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Beta Macs--any experiences?

inkswamp

inkswamp

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 26, 2003
2,953
1,279
Well, my trusty old iBook G3 finally shuffled off its digital coil last week (actually the unit itself works still, but the notorious reed switch issues cropped up and the display has died.)

So, I'm considering picking up an old iBook G4 because its battery is compatible with the G3's and I just bought a new battery 6 months ago. Perfect timing, huh?

The link above goes to Beta Macs. I've never heard of them but their prices are pretty darn spiffy. Anyone have any experience with them and want to give me the good, bad, and the ugly about them? :)
 
inkswamp said:
I searched the forums and already found all that stuff but I was hoping for a couple of personal experiences which my searches didn't turn up.

And from what I can tell, $400 for a 5+ year old iBook G4 isn't really "too good to be true" although I appreciate the advice. :)
Click to expand...

I've had a couple of successful transactions with them, PowerBook parts last summer.
Gotta agree that $400 for a 1g G4 12" is reasonable but not spectacular.

jodelli
 
I sold my ibook last summer 1.2 ghz 768mbs of ram with 18 months of applecare left for 300 bucks... Oh yeah, it had a brand new battery. : /
 
Great. They just bumped the price on the thing to $449. $400 was my budget for the replacement laptop. Hard not to be a little paranoid about the timing of that given that I just posted about it. I'm sure it's coincidental, but if, by chance, anyone from Beta Macs *is* actually reading this thread and thinking you were going to fish another $50 out of my pocket by doing that, think again. You just lost a sale.

Anyone know of any other good resellers I can look over for similar?

BTW, this iBook is just for casual web surfing and email so it doesn't have to be an MB/P.
 
Beware asking a question such as this and finding newbie forum users appearing to say "They're great" and then disappearing. ;)

Not pointing any fingers. Just encouraing the use of salt here.
 
yellow said:
Beware asking a question such as this and finding newbie forum users appearing to say "They're great" and then disappearing. ;)
Click to expand...

Actually, I've been on MacRumors long enough to be aware of that and should have known better than to post so many specifics here.

The more I think about it, the more I suspect it was done intentionally. They had already won me over with their eBay ratings which appeared to be very good and then out of the blue an old laptop that has no possible way of increasing its value suddenly jumps. Sad. I literally had my credit card sitting next to my computer and was a day away from ordering, but this was an underhanded move I don't trust them now.

15 minutes of searching pulled up the same machine at a better known reseller, cheaper with 3x the RAM. So whoever just bumped the price at Beta Macs (yes, I'm talking to you, lurker) I thank you for inspiring me to look elsewhere. :)
 
inkswamp said:
Actually, I've been on MacRumors long enough to be aware of that and should have known better than to post so many specifics here.

The more I think about it, the more I suspect it was done intentionally. They had already won me over with their eBay ratings which appeared to be very good and then out of the blue an old laptop that has no possible way of increasing its value suddenly jumps. Sad. I literally had my credit card sitting next to my computer and was a day away from ordering, but this was an underhanded move I don't trust them now.

15 minutes of searching pulled up the same machine at a better known reseller, cheaper with 3x the RAM. So whoever just bumped the price at Beta Macs (yes, I'm talking to you, lurker) I thank you for inspiring me to look elsewhere. :)
Click to expand...

Bumping the price upward on any G4 iBook smells like the reality distortion field at work. Like you said, there are better deals elsewhere.

jodelli
 
jodelli said:
Bumping the price upward on any G4 iBook smells like the reality distortion field at work. Like you said, there are better deals elsewhere.

jodelli
Click to expand...

Indeed.

An "elsewhere" to start with: Your local Craigslist. I do all of my buying/selling on there and it's worked out great.
 
yellow said:
Beware asking a question such as this and finding newbie forum users appearing to say "They're great" and then disappearing. ;)

Not pointing any fingers. Just encouraing the use of salt here.
Click to expand...

That being said, the user title reads macrumors newbie, not mac newbie. Hey, I admit to being a switcher though. I used Ataris for about ten years.;)

First Mac: Mac Plus
First laptop: 170 PowerBook (what a gem!)

jodelli (signing, a habit from 10+years of usenet)
 
MegaMacs has many iBook G4's listed for under $400. They even have a 800MHz model for $319. Not a bad deal in my opinion. I would check them out beforehand though.
 
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