How to find the lowest prices on Apple's Macs this Black Friday [u]

With Apple's online store only offering Gift Card incentives on Macs this Black Friday and power-sellers like Best Buy and Amazon running out of the most popular models days ago, the lowest prices on Macs that are actually in stock for shipping continue to come from a handful of the company's independent resellers. Our real-time price guides make it easy to find the Mac you want at the lowest possible price.

This year, both Amazon appears to be inadequately stocked for this year's shopping events, maintaining inventory of only a couple models (1, 2) of Apple's new MacBook Pros with Retina displays, while Best Buy sold through (Update: Back in stock) its MacBook Pro door busters in roughly an hour on Thursday and has since been teasing $150 discounts on MacBook Airs that have never gone live. (Update: Finally Available)

Filling the gap are a couple of AppleInsider sponsors — MacMall & B&H Photo — whose Mac deals (Price Guide) continue to stand out, with discounts between $101 and $615 on MacBooks and iMacs. Both also offer the added benefit of only charging sales tax on orders shipped to a handful of states. This typically accounts for an additional savings of $100-$200 on most orders:

* MacMall also only charges sales tax on orders shipped to CA, NY, IL, WI, MN, CO, TN, NC and GA.
+ B&H Photo only charges sales tax on orders shipped to NY.

Macs without AppleCare

MacMall has also extended AppleInsider readers exclusives discounts on 7 MacBook Pro configurations when using the links in this article or our price guides below (updated regularly at prices.appleinsider.com) and then manually applying Promo Code APPLEINSIDER01. In our price guides, MacMall's Macs that have exclusive discounts for BlackFriday have an exclamation point (!) after their price, while those with special pricing for AppleInsider readers via the aforementioned Promo Code have a caret (^) after their price.

Macs with 3-Year AppleCare Protection Plans

Readers who want to purchase a new Mac alongside a 3-Year AppleCare protection plan can more often than not turn to B&H, which continues to stand out on roughly 90% of Apple's Mac product line, offering combined savings of $205 on current Macs and up to $615 on previous-generation models. This is made possible through exclusive discounts on AppleCare that B&H offers to users of AppleInsider's price guide.

For example, when using the links in our guide, 3-Years of AppleCare attached to 11- and 13-inch MacBook orders fetches $179.99 (rather than $249), while the same plan for 15-inch MacBooks comes in at $244 (rather than $349). Meanwhile, AppleCare plans on iMacs cost just $122 rather than $169. The combined — and final checkout prices (except NY, which adds tax) — for all of B&H's Mac bundles can be seen in our New Macs with AppleCare Price Guide (also below):

Please note: B&H routinely closes its online order processing system on Friday's at sundown (4:15 PM ET) and resumes processing orders Saturday at Sundown (5:45 PM EST). In the meantime, customers can browse the site and compile their shopping carts.