How to Get Used or Refurbished Apple Gear Like a Pro

Apple products are great, but the terms of introduction isn’t precisely cheap, particularly erstwhile you get to its higher-end devices. Thankfully, due to the fact that of Apple’s typically fantabulous physique prime and long-lasting bundle support, if you’re not a bleeding-edge-of-tech aboriginal adopter sicko similar me, it’s really a beauteous bully thought to bargain utilized oregon refurbished iPhones, iPads, Macs, and adjacent AirPods. Heck, adjacent if you are, sometimes you request a secondary to tally the macOS oregon iOS betas, right?

The past 4 years oregon truthful person been an particularly bully clip to bargain utilized Apple gear, arsenic its devices person go truthful almighty and businesslike that you’d person to beryllium peculiar astir granular, nerdy details oregon a superior powerfulness idiosyncratic to announcement a quality betwixt utilizing an iPhone 12 and an iPhone 16, oregon an M1 MacBook Air and an M4 MacBook Air. Yes, determination are carnal differences, but if you’re conscionable browsing the web and sending emails, scrolling TikTok, oregon playing the latest games – astatine least, the fewer adjacent disposable for macOS – you’ll get plentifulness of bang for your buck.

There are reasons not to spell this route, of course. A large 1 is that, depending connected what transmission you spell through, you whitethorn beryllium giving up the quality to motion up for AppleCare, Apple’s instrumentality security program. It besides opens you up for issues if what you’re buying was returned for a defect, isn’t packed good for shipping, oregon the refurbisher you bought it from didn’t bash a bully occupation cleaning it up oregon replacing breached components.

Luckily, I’ve bought utilized Apple cogwheel from a fig of sources, truthful I’m present to stock the ways that person worked champion for me.

Apple Certified Refurbished

The champion mode to bargain a utilized Apple merchandise is consecutive from the source: Apple’s online Certified Refurbished store. Here, you tin bargain everything from recent-generation iPhones to AirPods and Macs. You won’t get the lowest terms from Apple, of course; but what you bash get is simply a pristine product, backed by Apple itself arsenic though it’s marque spankin’ new.

When you bargain from Apple, the institution has erased each traces of deterioration and tear, and the shipment arrives successful the aforesaid container and information it would if it was new. Apple Certified Refurbished products besides travel with the aforesaid one-year warranty arsenic an equivalent caller instrumentality you’d bargain from the company. You tin adhd AppleCare successful lawsuit thing goes incorrect with it oregon it gets stolen, giving you a inexpensive oregon escaped mode to hole oregon regenerate it. The institution besides offers escaped next-day transportation erstwhile you bargain from its Certified Refurbished selection.

The drawbacks are few, but they’re there. Apple’s refurbished terms constituent isn’t arsenic debased arsenic what you’d get elsewhere – for instance, an iPhone 15 Pro with 1TB of retention costs $1,189 arsenic of this writing, a $210 savings, if you bargain from Apple itself. Meanwhile, the archetypal same-specced Amazon Renewed iPhone 15 Pro I clicked connected goes for a specified $781. Also, beryllium acceptable to wage Apple for it successful full, up-front, adjacent if you ain an Apple Card, due to the fact that Apple doesn’t connection the aforesaid 12-month 0% financing for Certified Refurbished products arsenic it does for caller ones bought with its in-house recognition card.

Mac Of All Trades

Another large option, if you privation a refurbished instrumentality successful coagulated information but astatine a little price, is Mac Of All Trades. This institution has specialized successful refurbished Apple products since 1995, and of the times I’ve utilized it, some arsenic a seller and a buyer, I’ve been satisfied.

Mac Of All Trades’ pricing is often amended than different outlets – a 256GB iPhone 16 Pro goes for less, astatine $777, than the aforesaid telephone astatine Amazon. And if you’re a collector, it’s a large low-hassle assets for picking up older Apple products similar the 2013 Mac Pro (aka the “trashcan Mac”) oregon the 2015 MacBook Pro, a favourite of the Intel epoch of Apple laptops acknowledgment to a keyboard that pre-dates the failure-prone 1 with butterfly switches that Apple shipped for a fewer years. The institution besides offers escaped shipping and a 90-day warranty, arsenic good arsenic 0% financing done Affirm.

The biggest weakness of Mac of All Trades is its inventory – it has what it has, truthful you’ll privation to deliberation of it arsenic much of a spot to browse for chill worldly than arsenic a assets for circumstantial devices. Need a comparatively caller iPhone and don’t attraction which arsenic agelong arsenic it’s little than 3 years old? Mac of All Trades mightiness beryllium for you.

Best Buy

The online retail satellite is often chock afloat of deals connected utilized oregon refurbished iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple accessories. Best Buy’s unfastened container enactment is simply a bully illustration I’ve used, arsenic it often inactive means it’s a brand-new instrumentality sold astatine a discount due to the fact that it was returned hardly utilized oregon not astatine all, oregon arrived astatine Best Buy’s loading dock successful damaged packaging. The savings aren’t massive, but you inactive basal a bully accidental of being capable to adhd AppleCare and volition apt inactive get Apple’s afloat one-year warranty.

The retail elephantine besides has its ain in-house refurbishing program, which tin mean heavily-slashed prices for reasonably caller and inactive almighty machines. As of this writing, you tin get $1,499 disconnected for a 16-inch M2 MacBook Pro with 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD oregon a 12.9-inch M2 iPad Pro that’s $399 cheaper than it was erstwhile it was marque new. Best Buy’s refurbished Apple products mostly travel with a 90-day warranty.

One particularly bully payment is that since this is Best Buy, you astir apt unrecorded adjacent a store and tin instrumentality it, for free, successful person, alternatively than shipping it back. I’ve lone ever had to instrumentality 1 open-box acquisition backmost – a Mac Studio that had wiggled escaped of the integrative portion Best Buy utilized to unafraid it successful the shipping container – and it was a fast, painless process. But beryllium mindful of time: Best Buy’s modular instrumentality argumentation is lone 15 days (60 days if you’re portion of Best Buy Plus oregon person a My Best Buy Membership) for astir products, oregon 14 days if it’s a instrumentality similar an iPhone that you person to activate with a carrier.

Amazon/Woot

Very akin to Best Buy, Amazon offers refurbished products astatine chopped rates. You tin get to “Amazon Renewed” Apple products either by going to the company’s landing leafage oregon looking retired for a refurbished enactment connected the listing for a circumstantial product. Amazon tin connection stellar discounts done this store, specified arsenic a 2023 M2 Max Mac Studio with a 38-core GPU that, arsenic I constitute this, is priced astatine conscionable $899, a impermanent woody that could travel up again aft it expires. That’s a chaotic price, particularly considering Apple charges $1,679 for the nonstop aforesaid instrumentality successful refurbished condition.

Amazon categorizes that peculiar Mac Studio arsenic “Renewed Premium,” meaning it has “no signs of cosmetic damage,” similar scratches oregon dents, that are disposable from 12 inches away, and is guaranteed for a year. Whether you spot the company’s refurbishment process is astir irrelevant with that guarantee, but for what it’s worth, Amazon says its Renewed products acquisition “a afloat diagnostic test, replacement of immoderate faulty parts, and a thorough cleaning process.”

Amazon-owned Woot is different enactment if you’re successful a nonspecific temper for deals. Woot doesn’t person a built-in hunt function. Instead, you spell determination and sift done categories similar Phones & Accessories oregon Laptops and anticipation that 1 of the impermanent Apple products it’s offering is thing you’re after. The existent prices determination aren’t ever the best, but the warranties tin beryllium outstanding, similar the straightforward 2-year constricted warranty connected an iPhone 12 Mini I spotted portion penning this guide. Act fast, though – Woot’s deals are ever temporary.

Swappa

One of my favourite services to bargain and merchantability utilized Apple products done is Swappa. Think of it arsenic the Craigslist electronics section, but with standards. The institution promises “No Junk, No Jerks” and has strict listing standards that forbid selling devices with problems similar cracked solid oregon h2o damage. Products sold determination indispensable person each the aforesaid functions they did erstwhile they were new, too. I’ve had my ain listings rejected due to the fact that my pictures weren’t wide capable oregon due to the fact that I hadn’t confirmed that each of the archetypal hardware – similar chargers and the similar – would beryllium included.

Swappa’s argumentation states that buyers are entitled to refunds erstwhile they don’t get what they were promised, but the institution encourages them to effort moving things retired with the seller archetypal earlier escalating to Swappa itself. The tract besides incentivizes sellers to behave by doing things similar forbidding the merchantability of items that person been returned much than once. And if Swappa decides to prohibition a seller, they’re besides banned from buying connected the site.

Its policies don’t mean it’s escaped from scammers, though; aft all, you’re inactive trusting radical connected the internet. That means you request to dainty things you bargain present conscionable similar you would an eBay auction: cheque the sellers’ reviews, work their merchandise descriptions for immoderate reddish flags, and scrutinize the pictures for signs that they’ve been doctored oregon the instrumentality has been creatively photographed. It’s astir apt champion to debar marque caller accounts, too, though I’ve taken chances earlier if the seller took large attraction successful their pictures and statement of a device, and I haven’t been burned yet.

eBay

The biggest auction tract connected the internet, eBay is inactive benignant of the Wild West erstwhile it comes to buying utilized anything, Apple products included. You tin get fantastic deals connected the site, but you should ever support your wits astir you. Beyond bully pictures and thorough descriptions, marque definite the seller you’re interacting with has a agelong past connected the tract and, adjacent if they look to person a flawless feedback history, that their caller feedback isn’t showing signs of slipping prime oregon service.

There are a mates of bully reasons to spell to eBay for your second-hand iPhones, MacBooks, iPads, and more. For one, it’s been astir agelong capable that immoderate of its sellers person decades-long reputations to protect. Another is that the institution has a certified refurbished programme that comes with vetted sellers, a one-to-two-year warranty, and escaped shipping and 30-day escaped returns policy.

The situation with eBay, speech from the request to spot faceless strangers and support ticker for signs that they’ll screw you over, lies successful its hunt results, which are often flooded with high-volume sellers who usage generic pictures for their inventory. One mode I’ve gotten astir that is by clicking connected 1 of those, past scrolling down to look astatine the “More similar this” carousel astatine the bottom. You’ll usually find 1 oregon 2 listings that are evidently from idiosyncratic sellers utilizing existent pictures of the circumstantial instrumentality you’re buying this way, and often astatine a little price.

Wes is simply a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they telephone him) who has covered technology, gaming, and amusement steadily since 2020 astatine Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and astir recently, The Verge. Inside of him determination are 2 wolves: 1 that thinks it wouldn't beryllium truthful atrocious to commencement collecting crippled consoles again, and the different who besides thinks this, but much strongly.