Am I an Idiot for Spending $285 on an iBook?

[Epsilon88]

Thanks for all of your responses! I've been thinking a lot about my purchase, and I've realized that I've made a mistake. I'd like to quantify it in real dollars.

An ultraportable, efficient laptop with Mac OS X would be worth $900 to me.

For the iBook

minus $400 for the physical condition. It is 6 years old, and could die at any time. That would mean losing a lot of data, even with regular backups.
minus $200 for the slow hard ware.
minus $200 for being unable to handle modern software, such as Snow Leopard, Office 2011, or the most recent Firefox
minus $50 for the low resolution and the 5 pound weight.

So essentially, it is worth $50 to me. Add $100 for the nostalgic value (Look! I have a 12 inch iBook!) and you've got $150. I paid double that. However, if it somehow is able to last another 2 years without dying and is in good physical condition, then maybe it's OK.

Sigh...

 

[Perdification]

Why didn't you go for a refurb unit? At least you still have AC.

 

[Epsilon88]

That would have been smart!

 

[Perdification]

That would have been smart!

Heh, refurbs are quite cheap, you can get another one. Oh but wait till the next update.

 

[Monkey194545]

If it lasts you a while then who cares. I just got a powerbook g4 (12inch 1.33) as a backup notebook. But then again I only payed 199, and the one I wanted but I clicked the buy it now button five minutes too late went for 169.
But in the grand scheme of things you have a working computer for under 300 that doesn't run windows.

 

[0007776]

if you decided it wasn't worth it, you can always try to sell it on craigslist and get your money back.

 

[Perdification]

if you decided it wasn't worth it, you can always try to sell it on craigslist and get your money back.

Yeah, polish it up a little, and claim it to be like new. Then you might be able to fetch higher prices and make a profit even. Of course, I'm not telling you to go about scamming people.

 

[Mal67]

I have my eye on an Amiga 500 on Australian ebay in original warehoused condition since 1992. I would really love to get hold of it specially as I like the 16bit games from that era. Already the price is up to 151 Oz dollars with 3 days to go. Would I be willing to pay much more than that for nostalgia and condition alone yes but probably not much more. If you've got tiger and office 04 to run on your ibook and it's in reasonable condition you might be able to stretch it out for another 2 years like someone else suggested otherwise cut your losses and try to on sell it. My own ibook is sitting packed away somewhere no longer used at all. My 2cents