Uncommon Cents

I love my iBook. I really do. I’ve had it for a long time now: I ordered it in October of 2004. I even got a Visa extended warranty for it, so it’s still covered until 2008. In the last year it’s gotten a motherboard swap, a battery change, and a hard drive upgrade; it’s lost a rubber foot or two, and it’s certainly far from pristine, but it’s been ridiculously useful since the day I owned it.

That said, it’s crying out for replacement. I do like the new MacBooks [the MacBook Pros are not my kind of form factor and out of my price range in general, although I wonder what kind of goodies (MacBook Thin anyone?) MacWorld Expo 2008 will bring], but I keep waiting because of the uncertainty of my job situation.

However, this week I received word that American Express was giving at least some of its cardholders a $100 off $1000 purchase online coupon at The Apple Store for Business. I am one of those cardholders. That certainly is tempting, given that Macs are not discounted very often. So, let’s take a look at how this might work out in terms of dollars and see if it’ll entice me into biting a new Apple.

First, which model of MacBook for me: I would be most interested in the middle of the line model: MB8062LL/B, as far as Apple’s SKUs go; this would be the white 2.2 GHz model with SuperDrive, 1 gigabyte of memory, and a 120 gigabyte hard drive. This retails for $1299 new.

I actually have access to both the Apple Store for Education as well as the Government Apple Store; I also occasionally purchase from Amazon, given their free shipping (same price but not as quick as Apple), and I am not opposed to buying refurbished models from Apple as well. Apple has not yet offered a refurbished version of this particular model [although it has offered the previous model, a white 2.16 GHz model with SuperDrive, 1 gigabyte of memory, and a 120 gigabyte hard drive (it also has an older, lower performance graphics system which isn't very important to me) for $1049]. Apple itself charges tax on purchases shipped to me; that would add 4.712 % to the purchase price. I believe this coupon is applied after tax is applied.

First, let’s take a look at how much the model I want lists for at all these various places:

Apple Store for Business: $1299 (pre $100 coupon)

Apple Store for Education: $1199

Apple Store for Government: $1222

Amazon: $1294 (pre $75 rebate)

Now, none of these vendors charge for shipping; however, Apple does charge tax, which would then make the amounts a bit higher for them:

Apple Store for Business: $1299 + $61.21 - $100 coupon = $1260.21
Apple Store for Education: $1199 + $56.50 = $1255.50
Apple Store for Government: $1222 + $57.58 = $1279.58
Amazon: $1295 + no tax charge - $75 rebate = $1219.00

Also, to take advantage of this offer, I must use my American Express card. This is not horrible, but there are other cards I have which may offer me other types of benefits which may be more enticing. Let’s take a look at those as well:

Amazon.com Visa: 1% Amazon.com reward on purchases at most vendors, but 3% at Amazon.com plus up to one year warranty extension and the possibility of purchasing additional years.

American Express: 1% Costco reward on purchases of most things (including a MacBook from either Amazon or Apple) plus up to one year warranty extension on new products.

Discover: 5% Cashback Bonus from The Apple Store, but no warranty.

Typically, I am not a fan of extended warranties, but the exception is portable electronics. I have an extended warranty from Visa on this iBook and it has helped me avoid hundreds of dollars being spent on repairs and battery replacements, so I consider either AppleCare or some other extended warranty a must. The problem with AppleCare for me is that it’s quite expensive, so much so that I have eschewed it in favor of other alternatives recently (like the Visa warranty). The American Express (up to a) year of additional warranty is free if purchased with an American Express card, although it does specifically exempt refurbished items; there is also no provision for purchasing more years of warranty. The Visa warranty is also free for up to a year; to extend it for another year (a total of three years, the same length as AppleCare) would be $87.99 for an item of the MacBook’s pricing; to get two years on top of that–five years total, probably beyond the useful life of the MacBook, although I have gotten that much use out of an iPod with several swaps due to this warranty–would be $137.99.

So, I could add on a warranty the equivalent of the $183 AppleCare charge if I bought with Visa for $87.99; shopping around for AppleCare brought it about $20 lower, but it’s still considerably more than the Visa option.

That makes my totals look like this:

Apple Store for Business: $1260.21 + 183 AppleCare = $1443.21
Apple Store for Education: $1255.50 + $87.99 Visa warranty = $1343.49
Apple Store for Government: $1279.58 + $87.99 Visa warranty = $1367.57
Amazon: $1219.00 + $87.99 Visawarranty = $1306.99

Interestingly, due largely to the warranty, even with the $100 coupon, the Apple Store for Business remains the most expensive of these options. The price at the Apple Store for Education actually comes out to be less because the discount I get ($100 in this case, seemingly identical to the $100 coupon) is pre-tax, meaning that I save the $4.50 or so that the state would otherwise collect from me, and the Visa warranty is less than 1/2 the price of AppleCare. Amazon is the best deal of the new machines after rebate, due to their not charging me tax (truthfully, I am supposed to pay this to the state of Hawai’i at the end of the year). The one area where the Apple Store for Business coupon comes out looking great is if I priced out the refurbished MacBook, but that’s not an Apples to Apples comparison as it’s an older model. Now, if the Apple Store starts selling refurbished current models, I may be back in business with this coupon.

Note that while I discussed them briefly above, none of these take into account the rewards I get by using the various cards; the $39.21 I could get in Amazon.com gift certificates (you get it in $25 increments) from the Amazon Visa or the $14.43 at Costco I could get with my AmEx or the even higher reward I could get from Discover (even though it would be more than offset by the AppleCare cost). It also ignores the Amazon Affiliate status I have which might get me a bit of cash back as well. But in the fairest comparison I can do quickly, it looks like the $100 off $1000 coupon at Apple Store from AmEx is good, but not good enough for me to bite right now. So I’ll wait for a bit, and hope in the next few days there are refurbished current MacBooks in the Apple Store for Business…

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