AppleCare Protection Plan MA519LL/A for MacBook Air / MacBook

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I used to work in an Apple Store. We were pressured to push AppleCare. I only took the job with the understanding I would NEVER pressure a customer to buy something they didn't need. They forced me to push .Mac just the same, but I made it clear to customers my heart wasn't in that disappointing product.

But my heart was in AppleCare. For two simple reasons: Apple gave excellent care, and frankly, you needed it. Look at Consumer Reports listings of product breakdowns, and you discover Apples break as much as PCs. As others will tell you, AppleCare is NOTHING compared to paying for repairs out of pocket.

But one day I got a customer who said something mind-boggling to me. He said, "I never buy AppleCare, ever." I'm like, why not? He said, "I unload my Macs on eBay one month before the year warranty runs out. This way, you're always running a new, zippy Mac, with the latest operating system installed instead of purchased." I thought that was a little kooky, but the more I thought about it, it was genius. For iMacs and Mac-Minis, no. because the AppleCare is relatively inexpensive But for laptops?

Brilliant.

Think about it. Like it or not, laptop batteries seem to go lame or dead by year two. Laptop prices also drop a bit each year. With a recession slamming against us, and Apple plainly stating prices will fall (a rarity indeed), put the pieces together.

Suppose you buy an $1100 Macbook on Amazon, right now. Word has it the line is going to be updated in September. So you buy it, and sure enough, new MacBooks pop into existence. Maybe an entry level one at 1050. So you sell your newish MacBook on eBay for $950. That means it will cost you $250 to upgrade to that new MacBook you didn't know you wanted. But $250 is the cost of AppleCare, and now you have a brand new Mac, new battery, and 1 year warranty.

Know what a new battery costs from Apple? Over a hundred. Know what the next operating system will cost, if you bought the box? Over a hundred.

Yes, there are a lot of ifs and buts in this process, and so if you can't sell your MacBook on eBay for a good price, or the price on the new MacBook doesn't drop: buy AppleCare. You have a year to buy it.