__Photo: __shane o mac/Flickr____
Starting today, the Apple Store online is offering several new deals on refurbished Macs, and the price difference is good enough that it could force off your mind even the nastiest image of their previous life. Refurbished items are usually those that are returned for any number of reasons (hmm . . .), are tested by the manufacturer, and work like new, but often have an aesthetic dink or two.
Among the deals are the newest aluminum iMac 24" PC for $1,900 (17% of regular price), and a $1,450 MacBook Pro 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (almost 30% off), both with 24-hour free shipping and the Leopard OS. Check out the rest of the deals on their refurbished item page right here.
While checking out the other refurbished gear available, we also found some good deals on the 8GB and 16GB Apple Touch and the Apple TV. The Touch players (with the original software) go for $230 and $330 respectively (at $50 off the regular price) and the ATV is at $200, $30 less than regular, and $100 less than it was only a couple of months ago.
In the interest of full coverage, other top computer manufacturers also offer refurbished gear in slow-trafficked areas of their websites (Sony's is right here). They don't make it really easy to find them, but once you do, there are nice savings to be found if you can handle the possibility of getting a bad apple here or there.
There are some forums on the Web that keep an eye on all refurbished gear information, such as logging the manufacturers that do the worst job in shipping the old-new gear to your house. If you're ready to start Livin' La Vida Refurbish-ada, the first obvious tip would be to know that manufacturers that offer free insurance for these refurbs are the best bets, and the second is that larger items (like TVs) are the ones that have the biggest potential for disaster, mainly because of the shipping costs.
