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Could you advise the "Fair" Price of an iBook Clamshell?
- Thread starter chip1
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I'll be honest with you, I got my clamshell by just being lucky and finding one on ebay with a bad hard drive that was going for a good price, and I paid about $30 for it plus shipping. It seems that they have increased in price dramatically in the past few years. I would just wait for one to show up with a good price or try bidding on one.
Under $100 is fair/a good deal depending on what Mac you are looking at. Cubes, G5 Quads, iMac/iBook G3s, and iMac G4s are becoming increasingly expensive and harder to find. On the desktops, shipping prices are extremely high, and people are listing the lower-spec 15" iMac G4s for the same prices as the 20" G4s because they don't know what they are doing, which leads to price increases.
Cube prices have really taken a hit in the past few months. I have found multiple cubes on eBay going for $50 or less, while last year, getting one for around $100 like I did was a steal.
Cube prices have really taken a hit in the past few months. I have found multiple cubes on eBay going for $50 or less, while last year, getting one for around $100 like I did was a steal.
I'm going to have to go shopping for Cubes. Always wanted one and it'd make a great OS 9 machine.
And for info, here the average price is around 50€. Occasionally one can see prices as high as 180€ for a Lime. At the moment there is a 'Graphite' screen alone priced at 40euros ($45) [shown below] which imho is excessive, as with a little patience one can find a complete working Clamshell example for a few euros more.
One word of advise, most Clamshells purchased in Europe (with the exception of UK and Spain) will have AZERTY keyboards which - believe me, take some getting used to. I have several Clamshells with UK and AZERTY keyboards, and when using the latter, I always have the French AZERTY keyboard selected by default, so WYSIWYG.
One word of advise, most Clamshells purchased in Europe (with the exception of UK and Spain) will have AZERTY keyboards which - believe me, take some getting used to. I have several Clamshells with UK and AZERTY keyboards, and when using the latter, I always have the French AZERTY keyboard selected by default, so WYSIWYG.
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Here biddings for Clamshells are about 100€ max. I'd go for that if the device is in a good cosmetic and overall condition (look for cracks and scratches, fading of the outside color, missing of the Apple-logo, smoking, size of hard disk, RAM, torn contacts of the Ethernet and Modem slot)
Sometimes the touch-button is sticking. Releasing the screws at the bottom (opposite to the touch-button) will sort out this problem.
For my Graphite I spend 90€, the KeyLime was 120€ (both FireWire 466MHz). I would have even spent more, knowing now their condition. But you'll never know, what you'll get for you money until you get hands on the device.
I found the Graphite and Indigo FireWire models are advertised more often. The KeyLime SE seems to be rare here too. Same with Tangerine and Blueberry, if you look for one in perfect condition...
(especially when looking for QUERTZ keyboard).
Sometimes the touch-button is sticking. Releasing the screws at the bottom (opposite to the touch-button) will sort out this problem.
For my Graphite I spend 90€, the KeyLime was 120€ (both FireWire 466MHz). I would have even spent more, knowing now their condition. But you'll never know, what you'll get for you money until you get hands on the device.
I found the Graphite and Indigo FireWire models are advertised more often. The KeyLime SE seems to be rare here too. Same with Tangerine and Blueberry, if you look for one in perfect condition...
(especially when looking for QUERTZ keyboard).
One other very common failing is a missing optical drive cover. Here in the UK Graphites, Tangerines and Blueberries are the most common. The Blueberries and Tangerines tend to have the most cosmetic issues being made with more brittle plastics. Indigo and Key Lime are less common and fetch higher prices. About £80 seems to be the going rate for auctioned Key Lime Clamshells but you can pay more if it comes with accessories and the auction finishes on a Sunday.
I paid a paltry £5.50 for my boxed Graphite SE and my Tangerine was a freebie, thrown into a bundle of old computers of which the star attraction was a PB 5300CE. Bargains can be had, especially if you look on Gumtree.
I paid a paltry £5.50 for my boxed Graphite SE and my Tangerine was a freebie, thrown into a bundle of old computers of which the star attraction was a PB 5300CE. Bargains can be had, especially if you look on Gumtree.
So if You are well used to AZERTY maybe you have a spare QWERTY(äöü)-KB in exchange for another AZERTY...
Yes, you're right! A graphite one ended at $53 at ebay yesterday. Yet, its not my colour so I passed ...
If I hadn't missed the end of the auction it would have ended higher
I might or might not have won it, but I was willing to go $70 or so because it was fairly nice.
No I'm afraid I haven't (I'll never get used to an AZERTY)
I was going to ask you the same question.....