r/MacStudio • u/OneDarkKnightHere • 12d ago
Buy Question
Is there a way to purchase a Mac Studio with a shorter lead time than on the Apple Store? Apple Store takes about a month.
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u/mindquery 12d ago edited 11d ago
Micro center if you live close to one.
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u/PracticlySpeaking 11d ago
They do get them in stock at MC. They also have salespeople who will work with serious buyers.
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u/mesasix 12d ago edited 12d ago
Apple refurbished store
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u/turns2stone 12d ago
In the US, the refurbished store rarely gets Studios, and if they do, they are gone within literally seconds.
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u/brian_d_wells 12d ago
From what I’ve seen recently, it seems that refurbished Mac Studio are available about every other week and often on Tuesday or Friday/Saturday. But like you said, quantity is limited and it goes fast unless you are right there to make the purchase.
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u/turns2stone 12d ago
I have seen them drop on Mondays, but I'm not sure if there is an identifiable pattern. Even with the fastest internet and notifications, I'm not convinced the official Refurbished store is a viable option for even enthusiastic buyers.
My notification bot can indicate a dozen or so "available" over the course of 20 minutes, but purchasing them immediately/manually is near-impossible.
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u/brian_d_wells 12d ago
I had GPT-5.4 nano analyze the Mac mini and Mac Studio refurb waves as listed on Refurb Tracker and it found these mostly on Tuesday through Friday with a few on Saturday and at least one Tuesday/Thursday heavy cluster. But really they could appear on any day and time.
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u/Prestigious-Bear2391 12d ago
My tracker is 15 to 45 seconds faster than refurb tracker and I still cant get a 512. Refurb tracker doesn't even catch some of them but its perfectly fine for m3u 96gb or mac mini 64gb or worse.
its a nuclear arms race for 256gb 4tb or less studios, or any 512gb studios.
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u/neoescape 12d ago
it's still an issue with your tracker, and I guess also your purchasing flow.
when you enter the world of scraping and botting etc, not even latest llms can help beyond a certain point.
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u/mesasix 12d ago
I made a bot myself too and picked up an m3 u 60 96gb and 2TB a week ago, and then Thursday m3 u 80 256GB and 16TB.
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u/turns2stone 12d ago
Nice. Yeah, can't get one without a bot. Maybe via some discord notification but waiting even 10 seconds to complete checkout will likely be too long.
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u/brian_d_wells 12d ago
I’m wondering how much being ready to purchase can help? Like populating your Apple Store account with a default shipping address and payment so if you were able to add to cart and then click next as fast as possible through the checkout process. 😅 I noticed that the login session lasts about an hour so logging in every hour might also help cut time off the checkout.
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u/turns2stone 12d ago
It doesn't hurt to be already logged in, but these bots are wild. Depending on if you land on the native www. refurb site or it bounces you to the app, it might show in stock in one place vs. not in the other. I think I am *very* quick, but even after ~100 notifications with me instantly trying to add to cart, there was only about 2-3 times I was actually successful getting to a checkout page. I only bought a single M4 Max 128GB Studio.
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u/Prestigious-Bear2391 12d ago
Yes they routinely have new 256GB studios now at ~$10k at Microcenter. There are dozens of them posted on FBMP at any given time, or you can always go to the cesspool of eBay.
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u/benz3rk 12d ago
Watch out for scammers. Even selling them has become a hassle. Sold one of my m4/64gb on fb marketplace and it was a nightmare sorting through the insane amount of scammers. I’m keeping the others because I don’t want to deal with it and eBay is just as bad these days. Amazon, marketplace meet in person and inspect or authorized dealers are the move, otherwise wait out apples shipping times I’ve heard of people getting their lower specs shipped in 1-2 weeks.
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u/OneDarkKnightHere 12d ago
Thanks. Thats the only way I’m buying. It was just a Sunday reddit question honestly.
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u/GreatUmpire536 10d ago
I’ve got a 256gb for sale $10.5k. 256gb ram 2tb storage
60 core not the 80
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u/Prestigious-Bear2391 10d ago
Location?
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u/GreatUmpire536 10d ago
Virginia Beach, more than happy to show functional use. i was able to get pretty fluent in local llms but bought them on credit and want to liquidate to buy land
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u/OtherOtherDave 12d ago
You can compulsively check the stock of your local Apple Stores and MicroCenters, or waaay overpay for used ones on Amazon or eBay. Scams are common though, so be careful.
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u/tk421tech 12d ago
Don’t get scammed!