Deals on Mac Computers?

No, they don't have sales per se. The price is the price is the price. Unless you shop during tax free season (back to school, and qualify for those parameters), you will pay the going rate like everyone else. I know the discount isn't a lot (typically 10-15%) on a refurb, but that's all I buy in the way of major Mac equipment. We are on our 2nd iMac refurb. Our first iMac lasted around 5 years, then the 2nd (our first refurb) lasted I think about 6 (?) and I am currently using our 3rd (2nd refurb).

I have actually been told that refurb is even a better deal, b/c not only do they come with the exact same warranty as a brand new out of the box one, it has been gone over AGAIN with a fine toothed comb by the refurb people at Apple. So you have even less chance of having a problem with it than one never returned to the company after purchase. I don't know that that's true, but I certainly have no complaints with either of ours. Once taken out of the box, you cannot tell that it is not brand new in any way whatsoever. In fact, you can't tell from just looking at the box, either. It comes with all the same stuff and brand new packaging.

That's about the only *bargain* you're likely to find. Good luck.

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ETA: oh and yes, if it is full memory that is slowing it down (google how to see how much you have available if you don't know how to do it), you might be able to add it. It depends on your particular machine and how it's configured and what's inside. I added memory to my last refurb iMac for about $40 and it extended the life of it for another year by adding space to upgrade OS systems.

Alternate plan. If your MacBook is a certain age you could drop more memory in it and then it will operate much faster than it does now.

My husband did this with his Mac which he uses for his professional in house music studio. I'm not certain how old his machine is but it was relatively easy to open it up, get the memory and drop it in. He looked up everything he needed to know on YouTube. The next model after his is too thin to open yourself and requires specialized equipment.

Instead of buying a new one or a refurbished one, he paid about $150 for the additional memory expansion and the small screw driver set to get in there. He also has an external drive which also allows his machine to operate much faster.

My father in law works on MAC computers for decades. He says to buy the refurbished because they are just like brand new, they have all new parts and have there is absolutely no difference. Groupon has refurnished Apple products often. Otherwise the only way to get a discount, is if you have a college student, you can get about $100 off. I purchased a Pro for myself but my daughter was in college at the time so I just showed them an email from her college and thats all they needed.

I have a PC that is fairly 'ancient' as far as original build, but I swap out parts as needed to keep it fast and current. I'm a nerd married to an IT pro. It's cheaper to build our own to our specific needs. Macs are often more of a PITA to tinker with, so I get why you want to go new. I have a potential tip, if you're not self-employed.

When my husband needs a particular type of device for work reasons that he does not need for personal use, he has his employer pay for it. He as done this for ages, with three different employers, ever since the first time he was told, "You need a pager." He currently has a job-specific model of cell phone and an iPad required for work apps, so those things are furnished by his current employer. Employers can only pass costs onto their minions when the employees allow it.

Ask your employer to provide the tools you need to do the work you were hired to do. Worst case, they say No. Then you'll have to decide how much you're willing to pay to keep that job.

I got them at discount while one of the kids were (or are) in college at the college bookstore. Do you have a kid or a co-worker/relative with a kid in college? It was the best deal we found when we were purchasing (even our company IT guy couldn't get the deal we got) Macs over the years and was cheaper than refurbished. Said kid purchased in person at the bookstore, but I was right there and used my credit card.

Good luck!

If you don't have to have the latest model, I would go to MacMall.com and take a look around. A lot of times they have the last couple of models for sale that are still new units, not refurbs, and you can get a discounted price. Otherwise, I'd just go through Apple. Apple has an education store with discounted prices if you are a student, faculty, parent of a student, etc. Just check the bottom of the website for Apple and Education and you can see who qualifies.

You can always check open stock items at the big box stores like Best Buy. And you can qualify for zero interest with their account and pay it off. Worth if for a mac!

Before going out purchasing another MAC, make sure you don't have a lot of downloaded files. I am 2-years, into my 3rd year, new to Mac. A week ago, I was screen sharing with a rep and he had me click my 'finder'. He said I had a lot of downloads, which would make the computer run slow. I am in the process of transferring those into files and it has helped. My only problem, is trying to find the location of each file, I want to move it to. :) Still learning the system.

Also look at your history and clean out things you don't need there. My only problem there is, sometimes I tend to lose my passwords, so make sure you have those or you will have to create new ones, which can be a royal pain. :(

How old is your MAC? Call Apple to see if they can still help you. They seem to be more customer friendly than companies using Microsoft; once the warranty is out, they won't help or want to charge you.

LivingSocial and Groupon usually have deals on MacBooks, but they are still quite pricey, as are all MacBooks, period. I do think that many times, they are refurbished laptops, but they're essentially like new, maybe they were opened at one time, or were the floor models and may have cosmetic defects, but nothing more. They still come with a warranty. It doesn't mean you're getting an old laptop or a hard drive that is on the brink of crashing (for the record, my Asus laptop is about 6-7 years old, and my hard drive still hasn't crashed and laptop runs great, so age isn't always a factor. You may just need to clean up the junk. My laptop was running slow a month ago but I looked up some fixes on some tech sites, applied those, and then cleaned out temp folders and other old junk that was lurking).

Have you tried Amazon.com? If you have a Prime membership, you can return the laptop for free if it gives you trouble. You may also be able to buy an extended warranty on it for pennies on the dollar that can cover any issues, for peace of mind. Another option worth looking at: my sister's boyfriend is a techie nerd and he swears by the slickdeals.com website. He has gotten some pretty good deals, like a 64GB thumb drive for $10. Considering the 8GB thumb drives on Amazon sell for that price I'd say that getting a thumb drive with 8 times the space for that same price was definitely a steal! He did quite well! Check out the site, and best of luck finding something in your price range!

Sorry, I don't know anything about better prices. My observations of a set price are the same as yours. However, if you have not tried it yet, I would take the Mac to a local store and schedule an appointment at the Genius Bar. They should be able to do a diagnostic and trouble shoot what is making it slow. Meanwhile they will often update anything that needs it. But of course, that doesn't get you any new bells or whistles.