Purchasing a mac via e-bay?

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With college on the rise I must begin to watch every penny I spend...
With that e-bay seems like a viable outlet to save some big bucks, but not without a few concerns.

Should I be concerned with counterfeit products?(I'm aware there is always a risk, but our macs particularly susceptible to counterfeiting?)
Many e-bay sellers state that the unopened laptops comes with a 1-year warranty. It is my understanding that manufacturer warranties only apply to the original buyer. How would a warranty carry over for an item purchased via an e-bay store? Would the 1 year warranty begin upon registration of the product?
Lastly, can an Apple Protection Plan be applied to products purchased via e-bay?
 
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Black Macbook C2D 2GHz 3GB RAM 250GB HD iPhone 4 iPad 3G
You should definitely be careful when buying an expensive item on eBay, but as long as you know what you're doing, then you should be fine.

If it's an unopened box, then there should be no problem with the original warranty. All you need to do is register the Mac under your name and you should be fine.

Finally, you will most definitely be able to add AppleCare to your eBay bought Mac. How AppleCare works is that you have to register it online. You need the AppleCare code and the Mac's serial number, so it doesn't matter where you purchased it.
 
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15" Unibody MBP 2.4 Ghz C2D, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD, 320 GB Time Machine HDD, 1 TB Ext Media Drive
If you'd like to get technical about it, Apple can find the original "in-service" date and apply the one year factory warranty to that date. This is the date that the computer was originally purchased from Apple. As long as this date was less than 1 year ago, you have the option to purchase and register AppleCare, and protect the computer for another 2 years.
 
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Seeing as your a student, I've found eBay prices on macs to generally be around the same as student discounts... in some cases even for used ones. I don't think eBay is the best way to go when it comes to shopping for a mac, but that's just me.

On a side note, I also find people paying at (or even sometimes above!) retail prices on some items... I've never understood this? Too much money in their Paypal accounts I hope. Sorry... nothing to do with your post.
 

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