. I have zero regrets, and for the first time ever I'm not in a rush to replace after 3 years. Normally my "workstations" get replaced every three years when possible (looking at you 2013 Mac Pro) - I just don't really feel the need yet.
     
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  • #35
    cateye said:
    Noticed some excellent deals on Apple-genuine iPad keyboards on Amazon this morning, some as much as a third off:

    Apple Smart Keyboard Folio for iPad Pro 11-inch / iPad Air: $109.00 (list $179)
    Apple Smart Keyboard Folio for iPad Pro 12.9: $159.99 (list $199)
    Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro 11-inch / iPad Air: $199.99 (list $299)
    Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro 12.9-inch: $245.98 (list $349)

    Have never really thought I needed or wanted one of those fancy Magic Keyboards for my 11-inch iPad Pro, but a third off is hard to pass up. Mulling.
    Click to expand...

    Following up on this – Amazon are currently offering refurbished ('open box') 12.9" Magic Keyboards for $128.00. That's a crazy savings over the $350 MSRP.

    If you've ever considered buying one of these, this is the price to do it at.
     
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  • #36
    In general, now seems to be a great time to buy lots of Apple gear. I'm seeing good prices on the Series 9 Apple Watch, several models of AirPods (including the APP2's with USB-C for $179), and of course iPads. If your needs are modest and you don't care about what might be coming out next week, these are Black Friday-level prices.
     
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    Brute

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  • #38
    eas said:
    Apple sells them new for $199 in the US. Where are they $350?
    Click to expand...
    You must be thinking of a different product. The Magic Keyboard for the 12.9 iPad Pro is 350 new.

    Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro 12.9‑inch (6th generation) - US English - White

    store.apple.com

    Magic Keyboard for iPad Air 13-inch (M2) - US English - White

    Magic Keyboard delivers an amazing typing experience, has a built-in trackpad, and provides front and back protection. Buy now at apple.com.
    store.apple.com
     
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