03-12-2009, 11:02 PM
sekker wrote:
I just sent in my 2 year, 11 month and 20 day old macbook pro into repair, got both its strange-sounding fans but also its original (and long-since toast) battery replaced. Well worth the insurance I paid for a retail apple care.
I have never purchased an Apple Care from ebay as this sounds too strange to me - why would someone sell their Apple Care? How can they make money off this if it isn't stolen?
One source, persons who buy and do not get around to registering before selling or losing a Mac has been mentioned already. But a bigger source is Apple retailers. They have certain Applecare quotas in the form of some percentage of machines sold to get incentives from Apple in the form of demo machines and other bonuses. So if they are coming up short at the end of a month or quarter, they can sell Applecare off at invoice or less to someone who will sell it in the various "gray" markets. Since the invoice price on Applecare is a fraction of the retail price like most extended care packages, there is plenty of room to still make a small profit. The retailer meets their quotas, gets the bonus material, and others get Applecare for a markdown. Apple is not out any money either, they were paid, so does not make a big issue of it.
Another source is stock from store and distributor closings. I suspect a good fraction of the recent CompUSA and Circuit City stock of Applecare boxes went this way instead of being sold in the stores.