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General discussion

What the...!!!??? This resell site must have some problems.

Nov 26, 2007 12:33PM PST

People, look at this:

http://elcidelectonics.com/index.php

Check out the Mac prices on some of those! Not the latest models, but that's not a bad bargain since they say that they come with a bunch of the OEM included accessories, or something like that. But my intuition tells me to think and my guess is that these are either refurbs or used. Of course, I don't think it says that anywhere on the site, or at least, I didn't see that anywhere. Still, $700 for a relatively new MacBook or iMac is a good deal, if you don't crave the latest models. I think the original Core 2 Duo iMacs were nicer looking than the new aluminum ones, but a 2.8Ghz chip would be appreciated too. Who thinks this is for real? I don't. Anyone think this is a good thing? If this site is for real and not one of those scam sites, a new Power Mac G5 like that would be a nice addition... Happy.

That can't be right though. Most Macs I've seen have very high resell rates. Amazon and even on eBay or other sites can sell the last models of Intel (or even G4 and G5's for that matter) for the same price Apple had before. Crazy. What are your thought guys?
-BMF

Discussion is locked

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Just looked it up again,
Nov 26, 2007 12:42PM PST

and their FAQ states that all of their stuff is factory sealed. Hmm... still, they sell a 15 inch PB G4 for a little more than the 2.33Ghz C2D 17 inch MBP. Hello? Unless you're riding on a vintage tag for that G4 model, why would you buy it? PPC pride? Go with an iBook or a Power Mac, LOL. The PowerBooks were great, but I still don't think this could be right.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is surely messed up. New (in-the-box), C2D and PPC Macs for around half (or maybe less) off of their original retail prices. Not bad... they also said they were worldwide or something though. Warning bells going off anyone? Who else thinks so?

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Nothing suspicious here !
Nov 26, 2007 4:16PM PST

From Whois domain name look up...

Registrant:
WhoisProtector Inc. (elcidelectonics.com)
550 Burrard Street, Suite 200

Vancouver, BC V6C 2B5
Canada

Registrar: DomainPeople, Inc.

Domain Name: elcidelectonics.com
Created on .............Fri Nov 16 09:53:16 2007
Expires on .............Sun Nov 16 09:53:16 2008
Record last updated on .Fri Nov 16 09:53:45 2007
Status .................LOCK,

Administrative Contact:
WhoisProtector Inc.
WhoisProtector Inc.
550 Burrard Street, Suite 200

Vancouver, BC
V6C 2B5, CA
()604-688-8974
()
martninjacki@aol.com

Technical Contact:
WhoisProtector Inc.
WhoisProtector Inc.
550 Burrard Street, Suite 200

Vancouver, BC
V6C 2B5, CA
()604-688-8974
()
martninjacki@aol.com

Domain servers in listed order:
a.dns.hostway.net 66.113.129.243
b.dns.hostway.net 64.26.0.115

(elcidelectonics.com)


I ordered 5 of everything. With prices this low... you'd have to be CRAZY not to !!!

Wink

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Deja Vu.
Nov 26, 2007 10:05PM PST

550 Burrard Street,
Vancouver, BC

I think I've been in that building. FANTASTIC VIEW. Bring your best cameras.

Bob

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The copyright on the site says from 02-07,
Nov 27, 2007 6:49AM PST

but what you have here grim is from this year... and very recent too, unless the company just got a new domain and switched their site around. You didn't buy anything yet did you? I'd do what some article about following the spam on Yahoo said: buy one of those prepaid credit card things and use that. Safer after all. Still, it looks good. I'm gonna get some of my friends to look into this one Happy!

It's still weird though. Apple hates it when companies and stores resell their products for much less (think of the Fry's Black Friday Ad for the 24 inch iMac). Did you know that one Fry's in San Jose actually sold the iMacs for that price? It did happen there, even though the rest of the stores in the U.S. knew nothing about it. It was only a hoax to everyone else, Sad. I wanted to buy a dozen and resell... LOL. Lucky guys in San Jose. Point is, a relatively new Mac Pro with the 2.66Ghz base config sells for a little over $1000 on this site. Apple sells them starting at $2499 (with 2.66Ghz, not that measly 2.0Ghz)! Huge savings there, and if you don't want an Intel machine (why wouldn't you?), the G5 Power Mac is there for a bargain. A G5 like that one could sell usually around $3000 even though the new Pros are less. But that's just on Amazon or eBay if you ask me.

-BMF

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mega prices!!
Jan 21, 2008 5:22PM PST

I couldn't stand it!! So, I went to the site you guys are talking about, after all, I just paid $2011.89 for my iMac last year at this time. Did any of you go read the descriptions? It's as if each one is from a different "SELLER". Could this be a new kind of amazon, ebay type of thing? Just throwing out some guesses here. But those are lovely prices, aren't they?
masp

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I do not recommend that site
Jan 22, 2008 6:18AM PST

It appears to be up again. Odd. I've tried to access it a few times before and my browser reported that the page was unavailable. I found that site by searching for an iBook G4 on Google. One day I found a site that replaced this site's spot on the Google page I found. It was the same layout as this site, but with different colors and different prices. Same products though.

Whether or not it is a valid site or not, it really appears to be a scam. No Macs on the market would sell that low if they were factory sealed like this site claims. Their resell values are high. If this was a valid site, you'd hear about these "deals" all over the place.
Again, you don't want to mess with that site and possibly lose a lot of money over a nonexistent Mac.

-BMF

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Out of curiosity I just went to the site.
Feb 4, 2008 4:58AM PST

The 20" iMac I looked at is clearly an older model -- only 512 MB of RAM (the new ones come with 1 GB minimum) and v10.4 of the OS.

I would be suspicious too, especially when seeing typos on the pages like You should find allot of useful information here.

Also, the fact that the pages are so slow to load tells me that this site may be operating out of someone's house. IF there really is equipment being sold, it's likely gray-market or worse.

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They were older models
Feb 4, 2008 7:11AM PST

and I found one site that looked exactly like it but with different colors. Same products though. There was one point in time where I tried to access the site again and it was no longer on whatever server it was on. I highly doubt that anyone is selling any real products through it. I just thought it best to warn people about it should they stumble upon it.

-BMF

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Google finally came through
Feb 4, 2008 7:21AM PST
Here is something. While it doesn't really say that this site is a scam, it still shows that it could be. No site should spell their name wrong or have typos everywhere. Furthermore, just as this article says, no one seems to ever see it. If it was confirmed that this site does sell real products, then everyone would buy stuff there. The prices are much too low for "new in box" machines.

-BMF
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Wouldn't touch it with someone else's barge pole!
Mar 5, 2008 1:46AM PST