Most of the time buying a product – especially a used laptop – with known defects is a really stupid move. But with the knowledge from this article you will be able to score a deal on a perfectly good used Apple laptop that others would probably pass by. The “defects” to look for are case cracks and or discoloration of the palm rests.

These problems were encountered by people who bought the earlier releases of the MacBook (and even quite a few of the later models). While these issues are legitimate complaints, I mean, who wants to buy a brand-new laptop and have it look bad within a month or so? But the problem of the discoloration or the small cracks was in appearance only – it didn’t affect the functionality of the MacBook. And this means that if you can find a used Apple laptop with these small defects, you can often get it at a much better price than one that looks better but may not even work as well or have as many features.

Look for white MacBooks that have discoloration on the palm rests. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the previous owner was sloppy or that the laptop was used extensively without proper care. Since it took Apple a little while to acknowledge that the discolorations were caused by a defect in the composition of the plastic itself, there may quite a few that you can get for a great deal.

As far as the cracks in the case – this can be a more serious issue, but most of the time the cracks were just cosmetic and didn’t affect the laptop’s usability. The problem was caused by a weakness in the plastic Apple used in the MacBooks, so even when a user took extreme care with their laptop it could crack under normal use. Another cause of the cracks was simple over tightening of the screws that held together the bottoms of the cases.

Apple provided free repair after realizing this defect, but finding a cheaper, used Apple laptop with these minor cracks could still be possible because most people don’t want to be without their computers long enough to ship them off for repair. If you find one without cracks, do go ahead and just barely loosen those bottom screws and you may prevent it from cracking on you in the future.

As far as other laptop defects, such as poor screen quality, dead keys or huge cracks, don’t even make that purchase! But finding these small defects on a high quality used Apple laptop can save you a lot of money.