AppleCare Protection Plans: To Buy or Not To Buy?

[videoflyer]

I only once ever purchased an AppleCare protection plan and it happened to be the one time I actually ended up needing it. My G5 tower blew a gasket one day (I do believe that's the technically correct term...heh) and fried the motherboard. With AppleCare, I got quick turnaround on a motherboard replacement and, unfortunately, a new hard drive since that ended up as collateral damage. Apple held onto the machine until I was done recovering all the data I could and returned the fried drive to them.

But, in short, I was really glad that I'd actually purchased the plan that particular time. Of course, the flip side is that the other 90% of the time, I haven't need it at all so it would've ended up being a waste of money. If you're a "gamblin' man"...