Terms
Last updated 27 August 2026.
Plain version: you bid on a patch of my laptop lid. If the auction hits its goal and you are the top bid, you pay and your logo gets cut into the aluminium with a laser. It never comes off. If the auction misses the goal, nobody pays anything.
1. What you are buying
A named area on the outer lid of one 14″ MacBook Pro, which is my personal working machine. Your artwork is marked into the anodised aluminium with a fibre laser. You also get a followed link beside your name on this site, photographs of the finished lid, and a credit in the film of the etching session.
You are not buying equity, a licence, a service, an endorsement, or any control over where the machine goes or what is built on it. You are not buying an ongoing placement — there is one etching, once.
2. Bidding
You do not need an account to bid. You give a name, a link, an email address and artwork; that is the whole process. Placing a bid does not charge your card, because no card is collected at bid time.
Each spot has a starting price. Later bids on the same spot must beat the current top bid by at least $10. Bids are public: the name, link, artwork and amount appear on this site as soon as they are placed. Email addresses are never shown.
I may remove any bid, at any time, for any reason — see section 6.
3. The goal, and what happens if it is missed
The campaign has a single goal of $2,999: $2,499 for the machine at Apple’s US price, and $500 for the laser work and the film.
If the total of all winning bids at close is under $2,999, the auction is void. No machine is bought, no etching happens, and no one is invoiced or charged. This is all-or-nothing on purpose — it is what makes a small bid safe to place.
4. Winning and paying
At close, the top bid on each spot wins it. Winners are emailed a one-off payment link handled by Dodo Payments, who are the merchant of record for the transaction and whose own terms apply to the payment itself.
Payment is due within 48 hours of that email. If a winner does not pay in time, their bid is dropped and the spot passes to the next highest bid at that bid’s amount, with the same 48-hour window.
All sales are final once paid. Because the result is a permanent physical change to a specific object, there is no cooling-off period and no refund after the etching has been performed. The single exception is section 6.
5. Artwork
Send any logo. It is rendered as a single dark tone, because that is what a fibre laser does to anodised aluminium — colour, gradients and photographic detail cannot survive the process. The preview on this site shows you exactly what the laser will produce, before you bid.
Strokes and gaps finer than roughly 0.3 mm at final size will not resolve and may close up or disappear. Artwork is scaled to fit inside the spot you won; it is never cropped or stretched.
You confirm that you own the artwork or are authorised to use it, and you grant me permission to reproduce it on the machine, on this site, and in photographs and video of the machine. You keep every other right in it.
6. Refusal
I approve every logo by hand and reserve the right to refuse any bid before the etching happens. Hate speech, scams, adult content, anything unlawful, and anything I judge would be a permanent embarrassment to carry around are all out. A refused bid is dropped at no cost; if it had already been paid, it is refunded in full.
This is worth stating out loud rather than burying: the mark cannot be undone, so the vetting has to be stricter than it would be for a sticker.
7. The machine
Etching the lid voids Apple’s warranty on it and removes essentially all of the machine’s resale value. That is understood and accepted — it is part of what makes the placement permanent rather than temporary.
Etching happens once, in a single filmed session, after winners have paid. I will publish the film and the photographs. I do not promise any particular amount of exposure, travel, press, or traffic to your link, and none of that is what you are paying for.
If the machine is lost, stolen, destroyed, or fails, there is no re-etching and no refund of a completed etch. If I am unable to perform the etching at all after taking payment, every paid bid is refunded in full.
8. Liability
This is a one-person project. My total liability to you for anything connected with it is limited to the amount you actually paid. Nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.
9. Not affiliated with Apple
etchmymac is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Apple Inc. Apple, MacBook and MacBook Pro are trademarks of Apple Inc., used here only to identify the machine being bought.
10. Changes and contact
If these terms change before the auction closes, the change is dated at the top of this page and emailed to everyone with a live bid. Questions, or a request to pull your bid, go to hello@etchmymac.com.