Am I Asking Too Much?

What is hurting your sale is it is a non Intel machine and with the new iMac's that just came out. Maybe you should try eBay to get a better price.. Good luck on your sale

 

I sold the exact same computer for £550 on ebay ($1,116) but of course things are more expensive in the uk. Have a look on ebay.com to see what ones go for. Don't be too worried about offers being much lower I had someone offer me £300 for mine, people will always try and get a bargin in the hope that you're stupid.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=imac+g5+20&category0=

Take a look seems like $750-$800 is a fair price

 

What does your Craigslist ad look like? Is it a detailed and outlined description with pictures? Do you include pictures? That can also effect responses.

You could try dropping the price by $50. With ebay if you could get $800 you also have to factor in ebay fees and paypal fees, which are considerable. If you don't already have a paypal account you would have to set one up. Paypal also requires a lot of personal information if you want to withdraw more than $500 a month. Another caveat with ebay/paypal you have to be quite careful that you make sure you follow the rules closely, to be covered under their seller protection program.

I would say set the iMac at $750 and repost on craigslist every other day, removing the old posts. Try this for a week, eventually someone will want it.

Edit: Also with craiglist are you giving them a phone number to call or just an e-mail address. I found I get many more responses with a number for people to call.

 

A bidding war on eBay could net you a good price, even after fees...

 

I'd suggest combining the two--try putting it on CL every other day for a week or so, and then put it on eBay. Write a very detailed description, describe everything that comes with it, use lots of pictures, etc. Something that I've found to matter quite a bit is a picture of the computer against the box--if the box looks like it's been taken care of, people assume the computer has also.

Offhand, I'd say $750 is close but a bit high--I just got a 20" CD iMac with 1 Gb RAM and a 250 Gb HD off eBay for $790 (AC through about April 09).

Bob

 

The phone number really makes a HUGE difference with craigslist though. Just be firm on the price and cash only, local pick up only. I have never gotten good responses through e-mail on craigslist, just poor offers and non-responders. People who call are generally much more realistic and serious. Most don't even offer a lower price, either they do or do not want it.

I for one will not even make an inquiry with someone whom I can not call. A lot of people like that person to person contact. Generally at that price you will get guys who are 50+ that prefer phones.

 

Your Welcome. Hopefully you get a good price.

 

ebay Pricing

Looks like between $650 and $775 on ebay as of todays listings. Good luck!

 

http://www.mac2sell.net/

 

Expect low ball offers from CL users. Happens to me all the time. I usually wait it out but if no one comes near a reasonable offer, off to eBay it goes.

 

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).

 

Although that kind of a drop in value is very disappointing, you might want to lower the price. Do it in $50 decreases and repost every 2-3 days. Good luck.

 

Hi, sell it on ebay.fr or co.uk and you'll get the price you're after. Power adapters are cheap and you could include one and/or subsidise the postal costs. You'll be able to do it without problems as you're bound to get the price you'd like. Last week I payed $1140 for a 2.1 with AC until Nov 2008. The G5's are holding there own here. It's my second G5 and I love them. (So does my mum too!) Big screen to adjust font size if necessary is a plus too. The only potential negative with my suggestion is if you're not willing to .. ahem ... be creative with the customs declaration you wont get a sniff.

 

A friend of mine is very good at selling one or two year old Dell computers on EBay. I cannot believe the prices people pay for his wares. He told me to include little accessories that does not cost too much, but somehow get people more excited. A box of DVD-R's, maybe an external hard drive, something like that.