An update on my old iMac G3

If this is the Mac I'm thinking of, I highly doubt you are going to get that much. About two years ago I picked up one from a local shop for only 25.00. It had the keyboard and mouse as well.

I wouldn't expect to get more than $50 for an iMac G3, unless its maybe the last 700mhz model. And even then, a big maybe.

I think we responded to you when you bought it that it was way overpriced at 125 when you bought it.

Don't think you are going to get your money out of it, even if you bump up the ram or hd or OS.

YOu'll be lucky to get forty bucks for it. You might as well sell off the ram and hard drive separately if this is really a money thing.

On the other hand, if you want to keep it for your own use, bump up the ram to one gig and the hard drive and you will be in the Mac world, lowendmac world.

G3 iMacs make GREAT gifts for grandmothers, non Mac friends and newbie mac owners and kids.


Take the hint and I'm sorry you got ripped off.

Honestly, you'd be lucky to get $25 for it. Its so slow that it is of little use to anyone. Its so heavy that no one will be bothered to take it. I paid £10 (~$16.50) for one at a car boot sale a couple of months ago. I only bought it because it was the Red one which are reasonably uncommon and the best looking and I'd like to use it for a project at some point.

If you paid $125 for it then you may as well have been mugged. Put it down to experience and save your money up for a decent machine and do your research before you buy.

dandeco said:

They just brought it in and put a price tag on it, I bought it for the $125 price they slapped onto it (they must've not known ANYTHING about Macs!) and fixed it up a bit (well, I now put Mac OS X 10.4.11 on it.)
...
I think you're right. The owner of the store obviously knew NOTHING about the value of Macs.

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The store knows nothing about macs? Its clearly the opposite case here, you were the one that paid an extra $100 for a $25 computer.

I wound up paying the last of the money in my bank for a refurbished eMac G4. The price, including shipping, is $127.

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You even paid TWICE what that eMac is worth!

You need to get on the ball here. That iMac is worth $25, at best, and that refurb eMac you bought is barely worth $70.

to give you an idea,

i bought a few imac g3's lately here in the UK (where they fetch much more than in the states), and this is what i paid for them:

ruby imac 450/640 ram/120gig HD/CD-RW/osx panther/original kb/mouse/software
£20 ($32)

ruby imac 400/64 ram/10 GB/ OS9
£5 ($8)

indigo imac 450/dvd/256 ram/tiger/loads of software/40 GB
£0 ($0)!

sorry, but its probably not worth the hassle!

iMac G3s are very cheap these days (as mentioned), shipping is another factor in any purchase of the iMac G3. Cheapest shipping an iMac G3 is at least $40. Think of that when selling the G3. Also what is the MHz of your iMac?

dandeco said:

Oh I didn't make the price. The store did!

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I think his point was that you were not clear on a G3's value, or you wouldn't have paid for it anyway

You win some...you lose some. But if you are well informed BEFORE you make a purchase, you are less likely to lose.

dandeco said:

Oh I didn't make the price. The store did!

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My point was, you blame the store for not knowing the value of the computer but it was you that didn't know its value because you willingly paid many times what it was actually worth.

Its a classic sales technique. If you don't know the value of something, set the price high and gradually lower it until somebody agrees to it. Its a gamble of time but in your case it paid off for the store since they made very good profit on an otherwise worthless computer.

dandeco said:

I checked the value before the purchase for sure. Pretty good bargain too!

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Where on Earth did you check the value?? A 2003 copy of a Mac magazine?? That machine is not worth $125. Its not worth $70. Don't waste any more money by putting bigger hard drives and stuff in. People would rather buy the hard drives and RAM separately rather than having to lug that massive back breaking paperweight around. Either skip it, sell it for $25 if you can find someone willing to part with that much or keep it as a reminder to do proper research into the value of things before buying them.

If you want a rough idea of the value of an item, do a search on eBay for such an item and then change the search preferences to "Completed Sales" - then look for prices in green, those are sales that went through.

I.e. Looking at the US eBay site now, most iMac G3s went for ~$20. There are a few a bit more but those tend to be mint condition models or rare colours etc. EMac G4s seem to usually go for about $25-$50. Yes there are some that sell for more but there's no guarantee that you'd get that, its not an indication of value. Sometimes you get the odd fool who pays over the odds for a machine but on the whole, it doesn't work like that. For example, there are a lot of models on there that failed to sell at $50.

You've paid about $250 now on old machines. Considering you can get Mac Minis with Intel Core Duos second hand for $300, you've really got some bad deals. The value of G4s is also now going to plummet even more since they're no longer going to be supported in Snow Leopard. That also means that a lot of third party software writers will start to make their code Intel only too.

dandeco said:

I think you're right. The owner of the store obviously knew NOTHING about the value of Macs.

Well, I wound up paying the last of the money in my bank for a refurbished eMac G4. The price, including shipping, is $127. With a 1 GHz G4 processor, a 40 GB hard drive, USB 2.0 and Airport Extreme included (this is a 2004-era eMac, the 1.0GHz "education" version), it should be better than the G3. So I'll probably just sell the old iMac on eBay a while afterward, to make up for paying that much for both computers (I'll probably just sell the iMac G3 for $70, but then there's more money for the shipping.)

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SO YOU MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE AGAIN!? REALLY!? $127!? Oh, holy crap, did they ever see you coming. Twice nonetheless.

I have a classic IBM limited edition beige desktop I can sell you - it's from 1999 and runs Windows98 just fine - and everything is upgradable. It even comes with the original ball mouse, keyboard, CRT monitor, and upgraded JBL speakers. I'll let it go for a mere $350. Trust me, it's a steal, and my loss is your gain.

dandeco said:

Oh I didn't make the price. The store did!

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Oh, well that justifiably makes everything fine! As long as the store set the price, and you didn't set it for them, then that's perfectly understandable...

I'm sorry to intrude, but I have to ask. How old are you? Seven?

Guys, give him a break already. We've all accidentally blown too much money on something then realized it after it was too late. If he feels like $127 for an eMac is a fair price (and honestly thats not too bad for a USB 2.0 model) then so be it. No it won't run 10.6, but honestly most people don't need much more than a 1GHz G4 in their computer.

dandeco:

Adult advice to you... always calculate shipping into the sales price.


this means if you are going to buy a heavy computer desktop, buy it on local Craigslist or localized eBay.

You got ripped off twice now.

Do not do it again.

You will be lucky to get fifty bucks out of these computers for both IF you could find a seller.

I would fix them up as gifts to nieces nephews grandmas grandpas or other poor friends you want to switch to Mac.

I love old iMacs, too, but I NEVER pay more than 30 bucks for them.

You were ripped off on that, too, btw. You got the NON FIREWIRE iMac G3 which makes is even worth LESS. The 350mhz does not have FIREWIRE.

My advice to you if you think you can get that much for an eMac is

sell it now.

Then tell us how much you actually made after eBay fees etc.

Craigslist.

Things depreciate all the time.

If it's 5 years ago then $125 is ok.

Everyone else, $125 is pocket change. Not the end of the world. People pay that much for a bluetooth headset...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-EMAC-OSX-...s=65:13|66:2|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50
$35

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-eMac-USB-...s=65:13|66:2|39:1|240:1318|301:0|293:1|294:50
$54

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-eMac-G4-8...s=65:13|66:2|39:1|240:1318|301:0|293:1|294:50
$24

Consultant said:

Everyone else, $125 is pocket change. Not the end of the world. People pay that much for a bluetooth headset...

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Yeah but a Bluetooth Headset is something you can use. This iMac... not so much. I'd give ya $10 for this machine. Honestly, it's pretty worthless.