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The Offer
- As in previous years, Apple is running their holiday shopping event, from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, November 25 – 28. You can get an Apple gift card of up to $250 with select purchases from Apple.com:
- iPhone
- iPhone 12, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone SE, iPhone 13: $50 gift card
- iPad
- iPad mini, iPad Air: $50 gift card
- iPad 9th generation: $30 gift card
- Mac
- M1 Pro / M1 Max MacBook Pro: $250 gift card
- M2 MacBook Pro: $200 gift card
- MacBook Air, iMac 24-inch: $150 gift card
- Mac mini: $100 gift card
- Apple Watch
- Apple Watch SE: $50 gift card
- Airpods
- AirPods 2nd-generation, AirPods 3rd-generation with Lightning case: $25 gift card
- AirPods Pro: $50 gift card
- AirPods Max: $75 gift card
- Accessories
- Beats Studio3 Wireless, Solo3 Wireless, Powerbeats Pro, Beats Fit Pro, Beats Studio Buds: $50 gift card
- Beats Flex: $25 gift card
- MagSafe Duo Charger, Apple Pencil 2nd-generation, Smart Folio Keyboard: $25 gift card
- iPad Pro Magic Keyboard: $50 gift card
- iPhone
Our Verdict
Though Apple direct purchases are often slightly more expensive than Apple products on Amazon (affiliate link) or other retailers, these holiday offers can sometimes make it worthwhile. That’s especially true if you pay on Apple.com with Apple gift cards purchased on some sort of deal or fuel points offer. You can also get free personalized engraving on some products when you buy directly from Apple.
Just remember that students and teachers can get an Education discount year-round on Apple products. This will not stack with the Black Friday gift card offer. (There are some products like iPhones and Airpods that never get any discount on the EDU site.)
Hat tip 9to5mac
Careful with the billing when purchasing a computer that comes with a gift card through apple.com. The invoice will separate the gift card amount from the cost of the computer reduced by the amount of the gift card. I am unsure if you try to return the computer, if the refund would be less the gift card amount. It is possible to purchase a computer during the sale, receive the gift card within 24 hours and then purchase another product that comes with a gift card. But I was mistakingly charged the full price of the computer and then was charged separately for the price of the gift card and working with Apple to have that refunded is not easy.
I saw the exact same thing when buying product on Target that was advertised to come with a gift card. My was charged twice (once for the product and once for the value of the GC). I did end up getting the gift card, but the second charge didn’t fall off. Target had no clue what was going on. I disputed the charge with Chase and they immediately found in my favor and credited my account.
How does delivery of the gift card work when you choose to pick up in store? Do they email the GC code after the sale concludes? Do they only send out the GC with physical shipments?
So much lack of clarity here. 🫤
Apple is really clearing out those previous generation iphones, could be a good deal if purchased with gift cards bought on discount.
I used to upgrade the phone every 2 years, now it’s more like 4-5 years. Same with the ipad. The new products not as compelling in years past.
Apple is probably in trouble if they do Black Friday sale.
They never did Black Friday sale
They did one last year.
They always do, just never significant discounts.
They stack with other deals like Citi gift card redemption discount (seeing this today only for Apple and others) and the Target deal where you buy apple GC and get target gift card in return.
Can I buy my ipad with with Apple gift cards that I already have and still get the gift card promo?
Yes but it gave me an error message so you need to pay a few cents with your credit card
No AirTags 🙁 https://www.apple.com/shop/gifts/shopping-event/terms-conditions
Every other retailer has airtags on sale like 20% off
Yup, weird
Does anyone know from doing this last year, about how many days after buying can I expect Apple to send the gift card?
(trying to get $50 Apple gift card for buying an iPhone on Black Friday on apple.com)
takes some time – i think they send the GC along with an actual shipment of the product. I got Macbook air from the back-to-school sale – macbook had bit of a delay back then; gc shipped around the same time – the laptop was shipped. Maybe bit over a week later for me (if i remember correctly). Don’t know about BF – but that was from back to school sale.
These seem to bring rough parity with Amazon’s current offers, at least on MBP, though I’d rather have the cash than an equivalent Apple gift card. YMMV on whether you have Amazon discounts or discounted Apple gift cards, or an item for which Apple will offer meaningful trade-in value, etc., to tip the balance.
Does it also not stack with the employee store discount?
Very likely no. In the past few years, I did not see employee discount stacked on top of Black Friday one.
Can I also get the GC if I shop in the education store?
As clearly written in the post, in the past, these discounts have not stacked. Back to school sales are the best time to use Apple education.