Find the best deals on refurbished Apple products – CNET

In the past, Apple products rarely went on sale. Today, you can often find discounts on the Apple Watches, iPads, MacBooks and more, usually at stores like Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart. Right now, for example, the Apple Watch Series 3 38mm is on sale for $169, a savings of $30.

That said, I remain a big fan of refurbished Apple gear, especially when it comes from Apple proper. That’s because Apple routinely offers iPhones, Macs and other stuff for less than the price of new — but still exactly as good as new. Ah, but here’s the challenge: How can you find out when Apple’s clearance store adds something you want? And what if you’re looking for a particular model or configuration not offered by Apple proper? Where can you find third-party deals on refurbs?

Simple: Head to RefurbMe. Born years ago as a simple catalog of Apple’s own clearance items, the site now offers all manner of refurbished Apple products from many sources, like Amazon, Back Market, Gazelle and Mac of All Trades. Even better, it can alert you when a particular item becomes available.

The site is divided into six major sections: MacBooks, iPhone, Mac Desktop, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV. (You can also search for a specific product.) Click iPhone, for example, and you can then filter by model, carrier and other criteria.

So, for example, if you happened to be looking for an unlocked iPhone XR ($599 at Apple), you’d quickly see that the lowest price comes from Back Market. (Whether or not that’s a smart buy is open to debate; just saying you can find it easily.)

If you’re looking for an item or configuration that’s not currently available, or just want to wait for a lower price, RefurbMe will let you create a product alert just by providing your email address.

Keep in mind, too, that RefurbMe is merely aggregating all refurbished Apple products under one roof. The product conditions, warranties and other factors can vary greatly from one seller to the next, so it’s up to you to do your homework.

What’s more, don’t assume that the site always has the latest and greatest deals. The best price it could find for me on the aforementioned Apple Watch Series 3 ($199 at Apple) was $179, $10 more than the current sale price on a new one. And RefurbMe doesn’t include pricing from stores like Best Buy and Target, so you’ll definitely want to search beyond its borders.

Nevertheless, I consider this a genuinely useful tool for anyone seeking to save money on Apple gear.

Now playing:
Watch this:

Here’s why you should wait to buy a new MacBook

6:50