Deals: Best Buy knocks $200 off all Retina MacBook Pros; others discount by up to $1150

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Big box retailer Best Buy is holding a 48-hour sale that ends Saturday at midnight, slashing the price of all MacBook Pro with Retina display models by $200, while also offering $100 iTunes Gift Cards for $85. Meanwhile, other Apple resellers have discounted fully loaded 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display BTO configurations by as much as $1150 while supplies last.

MacBook Air


Best Buy's "Hot July Black Friday" sale, which began on Friday and runs through mid-night Saturday, knocks $200 off all standard 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display configurations, in addition to offering a $999 MacBook and a handful of other Mac discounts that can all be seen in our Apple Price Guides. Additionally, the retailer is also offering $100 iTunes Gift Cards for $85.

Per usual, Amazon was quick to match Best Buy's pricing on all Retina MacBook Pros. However, both of Best Buy and Amazon now charge sales tax on all orders. By comparison, MacMall only charges sales tax in CA, IL, NY, TN, MN, GA, NC, and WI, while B&H Photo only charges sales tax in NY. Therefore, readers not residing in one of the aforementioned states are still bound to find their lowest final price at MacMall or B&H, as shown in the guides below.

For its part in the discounted pricing, MacMall offers AppleInsider readers the absolute lowest prices anywhere on most MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros and iMacs when using the links in our price guides to activate the Promo Code field on MacMall's product pages and then manually applying coupon code APPLEINSIDER01 for an addition 3% savings.

Similarly, B&H Photo (which resumes accepting orders Sat. at 9:30pm ET) offers AppleInsider readers exclusive discounts on AppleCare 3-Year Extended Protection Plans when purchased alongside new Macs, yielding the lowest prices anywhere on most Mac+AppleCare bundles, all of which can be seen daily in our Macs+AppleCare Price Guide.

The Manhattan-based superstore also let us know that -- while supplies last -- they are blowing out a few fully-loaded 13-inch MacBook Pros with Retina display for between $900 and $1150 off MSRP, all of which are current-gen models: All of this weeks other discounts can be seen in the Prices Guides, a portion of which is below:
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 24
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    [I][Editors Note: This was a code error and has since been corrected, see below]
    [/I]
    Those savings are fake.

    For example, the $1150 'savings' is given as discount on the 2.5 GHz 13" rMBP with 768 GB SSD. The price chart shows a list price of $2999. When I configure it on Apple's site, the actual price is $2399 - so the savings are only $550 instead of $1150. Many of the other list prices are wrong, too.

    Now, there are some nice savings there, but it would be nice if they bothered to check their figures before writing an entire story about the 'massive savings'.
  • Reply 2 of 24
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,248member
    If you go to the B&H link, they show the correct pricing with a $550 savings. B&H must be wanting to get rid of inventory since this is the slowest 13" rMBP available. They probably got a few with the huge SSD in them and found people didn't want to spend this much for the small MBP. Might be same reason for the others B&H isn't selling. The other vendors look like they've sold out of most of the more expensive configurations.
  • Reply 3 of 24
    Someone wanting a good computer today would enjoy all these sales.
  • Reply 4 of 24
    thewbthewb Posts: 79member
    Amazon does not charge sales tax in every state. Only AZ, CA, KS, KY, NJ, NY, ND, PA, TX, and WA.
  • Reply 5 of 24
    cash907cash907 Posts: 893member


    Best Buy is also knocking off an additional 100 dollars for students


    , which I'd much rather have than a gift certificate to the App Store. Should mention that, AI. 

  • Reply 6 of 24
    kasperkasper Posts: 941member, administrator

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post



    Those savings are fake.



    For example, the $1150 'savings' is given as discount on the 2.5 GHz 13" rMBP with 768 GB SSD. The price chart shows a list price of $2999. When I configure it on Apple's site, the actual price is $2399 - so the savings are only $550 instead of $1150. Many of the other list prices are wrong, too.



    Now, there are some nice savings there, but it would be nice if they bothered to check their figures before writing an entire story about the 'massive savings'.


    They aren't fake savings. The original MSRP of that model was $2999. Apple dropped the price in February of all MacBook Pros. Some retailers kept the original MSRP so our system pulled in the original MSRP from them. They've since sold out but it didn't update. We've now pushed the update. Thanks.

  • Reply 7 of 24
    scoodogscoodog Posts: 17member
    I found another mistake:

    This model -- 2.9GHz 13" MBP (8GB,512GB) -- does not have a base price of $2,699. When I price it on apple.com, the base price is $2,199.

    So the discount isn't $900, it's $400, which is still very good.

    BTW, B&H lists the base price at $2,099 instead of $2,199, or a $300 savings.
  • Reply 8 of 24
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,404member
    jragosta wrote: »
    [Editors Note: This was a code error and has since been corrected, see below]

    Those savings are fake.

    For example, the $1150 'savings' is given as discount on the 2.5 GHz 13" rMBP with 768 GB SSD. The price chart shows a list price of $2999. When I configure it on Apple's site, the actual price is $2399 - so the savings are only $550 instead of $1150. Many of the other list prices are wrong, too.

    Now, there are some nice savings there, but it would be nice if they bothered to check their figures before writing an entire story about the 'massive savings'.

    These are really some incredible prices. I am thinking of a 13" rMBP for my son, and the Apple **Education** Store price for the 2.5/8/512 is $1849 (with a fairly chintzy $100 iTunes gift card thrown in, which we will not need) -- check it it out. MacMall advertises it here for $1548.

    I am going to call them to make sure that there's no catch.....
  • Reply 9 of 24
    indiekidukindiekiduk Posts: 381member


    best wait for v2

  • Reply 10 of 24
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    kasper wrote: »
    They aren't fake savings. The original MSRP of that model was $2999. Apple dropped the price in February of all MacBook Pros. Some retailers kept the original MSRP so our system pulled in the original MSRP from them. They've since sold out but it didn't update. We've now pushed the update. Thanks.

    That's a ridiculous way of looking at it. The CURRENT list price for that model is $2399. Calculating discount off some ancient price is dishonest.

    OTOH, I could consider that aluminum used to be $1,000 per gram. So when I buy a pound of aluminum, it's 99.999% off, right?
  • Reply 11 of 24
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,404member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by indiekiduk View Post


    best wait for v2



    .... at likely higher prices....

  • Reply 12 of 24
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    .... at likely higher prices....

    Why would the next MacBook Pro cost more?
  • Reply 13 of 24
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,404member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post




    Quote:

    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post



    .... at likely higher prices....




    Why would the next MacBook Pro cost more?


    Do you seriously think that, say, MacMall will be selling the next gen of MBP at these prices (until perhaps this time next year)!?


     


    This article is about Apple re-sellers, not Apple.

  • Reply 14 of 24
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Do you seriously think that, say, MacMall will be selling the next gen of MBP at these prices (until perhaps this time next year)!?

    This article is about Apple re-sellers, not Apple.

    His comment about "v2" made no sense to begin with. I assumed you were talking about the models straight off.
  • Reply 15 of 24
    kasperkasper Posts: 941member, administrator

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by scoodog View Post



    I found another mistake:



    This model -- 2.9GHz 13" MBP (8GB,512GB) -- does not have a base price of $2,699. When I price it on apple.com, the base price is $2,199.



    So the discount isn't $900, it's $400, which is still very good.



    BTW, B&H lists the base price at $2,099 instead of $2,199, or a $300 savings.


     


    Fixed, thanks for pointing that out,


     


    K

  • Reply 16 of 24
    kasperkasper Posts: 941member, administrator

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post





    That's a ridiculous way of looking at it. The CURRENT list price for that model is $2399. Calculating discount off some ancient price is dishonest.



    OTOH, I could consider that aluminum used to be $1,000 per gram. So when I buy a pound of aluminum, it's 99.999% off, right?


     


    Listen, the datasource we were using had the old price for 3 models. it was a mistake and we corrected it as soon as we saw your comment. We try our best and appreciate your feedback. I think we knocked all the kinks out of it for now.


     


    K

  • Reply 17 of 24
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,320moderator
    jragosta wrote: »
    That's a ridiculous way of looking at it. The CURRENT list price for that model is $2399. Calculating discount off some ancient price is dishonest.

    OTOH, I could consider that aluminum used to be $1,000 per gram. So when I buy a pound of aluminum, it's 99.999% off, right?

    That's what Apple does with refurbs. They have a 2011 model here for $1499, which they list on the refurb page as $500 (25%) off:

    http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD322LL/A/refurbished-macbook-pro-24ghz-quad-core-intel-i7

    It's not worth $1999 these days. You could almost buy a 2012 Retina MBP for that. When there are updated retail prices, it definitely makes sense to use them and it can seem dishonest not to use them but it's a pretty standard practise in retail.
  • Reply 18 of 24
    gctwnlgctwnl Posts: 278member
    Are they trying to get rid of excess inventory? Or is the update around the corner? What reason is there for such large discounts?
  • Reply 19 of 24
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Marvin wrote: »
    That's what Apple does with refurbs. They have a 2011 model here for $1499, which they list on the refurb page as $500 (25%) off:

    http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD322LL/A/refurbished-macbook-pro-24ghz-quad-core-intel-i7

    It's not worth $1999 these days. You could almost buy a 2012 Retina MBP for that. When there are updated retail prices, it definitely makes sense to use them and it can seem dishonest not to use them but it's a pretty standard practise in retail.

    That's not the same thing. Apple lists the final price that the new laptop was selling for. That is, let's say that it launched at $2,000, then was reduced to $1500. Then Apple later sells a refurb. They would list $1500 as the regular price, not $2000 (which is what the people here are trying to do).
  • Reply 20 of 24
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    gctwnl wrote: »
    Are they trying to get rid of excess inventory? Or is the update around the corner?

    Both.
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