Good afternoon, long time lurker, first time poster...
I highly suggest purchasing a refurbished mac. I just bought a “new” iMac earlier this week. The only difference with a store bought machine is you don’t get the “out of the apple box” experience and (on mine) there is a slight scratch on the back of the machine that I would never notice anyhow. Oh, and I saved $500 on the price. You get the same one year warranty as you would with any apple product. I took that $500 and applied it to a 3 year AppleCare plan and MS office for mac.
Welcome to FR! You might want to ask “Swordmaker” to get on his Mac ping list....