The refurb situation...
... isn't great. I looked at that route, I'd be saving minimal money compared to a new model, in exchange for the potential issues with refurbs (many refurbs have undetected hardware issues which is why they were returned for being "flaky" but just got an OS wipe and new box), and the refurb market on Macs is crazy. A lot of times I looked, I'd see a model 2 years old selling for almost as much as the new stuff! Same for the iPad, saving $50 isn't worth the headaches of refurbs, IMHO.
My angst with refurbs is driven from working on a hardware help desk, I saw first hand how the refurb process worked. And from owning cell phones... once you end up with a refurb phone, you will not have a working phone again...
J.Ja
