I'm trying to sell my old iMac on craigslist but I am not getting much of a response. It is a 20" G5 2ghz, 1.5gb ram, with a 250gb hard drive, and AppleCare until Dec 13th of 2008. I put it up for $800 or $850 (can't remember which) and I am getting offers for like $600. Am I crazy or are they crazy?
Also, just to be clear. I am not trying to sell it on MR. Not because I don't want to but because I am not allowed to yet. If I still have it once I am allowed to post it on MR I'll put it up for sure though. That might be a while though since I have less than half of the posts I need.
From my experience with the iMac G5 systems, they just didn't hold their value.
I sold two of them within 6 months of purchasing them. And, I held out for the best deal I could make.
The first one lost more than $1000 in value during the first 6 months (due to Apple releasing an updated model with better specs for a lower price). So, My $2000 iMac was worth around $1000 after the new models came out with all the features I paid extra for being included in the new base model.
The second one, I purchased as a refurb to save some money. That one was sold around 4 or 5 months later for a $500 loss in value from the price I paid for it (again due to the current models offering more for the same purchase price).
So, While I paid around $1400 for that one, I was only able to get around $900 for it on a sale.
Both systems had AppleCare, and that didn't affect their selling price at all. It just increased the likeliness of finding a buyer.
So, basically, at 6 months old, both systems (including one that was similar to yours) were worth less than $1000 on the market.
Now, we are well beyond the original 6 month time-frame. And, there has been a later version of your machine released (at least one more G5 revision), and now 3 more revisions of Intel-based systems.
So, your market value will have really dropped.
Personally, if you really want to sell it, and you get an offer of $600, then I would take it before they could change their mind.
Now, if you would rather keep it than sell it for $600, then I would understand that as well.
But, if you really want to sell it, and you get an offer for $600, then take it before they have a chance to rethink their offer.
Personally, I've passed-up deals on iMac G5 systems locally for around $300 (and the prices in my area are usually extremely inflated due to being a bit more isolated from the mass merchants). The old G5's just aren't really worth much these days.
They have a few major strikes against them:
1) They are PowerPC, and the new Intel systems will do everything they do and also do it faster and run Windows.
2) The new Intel systems are not very expensive. So, consider that the Intel system sets the starting point for the depreciation. In other words, if the new iMac is $1200 to $1400, then you start taking depreciation from that value. So, $1200, minus the strike of being 4 or 5 revisions old, minus being X number of years old, minus value for being PowerPC, minus value for being used, etc.
3) The poor history that the iMac G5 systems have had for reliability. Granted the last revision of the iMac G5 (the one with the iSight) had a better reliability history. But, with all the oozing capacitors, failing power supplies, over-heating, and other issues that plagued the first two revisions, the desirability for the G5 is pretty low for many people.
All this is said not to make you feel bad about the machine. Just to help you understand why the offers you are getting are likely to be lower than you would at first expect.
In general, anytime you have something for sale for more than a week or two, you are asking more than the market value (unless it's a house or something major like that).
My experience with Craigslist, is that if you are selling something that people want, and you are asking a good price, then it is usually gone within minutes of posting the first advertisement.
The only items I had that survived for more than 24 hours were things that I didn't expect anyone would really want. I took those to the local thrift store for donation after a week of them sitting there (figured it was better than throwing them away).
