Hey guys, I have been looking for a cheap way to score a laptop for my simple daily tasks like browsing, email, documents, light web work, etc. Only requirement being, it has to be an Apple. I couldn't bring myself to buy a cheap ass dell no matter if I would use it a lot or not.
Anyways I thought about the older MacBook Pros for a bit, as they are being sold around $400-$500 and thats not too bad for what they are. But then it hit me! I saw a PowerBook on craigslist and the skies cleared! I thought that would be perfect for what im looking for. I still have my Intel iMac for my real work, but the PowerBook G4 could be a decent daily workhorse. Only problem was I had never used an older generation Mac before. I have always had an Intel based machine.
So, to shorten the story a bit. There were a couple PowerBooks for sale in my area but everyone seemed to be asking (IMO) outlandish prices. Like were talking $200-300 -- and upon researching on "apple value" sites I do see that they are supposedly worth around $200-$250 so I guess that's fair though you can find newer macbooks (13" white) for that price as well.
Well I found a guy asking a minimal ammount, $165 for a supposed "mint condition" 15", with 1.5 ghz cpu, 1.5gb ram, 80gb harddrive. Not too bad! So I met up with the dude, and came prepared. I checked all the stuff that I knew could go bad or wrong. I let him know up front I am very familiar with computers and that I knew what I was looking for/at. He was just a CL flipper and had no idea, so he quickly stopped treating me like an idiot and let ME tell him what was up (LOL).
I tested the wifi, worked great. I tested the superdrive, worked great. I tested the USB ports, worked great. I tested the sound -- and I guess because we were in Panera and it was louder, I thought I was only getting sound from the left speaker -- so I brought that up to him that only one speaker works. Also, the battery. The battery is poor but what is to be expected from an '04 machine. It was listed at 26% health from original in CoconutBattery. So I told him that as well, the battery was toast and would HAVE to be replaced.
In the end, I beat him up on the price a bit, and I guess my demeanor knowing about computers, I told him look man here is where i'm at with the couple things wrong -- I will offer you $80 for it. He winched like I was hitting him down low, and countered with $85. I thought that would be a fair deal, so I jumped on it.
I think he lost money on that one, cause he said well since I was able to make extra on my last deal, I can do that price for this. Also, we made a somewhat business arrangement that when he gets laptops to flip (windows/mac) I can wipe them and reload whatever OS he wants on them for a minimal fee. He says he gets like 10 at a time and fairly steadily.
Sweet! So I head home to play with it... reload a fresh version of Leopard with all the Intel code stripped out -- the thing runs phenomenal!! EVERYTHING works! That speaker I thought was out? Nope! Both work great!! (hahaha) The battery is indeed toasted, but i've already ordered a new one from Amazon for like $18.
Not only did I pay $85 for it, I think he will soon be paying me to do some work for him. And its in PERFECT condition (battery aside). No dents, dings, nothing. I couldnt talk other people down past $250 with the exact same machine!!
What do you guys think? Good score? Good price? I've read around a bit here in this subforum but if you guys have any tips for using a PPC machine on the daily then let me have it! So far its performing admirably!
Anyways I thought about the older MacBook Pros for a bit, as they are being sold around $400-$500 and thats not too bad for what they are. But then it hit me! I saw a PowerBook on craigslist and the skies cleared! I thought that would be perfect for what im looking for. I still have my Intel iMac for my real work, but the PowerBook G4 could be a decent daily workhorse. Only problem was I had never used an older generation Mac before. I have always had an Intel based machine.
So, to shorten the story a bit. There were a couple PowerBooks for sale in my area but everyone seemed to be asking (IMO) outlandish prices. Like were talking $200-300 -- and upon researching on "apple value" sites I do see that they are supposedly worth around $200-$250 so I guess that's fair though you can find newer macbooks (13" white) for that price as well.
Well I found a guy asking a minimal ammount, $165 for a supposed "mint condition" 15", with 1.5 ghz cpu, 1.5gb ram, 80gb harddrive. Not too bad! So I met up with the dude, and came prepared. I checked all the stuff that I knew could go bad or wrong. I let him know up front I am very familiar with computers and that I knew what I was looking for/at. He was just a CL flipper and had no idea, so he quickly stopped treating me like an idiot and let ME tell him what was up (LOL).
I tested the wifi, worked great. I tested the superdrive, worked great. I tested the USB ports, worked great. I tested the sound -- and I guess because we were in Panera and it was louder, I thought I was only getting sound from the left speaker -- so I brought that up to him that only one speaker works. Also, the battery. The battery is poor but what is to be expected from an '04 machine. It was listed at 26% health from original in CoconutBattery. So I told him that as well, the battery was toast and would HAVE to be replaced.
In the end, I beat him up on the price a bit, and I guess my demeanor knowing about computers, I told him look man here is where i'm at with the couple things wrong -- I will offer you $80 for it. He winched like I was hitting him down low, and countered with $85. I thought that would be a fair deal, so I jumped on it.
I think he lost money on that one, cause he said well since I was able to make extra on my last deal, I can do that price for this. Also, we made a somewhat business arrangement that when he gets laptops to flip (windows/mac) I can wipe them and reload whatever OS he wants on them for a minimal fee. He says he gets like 10 at a time and fairly steadily.
Sweet! So I head home to play with it... reload a fresh version of Leopard with all the Intel code stripped out -- the thing runs phenomenal!! EVERYTHING works! That speaker I thought was out? Nope! Both work great!! (hahaha) The battery is indeed toasted, but i've already ordered a new one from Amazon for like $18.
Not only did I pay $85 for it, I think he will soon be paying me to do some work for him. And its in PERFECT condition (battery aside). No dents, dings, nothing. I couldnt talk other people down past $250 with the exact same machine!!
What do you guys think? Good score? Good price? I've read around a bit here in this subforum but if you guys have any tips for using a PPC machine on the daily then let me have it! So far its performing admirably!
