Here’s one good reason not to buy a MacBook on eBay

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Here's something to be worried about when you buy a used MacBook on eBay. Photo: Alex Heath / Cult of Mac
Here's something to be worried about when you buy a used MacBook on eBay. Photo: Alex Heath/Cult of Mac

When it comes to buying Apple products, you should make sure a deal isn’t too good to be true when you sign up for it.

A U.K. man who purchased a MacBook on eBay for a bargain price was surprised by what arrived in the mail — not a laptop but a black-and-white photograph of a MacBook.

The MacBook was spied on eBay for around £300 (approximately $343). That’s a pretty great bargain on any recent Apple laptop, but as usual when an Apple deal appears too good to be true, something was afoul.

“The package was as light as a feather. Why bother sending a picture in a box? It doesn’t make any sense. I almost had to laugh,” buyer Paul Barrington told The Telegraph. Barrington sold his surfboard to afford the MacBook in order to start a new wedding DJ business.

In all likelihood, Barrington fell for a common scam, in which would-be buyers of a discount Apple product miss the fine print on an eBay listing that says a would-be buyer is making a purchase of a photo of an item, instead of that item itself.

According to an eBay rep, Barrington will be getting a refund “as soon as possible” and the matter will be investigated. We’ll see how that works out for him.

Source: Telegraph

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