A Gateway To The Apple Ecosystem

ByEmily Dolloff

When I started as an employee of Small Dog Electronics over a decade ago, I didn’t know anything about Mac. I’d used the Apple IIe in Elementary school, but all I remember is the poor graphics on my favorite game Oregon Trail; Sally seemed to always break her leg and never made it to the end of the trail. In College, I’d seen a few students using colorful Apple laptops, but the operating system looked so foreign to me I couldn’t figure out how anyone used them. Thankfully, my first position with Small Dog was shipping and receiving. Really all I needed to know what how to accurately match up part numbers on an invoice with part numbers on a box. My first office workstation was an Indigo Blue G3 iMac. Having to use Macs every day at work I quickly adjusted and started to more easily navigate around on a Mac. I still can’t believe we had a Mac that was old enough to run Mac OS 8, which we used to process US Mail shipments.

Before I start to date myself and my time at Small Dog any further, where is this article going? It was in my early days at Small Dog and my time in shipping lane that I slowly began my baby steps into the Apple Ecosystem and it all began with a used laptop.

One evening at a Small Dog company party I as the lucky winner of a used G4 iBook. I think the hard drive was all of 30GB and had minimal memory. That little machine was the start of it all. I pushed aside my Dell PC at home and I never looked at a PC again. My little used iBook did everything that I needed it to do but it didn’t take long to have my eye on a silver shiny PowerBook. The only catch, I didn’t have the funds for my new dream computer. Eventually, we found some deals on refurbished Powerbooks and I traded up in the laptop world. I loved that little 12in Powerbook. It went everywhere with me, even on a cross-country trip and never missed a beat. I was so impressed with the performance of my refurbished PowerBook that when an opportunity came along and a great deal on a refurbished 17in iMac I jumped on that opportunity. After all, two computers were better than one! I admit, I didn’t even have a real need for it other than I didn’t want to share my PowerBook when I was at home.

It took about 2-3 years to become a full-time member of the Apple Ecosystem as bit by bit I added more accessories. It was so easy to sync an iPod and set up a new Airport that I could not imagine using another product line. I was a real computer novice at this time so to be able to set these devices up with minimal help was a real treat. I’d keep my eyes out for deals and when I upgraded computers migration assistant made it seamless. In the following years iPhones and iPads synced up with minimal effort, the list goes on. Now over a decade later I have just about every Apple gadget and my household is filled with Apple products everywhere you look.

My eye for great deals hasn’t stopped either. We recently purchased a number of Apple products from Watches to iPad to computers that are less than perfect boxes or have some minor damage but are still in excellent condition. I have my eye on a TouchBar MacBook Pro at the moment; it’s got some cosmetic damage but I can see past a blemish or two for a great deal! Not to worry though, we have many computers that only have some blemishes on the boxes. Don and I actually spent an afternoon last week opening up computers with damage to their outer brown boxes to find nothing more than a minor dent in the white Apple boxes.

Here are some of my favorite deals on some bad box computers and iPads that would make for a perfect addition to your Apple Ecosystem, or if you know other young Emilys out there who have not made the switch you should share these deals with that friend!

MacBook Pro 13in w/Touch Bar 3.1GHz i5 DC 8GB/256GB – Dented Box was $1799.99 now $1699.99

MacBook Pro 15in w/Touch Bar 2.8GHz i7 QC 16GB/256GB/2GB – Dented Box, was $2399.99 now $2299.99

MacBook Pro 13in 2.3GHz i5 Dual Core 8GB/256GB – Space Gray – Dented Carton, Was $1499.99 now $1349.99

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