I've seen scratched up anodized iPhones that friends have owned and a scratched up MacBook right in the Apple Store, where the anodization was scratched off around the charging port, and they looked terrible. In contrast, a scratched up space grey MacBook looks like crap. I also have a MacBook from 2008 that I picked up on Kijiji that is scratched all to hell, but it actually doesn't look that bad because the scratches are the same silver colour as the laptop.
I have a MacBook Pro from 2009 which is silver and it looks almost new. There is no colour to chip off of silver laptops. The anodized colours on the Macs and iDevices can chip off if you aren't careful. I never get accident warranties though, since they are usually too expensive. Word of warning on credit card warranties though: You MUST keep the original receipt and you MUST charge the entire amount to the credit card. I usually rely on my credit card extended warranty. The reason is because Apple charges the same amount for say an entry level iMac as they do for the top spec model, so the relative cost of AppleCare on the cheap one is much higher.
I never get AppleCare on lower dollar items, because the value isn't there IMO. Still, these days I usually don't get AppleCare, unless I get it at a discount, and it's on a high dollar item. Defects often take time to manifest themselves.
I've occasionally had stuff break down in the third year, but usually not. If you move it around a lot, or have food and drink around it, or have kids and pets running around everywhere, it might be worth that peace of mind. The only reason I'd consider it is for accident protection. I wouldn't expect hardware to start breaking down randomly until long after that. If there were defects, they'd show up within the first 2 years. Credit card gets me the second year, so I'd be paying all that for a third year.