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Although Apple has never publicly acknowledged it was theirs to begin with, the mysterious eBay storefront known only as “refurbished_outlet” appears to have vanished as quickly as it first appeared.
9to5Mac is reporting that Apple’s semi-official, refurbished product storefront on eBay appears to have vanished over the weekend after going dark on Saturday night and continuing to remain empty at the start of the work week.
Back in November, an eBay representative confirmed to 9to5Mac that the virtual storefront was indeed being run by Apple, although such a situation could have involved a middleman. No one knows for sure, because Apple declined to comment or connect any dots back to Cupertino.
The eBay outlet quickly became noteworthy among deal seekers for offering “Apple Certified Refurbished Products” with a full one-year warranty that offered MacBooks, iPads and iPods with a “final quality inspection by Apple” — all at prices cheaper than Apple’s own online refurb outlet, but without sales tax in many states where Apple maintains a retail presence.
It remains to be seen if the deals will ever return to eBay, but for now you’ll have to go seeking cheap(er) thrills at Apple’s official refurbished store.
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(Image courtesy of 9to5Mac)
