Deals: MacMall 3% coupons expire at midnight; Amazon slashes 15" MacBook Pro Retina by $389

With just days to go before the start of the official holiday shopping season, we're seeing some Apple authorized resellers jump the gun with early deals. Meanwhile, today marks the last chance to take advantage of AppleInsider's 3% Mac discount codes during the 2012 calendar year.

2.6GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro Retina for $2,409.54

Amazon has been fiddling with its MacBook Pro Retina prices for the past few days, sometimes by the hour. Though it's unlikely to last long, Amazon is currently offering the the 2.6GHz Quad-Core 15-inch MacBook Pro Retina (MC976LL/A) for $2,409.54. That's $389.46 below list price, and nearly three times the savings of previous best offers we've tracked for this model in the Mac Price Guide.

Last call for exclusive 3% MacMall discounts

As in years past, AppleInsider's exclusive 3% discount code (APPINSDRMWB36316) at MacMall will expire at midnight tonight and not return until 2013. Several years ago, Black Friday discounts handily beat the prices offered the week prior that included the 3% discount. However, last year we saw a trend where retailers priced Macs on BlackFriday higher than they had at various intervals during the year, leading to price increases on some models for Black Friday in the Mac Price Guide.

While exact Black Friday pricing from all Apple Authorized Resellers has yet to be finalized, we're hearing that its likely we'll see prices at levels comparable to what they are now with the 3% discount. In some cases, we expect slightly better pricing on some models, while in some cases we expect to see little change or slight increases. To utilize the MacMall discount you must first click through the links in the Mac Price Guide (portion of which is printed below) in order to get the promotional code form field to display, then paste in code APPINSDRMWB36316 and apply it.

Popular Mac + AppleCare bundles return at B&H

Meanwhile, B&H Photo — the largest Apple Authorized Reseller in Manhattan — let us know that they've brought back their Mac+AppleCare bundles for AppleInsider readers. If you plan to purchase a Mac with Apple's extended 3-year protection plan, B&H's bundles are hands down the cheapest we've seen. We've added a tab for these bundles to our price guide (also below). Essentially, B&H is selling $249 and $349 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro AppleCare warranties for $95 and $122, respectively, on top of the discounted prices they offer on the Macs themselves. Similar discounts apply to desktops. We've also created a step-by-step guide on how to make sure you get the exact prices listed in our guide. The prices in the guide are for the Mac plus AppleCare.

We'll be updating our Price Guides constantly during the holiday shopping season. We'll also be posting some of the better Apple-related deals to our Backpage (RSS Feed).