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How Did You Acquire Your PPC Macs?

JaguarGod said:
Just curious, are there many PPC users here that bought their PPC Mac's when they were originally released? I bought most of mine as they were released (shown in my earlier post) and noticed that a lot of users here bought from places like eBay or craigslist. Maybe I am just old? Well, I am old.

I bought my 7500 (which I still have) back in '95 I think. I forget sometimes that there are so many younger people using Macs and some start on, or simply buy, PPC Macs as they are a bit cheaper and some still look absolutely fantastic.
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I've only ever bought three Macs brand new - a PowerBook G4, and eMac, and a MacBook Pro.

Of my other PPC systems, all were acquired used. Some were given to me, some I bought on eBay/Craigslist/etc. A few I bought when they were still "usable" with then-current software. (Including my first Mac that was truly my own - a PowerBook 5300c.) Most were acquired as "antique collection pieces" long after they were obsolete as day-to-day computers.
 
iMac G3 400MHz - free from a friend
iMac G3 500MHz - $10 off Craigslist
iBook G3 900MHz- $20 from a different friend
iMac G4 800MHz - $50 from University Surplus Store
eMac 1GHz - free from another friend
iMac G5 1.8GHz - $90 :eek: from a University Surplus Store
Power Mac G5 2x1.8GHz - $50 from a University Surplus Store
Power Mac G5 2x2.7GHz - $10 from a University Surplus Store
 
My first PPC mac I got when I was 10, an imac 333mhz, my uncle bought it for me for $600 used from a mac store.

Before that I had a 68k desktop from 1992, I was too young to remember the model, but I recall it had 25mhz processor and a 150MB hard drive.

Upgraded to a mac mini g4 1.4ghz that I saved up for and bought on my own when I was 12. That machine lasted me about 3 or 4 years, then I went the windows way.

Just got myself a beige g3 off ebay, mostly for nostalgic purposes. Got it for a $100 including shipping and import.

Damn you guys and your free/$10 macs, wish I ran into such opportunities.
 
My only Mac ever is a G5 Quad I bought two weekends ago on craigslist. It was sort of an impulse buy, but I've always wanted one since the G5 came out(mainly because of the case). Plus I thought it is cool that I own the last RISC desktop PC ever made.
 
The G5 PowerMac I used to have was bought off of Craigslist. An eMac I had was given to me by my school, someone donated it and they were gonna throw it away. The iBook G3 Clamshell I had was bought off of Craigslist. I only used the G5 for a daily computer, other two were too slow.
 
iMac G4 - Even traded a Dell Inspiron 6000 - Craigslist
PowerMac G5 with Cinema Display - $80 and a Laptop Cooling Pad - Craigslist
Graphite iMac G3 - $30 - Craigslist
 
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I acquired my iMac G5 from a lady at work who picked it up from the Goodwill. They thought it was an old TV set and sold it for $15. It had a bad PSU and wouldn't always work properly. I've since been rebuilding it and getting it up to speed.
 
Happened to find one of the single core 1.6 G5 powermac's in a pawn shop. Picked it up along with some video games for my console. I managed to get it running OS X 10.5.8, now here I am! :)
 
Scored a PowerMac G5 on ebay for a good price. Got damaged in shipping but may be able to recover some lost cash.
 
iBook G3, 2003: Bought from Terra Soft with Yellow Dog Linux preinstalled to avoid the "Apple international tax", reformatted drive and installed OS X :p

Power Mac G4, 2003: Ordered directly from Apple. Avoided the "tax" again by getting a $99 student ADC membership and applying 20% hardware discount.

iMac G5, 2005: Bought from a reseller.


As for second-hand machines, I got both a beige G3 and a B&W G3 from Trade Me (local eBay "clone"). I sold the beige to a reseller several years ago and finally dumped the B&W last year after the video card failed (the onboard sound had died a couple of years beforehand).
 
Both of my iMac G3s were given to me by friends. I bought my iMac G4 off eBay and my eMac was purchased off this forum.
 
Power Mac G5 (Dual 1.8, June 2004) - Gift from mother, Christmas 2010
Power Mac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) - $20.00 from Goodwill, No RAM, no hard drive
Power Mac G4 (Quicksilver, Dual 800) - Free from friend's father
PowerBook G4 (15-inch, 1.33GHz) - $30 from Goodwill
PowerBook G4 (original Titanium, 400MHz) - $20 from Craigslist
iMac (15-inch G4, 1GHz, USB 2.0) - $75 from Potomac eScrap, eBay
 
Bought my G4 PowerBook brand new from TigerDirect in December of 2004, and have never bought another computer since. It was my first Mac.
 
JaguarGod said:
Just curious, are there many PPC users here that bought their PPC Mac's when they were originally released? I bought most of mine as they were released (shown in my earlier post) and noticed that a lot of users here bought from places like eBay or craigslist. Maybe I am just old? Well, I am old.

I bought my 7500 (which I still have) back in '95 I think. I forget sometimes that there are so many younger people using Macs and some start on, or simply buy, PPC Macs as they are a bit cheaper and some still look absolutely fantastic.
Click to expand...


iBook G4 and eMac.
 
G4 400: given to me by my old boss. He was going to toss it out and asked if I wanted it.

G5, 2x MDD: Craigslist

iMac DV-SE: first ever Mac, I bought it on the Apple Store when it came out.

eMac and 2x PowerBooks: eBay.
 
JaguarGod said:
Just curious, are there many PPC users here that bought their PPC Mac's when they were originally released? I bought most of mine as they were released (shown in my earlier post) and noticed that a lot of users here bought from places like eBay or craigslist. Maybe I am just old? Well, I am old.

I bought my 7500 (which I still have) back in '95 I think. I forget sometimes that there are so many younger people using Macs and some start on, or simply buy, PPC Macs as they are a bit cheaper and some still look absolutely fantastic.
Click to expand...
I bought my first Mac when the iMac G3 was introduced and had it until last year when the power supply took it and burnt every board on it to a crisp. I have since bought several new Mac's but I also buy and trade them as I enjoy the Apple hobby that I do in the winter.
 
Performa 6320CD: My parents had this since 1997 I think. I found it in a box in my garage, dusty and un-used for 13 years. I turned it on to find it surprisingly working fine.

PowerBook G3 14": This was my grandma's until she got a PowerBook G4 12" and gave it to my mom. A couple of years later, when my crappy PC desktop died, I ended up with this, just as it was becoming obsolete.

iBook G3 14": Bought from an apple store in 2002, I think :p

iBook G4 14": My step-grandma's dad died and this was handed down to her. She didn't need it so it is mine now. It currently has OS X 10.5.8 installed and is used as a router for my PC desktop to get internet without a wireless connection.

iBook G4 12": Bought from eBay after my PowerBook G3 died (although it really just needed a new OS install :p) It is currently broken as the GPU died in 2010 and is stripped of the airport card, RAM, and charging port that were needed to make the iBook G4 14" work properly.

Mac mini G4: My grandma bought it because her PowerMac G3 or G4 was broken, bought a new iMac shortly after. This was sitting un-used for years until 2013 when it was given to me. I upgraded it to 1 GB of RAM and it is now used as a full time media server with OS X 10.5.8 installed.
 
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How Did You Acquire Your PPC Macs?

Powermac G5 - bought off my company for £100 (including a 20" Cinema Display) who had it in a cupboard for years after being told it had a faulty PSU. Turned out it was just a faulty hard drive...
 
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origins reply

Found a couple 1.8Ghz Dual G5s on clearance at a local computer thrift shop lacking hard drives and ram, so I fixed them up, sold one, broke even, and kept one. I don't use it that often because flash player is a bit sluggish and OSX mouse acceleration is obnoxious, but the case sure looks cool ;).

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