How did YOU get into collecting and why?

[Gamer9430]

I searched on the forum for this and didn't dig it up, so I figured I start this thread...

How did YOU get into collecting PowerPC Macs (and 68k macs if anyone collects those as well) and why do you do so? I figured that this would be an interesting topic to ask you guys and for everyone to share their responses. I'll start by telling my story...

In the past November, I was at computer club at my school. The guy in charge, the tech coordinator who I have became good friends with, asked us if anyone wanted a free Mac desktop that was old. I immediately said that I would take it. He told me about it, and I discovered this whole world of PowerPC Macs. This certain Mac, my second mac and first PowerPC mac, was a Dual 1.3GHz PowerMac G5 from Early 05. In my anticipation, I made a thread on here, being that I was a member but never really used it, and it sparked a lot of attention (in the top 10 most replied to threads on this forum!). A few weeks later, I finally got it and had some issues with it, so i got some help from members on here. That is really the point in which I wanted to get more older macs because I realized they would be worth something in the future. After that, I picked up a Power Macintosh 6100/66 and a eMac within a week of each other. The 6100/66 became the oldest computer I owned at the time and it was awesome using it. After those two, I was satisfied for about a month. I came upon a good price for a iBook G4 from LowEndMac, so I bought that. I absolutely love that computer (which I'm using right now to type this), being that it is much less distracting in school than my iPad. Then I noticed a pristine 512ke on eBay for $100. I went and bought it for $120 since it came with some stuff that wasn't originally listed. That became that oldest computer I owned and will likely stay like that unless I get an Apple II at some point. Recently, I tried to get 9 PowerMac G4s for free from my school. However, as of right now, that deal has fallen through thanks to NJ owning them. Luckily, the owner was a collector as well and wanted to get rid of some of his least used Macs. Thus, he gave me a PowerBook G3 Wallstreet, Power Macintosh 7300, Power Macintosh 8500, PowerMac G4 MDD, a more powerful eMac, LaserWriter printer, and a Performa 6360. Thus, that brought my total amount of computers to 16, 11 of which are Macs, and 10 of which are PowerPC.

Of course, I'll be getting many more, free or not. I'm extremely grateful for you guys for really getting me into this and helping me with any issues I encounter. The users here are some of the nicest people I've ever spoken to. I'm also grateful to my tech coordinator for really getting me started with the G5, and the retired teacher that gave me the other stuff.

That is my story, sorry if I rambled on a little too much, but maybe someone will have the patience to read it all. I'm very interested to hear other's stories as well.

 

[poiihy]

wow

------------------
Me? I had a problem with my MacBook Pro so I came to MacRumors to fix it (and ironically I solved it myself anyway but MacRumors kinda guided me) and then I was browsing around and found the PowerPC forums. I found it very interesting and it sparked an interest in PowerPc macs. So I brought the beige G3 to tinker with and had a nightmare with it
No, I don't collect. All the PPC Macs i have were purchased from the very beginning when they were released, and we've had them ever since. Only the G4 DA is working though. iBook is Radeongated and in pieces and beige G3 is a nightmare and also in pieces.
Also an update on the beige G3:
I recently took it all apart (the case is trash, plastic is yellow and brittle and many parts missing or broken) and took the heatsink off the cpu for the first time (and took the cpu out of the socket too ). I expected a lot of goo and mess but instead... I found nothing. For a bit I couldn't find the thermal paste but soon found that the very thin hardened gray square on the heatsink was the paste The paste was nearly non-existant! Just a very thin dried-up square of grey stuff. Maybe that's why I had problems with the machine, the random freezes and stuff. Maybe I can fix it! But then I'll have the nightmare of getting it to boot into OS X again because this thing has idiotic ROM and requires some special stuff to be inserted into the PRAM so the machine knows how to boot into OS X. This is set by the OS X installer. If you reset the PRAM (which happens very often with no PRAM battery) then you are stuck and cannot boot into OS X. A way around this is to put the optical drive on the plug where the hard drive goes, then boot from an OS X install disk from the drive. when you boot from OS X install disk it sets something in the PRAM and restarts, then goes ahead into the install. When you get into install, shut it down and then remove the ODD and put the HDD back. The problem is that my OS X install is on the 3GB SCSI hard drive and my ODD is ATA! Idiot ROM.

 

[bunnspecial]

I got into Macs in 2012 when my Windows laptop died in the middle of an important project and I bought a new Macbook Pro to replace it.

In the spring of 2014, my MBP(still under Applecare) spent a week in the Apple store and I decided that I couldn't afford to be without a computer(or at least a Mac) for that amount of time. A little bit of research and some shopping on Craigslist led me to my first G5, and a trip to the flea market yielded an eMac for "fun." Not too much later-as I got more and more interested, I decided I wanted a G4 tower, and bought a cheap Digital Audio on Craigslist.

The rest, as they say, is history!

 

[eyoungren]

I'm not a collector.

I just use PowerPC Macs.

And I happen to prefer them over Intel Macs.

I'm here because I use PowerPC Macs every day and I like to help others that have problems.

I have more than one PowerPC Mac, but not because I decided to collect them. But because I wanted them. What's the difference?

A collector wishes to complete his collection. So the collector will seek out each model and each variation thereof. I'm not that way. I only like certain models of Mac and while I will take advantage of an opportunity there are certain Macs I just will not spend any money on.

iBooks, iMacs, eMacs, Yikes, Sawtooths, DAs, some MDDs and a couple of G5s, for example, are not my cup of tea. But to a collector any model will be desirable.

That is not to say that I do not own some of these Macs. But I did not seek them. I am not unaware of their value so when the opportunity presented itself I took advantage of some of them. I also own a 7200 and a 6500 and a Mac IIci. Two of those were free, the 6500 was cheap and I got it because it was a tower (I prefer towers).

Since my original PowerBook G4 died in November 2009 (since resurrected and then seeing a second untimely death thanks to my daugher) I have purchased PowerPC Macs when needed because they were inexpensive. It is only now that early Intel Macs are starting to come in to my price range.

Please don't misread this as me looking down at collectors or collectors, I am not doing that. But, not everyone here is a collector. I'm a user. These Macs meet my needs and are still capable in the roles I put them to.

 

[redheeler]

My interest was sparked by YouTube videos of all things, and I got my first PPC Mac off eBay, an iBook Clamshell, in February 2014. I remember spending a few hours messing with Panther and trying to browse the web on it. A few weeks later I found my 500 MHz BTO maxed-out Sawtooth at a local thrift store. That’s when I decided to start collecting. I now have a dozen different models and 18 PowerPC Macs in total.

 

[A.Goldberg]

The voices in my head told me to.

 

[Gamer9430]

I'm not a collector.

I just use PowerPC Macs.

And I happen to prefer them over Intel Macs.

I'm here because I use PowerPC Macs every day and I like to help others that have problems.

I have more than one PowerPC Mac, but not because I decided to collect them. But because I wanted them. What's the difference?

A collector wishes to complete his collection. So the collector will seek out each model and each variation thereof. I'm not that way. I only like certain models of Mac and while I will take advantage of an opportunity there are certain Macs I just will not spend any money on.

iBooks, iMacs, eMacs, Yikes, Sawtooths, DAs, some MDDs and a couple of G5s, for example, are not my cup of tea. But to a collector any model will be desirable.

That is not to say that I do not own some of these Macs. But I did not seek them. I am not unaware of their value so when the opportunity presented itself I took advantage of some of them. I also own a 7200 and a 6500 and a Mac IIci. Two of those were free, the 6500 was cheap and I got it because it was a tower (I prefer towers).

Since my original PowerBook G4 died in November 2009 (since resurrected and then seeing a second untimely death thanks to my daugher) I have purchased PowerPC Macs when needed because they were inexpensive. It is only now that early Intel Macs are starting to come in to my price range.

Please don't misread this as me looking down at collectors or collectors, I am not doing that. But, not everyone here is a collector. I'm a user. These Macs meet my needs and are still capable in the roles I put them to.

I completely understand your POV. As much of a collector I am, I still use each of these computers for a special task. The G5 serves as a Main, alongside my MBP and HP. The iBook is a distraction free laptop that I can use in school. One of the eMac's will become my sister's, and the other is a jukebox. The PowerBook G3 is a portable OS 9 computer, and I can play old games pretty smoothly on it. The 6100/66 I use to write software for my 512ke, however, the 7300, 6360, and 8500, I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing with, but I'm sure they could come in handy. Lastly, the MDD, once it's fixed, will be a side computer, which I can use for school work or something like that, or even make it part of my room's entertainment system.

----------

The voices in my head told me to.

That's a good reason, lol

 

[eyoungren]

The voices in my head told me to.

Ahem…which page of the DSM should we refer to for that?

 

[Gamer9430]

My interest was sparked by YouTube videos of all things, and I got my first PPC Mac off eBay, an iBook Clamshell, in February 2014. I remember spending a few hours messing with Panther and trying to browse the web on it. A few weeks later I found my 500 MHz BTO maxed-out Sawtooth at a local thrift store. That’s when I decided to start collecting. I now have a dozen different models and 18 PowerPC Macs in total.

Very nice!

 

[A.Goldberg]

Ahem…which page of the DSM should we refer to for that?

Refer to: Diagnosis Codes 295.3 and 300.3.

I don't think I own enough PPCs to consider myself having a collection. I took the G5 for free to run as a file and print server. Just bought a TiBook out of nostalgia... still waiting for it to arrive. Considering buying a cube because they're neat. I don't think I'll go much further than that.

 

[sk8er123]

Don't post very often on this forum, but I couldn't resist. I think since I was born my brain had some kind of programing in it that made me go for PowerPC... Shoot, in 5th grade I wrote a paper on why my parents should buy me an iMac G3 (6 years ago, so even when I was in 5th grade they were obsolete). My friends sister had a pristine lime green iMac G3 just sitting on her desk... As soon as I saw it, I went straight to her parents and begged for it. Even brought it in to school one day to show my friends in 6th grade... Yeah I'm a bit of an odd child but whatevs. Then I went through a phase where I was obsessed with eMacs, then powermacs. All in all I've owned an iMac g3, emac 1.42, imac g4 700mhz, and a G5 Quad.

P.S. Her iMac came with the ORIGINAL box, Poster, keyboard, packing materials, an original apple software cd case, and tons of other stuff for TWENTY BUCKS (which at the time seemed like a freaking fortune to a 5th grader) and for some weird reason a full floppy install set of system 7.something, obviously from a previous computer, but hey I didn't complain.

 

[poiihy]

I'm not a collector.

I just use PowerPC Macs.

lol

I'm not a collector and I don't even use PowerPC Macs.

----------

Don't post very often on this forum, but I couldn't resist. I think since I was born my brain had some kind of programing in it that made me go for PowerPC... Shoot, in 5th grade I wrote a paper on why my parents should buy me an iMac G3 (6 years ago, so even when I was in 5th grade they were obsolete). My friends sister had a pristine lime green iMac G3 just sitting on her desk... As soon as I saw it, I went straight to her parents and begged for it. Even brought it in to school one day to show my friends in 6th grade... Yeah I'm a bit of an odd child but whatevs. Then I went through a phase where I was obsessed with eMacs, then powermacs. All in all I've owned an iMac g3, emac 1.42, imac g4 700mhz, and a G5 Quad.

P.S. Her iMac came with the ORIGINAL box, Poster, keyboard, packing materials, an original apple software cd case, and tons of other stuff for TWENTY BUCKS (which at the time seemed like a freaking fortune to a 5th grader) and for some weird reason a full floppy install set of system 7.something, obviously from a previous computer, but hey I didn't complain.

 

[Gamer9430]

Don't post very often on this forum, but I couldn't resist. I think since I was born my brain had some kind of programing in it that made me go for PowerPC... Shoot, in 5th grade I wrote a paper on why my parents should buy me an iMac G3 (6 years ago, so even when I was in 5th grade they were obsolete). My friends sister had a pristine lime green iMac G3 just sitting on her desk... As soon as I saw it, I went straight to her parents and begged for it. Even brought it in to school one day to show my friends in 6th grade... Yeah I'm a bit of an odd child but whatevs. Then I went through a phase where I was obsessed with eMacs, then powermacs. All in all I've owned an iMac g3, emac 1.42, imac g4 700mhz, and a G5 Quad.

P.S. Her iMac came with the ORIGINAL box, Poster, keyboard, packing materials, an original apple software cd case, and tons of other stuff for TWENTY BUCKS (which at the time seemed like a freaking fortune to a 5th grader) and for some weird reason a full floppy install set of system 7.something, obviously from a previous computer, but hey I didn't complain.

wow! Nice job with that one. I dont think i would have asked for it, but i would have been in awe by it.

----------

I got into Macs in 2012 when my Windows laptop died in the middle of an important project and I bought a new Macbook Pro to replace it.

In the spring of 2014, my MBP(still under Applecare) spent a week in the Apple store and I decided that I couldn't afford to be without a computer(or at least a Mac) for that amount of time. A little bit of research and some shopping on Craigslist led me to my first G5, and a trip to the flea market yielded an eMac for "fun." Not too much later-as I got more and more interested, I decided I wanted a G4 tower, and bought a cheap Digital Audio on Craigslist.

The rest, as they say, is history!

For you especially, the rest is history. I remember PowerMac G4 MDD did a thread about how many macs we had in total, and I remember you had a lot. I'm sure that number has gone up thanks to your recent cube obsession

----------

My interest was sparked by YouTube videos of all things, and I got my first PPC Mac off eBay, an iBook Clamshell, in February 2014. I remember spending a few hours messing with Panther and trying to browse the web on it. A few weeks later I found my 500 MHz BTO maxed-out Sawtooth at a local thrift store. That’s when I decided to start collecting. I now have a dozen different models and 18 PowerPC Macs in total.

One day, im going to try and get a clamshell that is in fairly good condition. I also would love to have a iMac G4. I know I won't be able to get one of those too cheap, being that they are very desired based upon their design, which is really why I want one, lol.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

"Collecting" happened largely by accident.

The first Mac I owned was a hand-me-down PowerBook 5300c from my dad when he upgraded to a PowerBook 1400cs. I was in college, and had a 386 laptop (I was one of the few in my college with my own laptop, so having *TWO* of them was obscene at the time.)

In '98 or '99, I bought a used SE/30 cheap, largely out of nostalgia from using one in my high school days. It was expected to be a single thing. Just a whim of nostalgia. My roommate and I had a "computer lab" in the basement of our rental house with a few systems. He had an SE for playing old games on. I plopped my newly acquired SE/30 down next to it. We would play games of NetTrek and similar.

When I moved, he gave me the SE. Thus, now I had three Macs. Thus, I had now entered the realm of "collecting." I bought a couple via Craigslist or eBay, and friends and family who thought it was an odd thing to collect would send more my way if they knew of them.

At the time, it was still the era of the gumdrop iMac G3, so beige Macs weren't really all that far in the past. Yet I quickly built up a collection of systems. Quite a few Power Mac 7x00 series machines from people retiring them. Then a few laptops (I had six 5300-series at one point.)

Of late, I've been trying to concentrate solely on "landmark" machines, and plan on getting rid of most of my collection. The big problem is that most of the collection is in my basement, stored *under* the stairs, (wrapped in plastic,) but with other large/heavy things blocking access.

 

[jbarley]

I never did.

 

[Gamer9430]

"Collecting" happened largely by accident.

The first Mac I owned was a hand-me-down PowerBook 5300c from my dad when he upgraded to a PowerBook 1400cs. I was in college, and had a 386 laptop (I was one of the few in my college with my own laptop, so having *TWO* of them was obscene at the time.)

In '98 or '99, I bought a used SE/30 cheap, largely out of nostalgia from using one in my high school days. It was expected to be a single thing. Just a whim of nostalgia. My roommate and I had a "computer lab" in the basement of our rental house with a few systems. He had an SE for playing old games on. I plopped my newly acquired SE/30 down next to it. We would play games of NetTrek and similar.

When I moved, he gave me the SE. Thus, now I had three Macs. Thus, I had now entered the realm of "collecting." I bought a couple via Craigslist or eBay, and friends and family who thought it was an odd thing to collect would send more my way if they knew of them.

At the time, it was still the era of the gumdrop iMac G3, so beige Macs weren't really all that far in the past. Yet I quickly built up a collection of systems. Quite a few Power Mac 7x00 series machines from people retiring them. Then a few laptops (I had six 5300-series at one point.)

Of late, I've been trying to concentrate solely on "landmark" machines, and plan on getting rid of most of my collection. The big problem is that most of the collection is in my basement, stored *under* the stairs, (wrapped in plastic,) but with other large/heavy things blocking access.

well, i would gladly take some stuff off your hands lol. I think I want to work on getting some laptops now, being that i have a bunch of desktops, but I'd take anything that comes my way, lol.

 

[bunnspecial]

I'm not a collector.

I just use PowerPC Macs.

And I happen to prefer them over Intel Macs.

I'm here because I use PowerPC Macs every day and I like to help others that have problems.

I have more than one PowerPC Mac, but not because I decided to collect them. But because I wanted them. What's the difference?

A collector wishes to complete his collection. So the collector will seek out each model and each variation thereof. I'm not that way. I only like certain models of Mac and while I will take advantage of an opportunity there are certain Macs I just will not spend any money on.

iBooks, iMacs, eMacs, Yikes, Sawtooths, DAs, some MDDs and a couple of G5s, for example, are not my cup of tea. But to a collector any model will be desirable.

In all honesty, I think some folks have the collector "gene" and some don't.

I've been involved in all manner of collecting for as long as my remember-Lionel and American Flyer trains, American Pocket Watches, Western Electric telephones, and more recently older Macs. The Macs have the advantage over some of the other things of being cheap and relatively easy to find(free if you know the right people and are in the right place at the right time)-something that can't be said of many of my other interests. The downside is that they take up a lot of space!

I'm only really active now in collecting watches(and I'm still VERY active in that area) but Macs have the advantage of also being-by and large-functional.

With that said, because I've started approaching Macs as a collector, I've found myself chasing a lot of systems that don't really have that much utility value. Anyone who's seen my threads on the marketplace, or seen me rambling about it here-knows that I'm looking for a G4 Yikes!. From a utility perspective, this really is a pretty crummy computer. It was a stop-gap that Apple threw together to get G4 towers out the door, and is more or less a B&W G3 in a "graphite" case and with a G4 processor. For all intents and purposes, my B&W G3 with a 450mhz G4 and a Radeon 9200 is a better computer than a Yikes!-the fastest processor available for the Yikes! was 400mhz, and the video card is better than any stock or BTO card available for that computer.

From a functional standpoint, even my lowly Sawtooth is a better computer, and when I want to do real work on a G4 my Dual 1ghz Quicksilver is the one I reach for.

Even so, the Yikes! is the only PowerMac G4 which I don't have, and I badly want one for that very reason.

Just yesterday, I posted a list in the Marketplace with a "laundry list" of Powerbook G3s I'm looking for. Even though I have the last and best(a 500mhz Pismo) I want the rest of them to fill out the set.

Before I started with this crazy Mac collection, I'd never in my life desired to own a 17" laptop. A couple of weeks ago, I bought an A1139-the last generation, double layer super drive, high resolution screen 17" Powerbook G4(I love it by the way, even though I think it's a bit of a stretch to call it a laptop ).

I try to keep all of my computers in working condition, and in fact in most cases I upgrade them to the maximum that their original design will allow. I enjoy tinkering with them, but just finding them and filling out sets provides a lot of enjoyment for me.

I think that the above eccentricities probably qualify me as a collector

 

[eyoungren]

In all honesty, I think some folks have the collector "gene" and some don't.

I've been involved in all manner of collecting for as long as my remember-Lionel and American Flyer trains, American Pocket Watches, Western Electric telephones, and more recently older Macs. The Macs have the advantage over some of the other things of being cheap and relatively easy to find(free if you know the right people and are in the right place at the right time)-something that can't be said of many of my other interests. The downside is that they take up a lot of space!

I'm only really active now in collecting watches(and I'm still VERY active in that area) but Macs have the advantage of also being-by and large-functional.

With that said, because I've started approaching Macs as a collector, I've found myself chasing a lot of systems that don't really have that much utility value. Anyone who's seen my threads on the marketplace, or seen me rambling about it here-knows that I'm looking for a G4 Yikes!. From a utility perspective, this really is a pretty crummy computer. It was a stop-gap that Apple threw together to get G4 towers out the door, and is more or less a B&W G3 in a "graphite" case and with a G4 processor. For all intents and purposes, my B&W G3 with a 450mhz G4 and a Radeon 9200 is a better computer than a Yikes!-the fastest processor available for the Yikes! was 400mhz, and the video card is better than any stock or BTO card available for that computer.

From a functional standpoint, even my lowly Sawtooth is a better computer, and when I want to do real work on a G4 my Dual 1ghz Quicksilver is the one I reach for.

Even so, the Yikes! is the only PowerMac G4 which I don't have, and I badly want one for that very reason.

Just yesterday, I posted a list in the Marketplace with a "laundry list" of Powerbook G3s I'm looking for. Even though I have the last and best(a 500mhz Pismo) I want the rest of them to fill out the set.

Before I started with this crazy Mac collection, I'd never in my life desired to own a 17" laptop. A couple of weeks ago, I bought an A1139-the last generation, double layer super drive, high resolution screen 17" Powerbook G4(I love it by the way, even though I think it's a bit of a stretch to call it a laptop ).

I try to keep all of my computers in working condition, and in fact in most cases I upgrade them to the maximum that their original design will allow. I enjoy tinkering with them, but just finding them and filling out sets provides a lot of enjoyment for me.

I think that the above eccentricities probably qualify me as a collector

I get it.

I got into comic books when I was 15 (1985) and didn't stop buying until the late 90s when I got married. Not that my wife ever stopped me but it's hard to justify that kind of expenditure when utilities, food, rent, etc all need to be paid. And there were other more important hobbies to me so it kind of fell by the wayside.

If I ever get the kind of disposable income where it's no problem for me to drop the kind of money I would like to in collecting again, then I will.

I'm an old time pencil and dice gamer though and my wife knew it when she met me. Fortunately, I have most of what I want in the games I play (AD&D 2nd Edition, Rolemaster 2nd Edition, ShadowRun 2nd Edition, MechWarrior 2nd Edition and a few others) so I'm mainly trying to find time (or gamers) to game.

This is where the computer has been great because technology has advanced considerably since 1984 when I started gaming.

Anything along those lines I don't have though I tend to go after so I know I'm a collector there.

PowerPC Macs, while great (and I like a lot of them) aren't the same in that regard to me.

 

[comda]

These are all interesting..

My story starts off when i was in Grade 6.. My school was pretty crappy and i was excited for this class as the teacher was one of the best. Im in my First year of university and we still keep contact.

Anyways. This was the first time i was introduced to a macintosh. I Dont remember the exact model he had, but the first week of school he told me to go to his desk and start his computer. I was just getting into computers then.. being it only 2005 i still used my dads Pentium 1 running windows 95.. I walked up to the desk and was confused as there was no power button on the computer.. So i asked and another student walked up and pressed a key on the keyboard and i heard the bong. I think it was a performa desktop series. At the back of the room he had a machintosh classic.

A few months later he started making videos on this blue computer which i now know as the Imac G3 in indigo. He soon got a few snow models of these computers, an Emac and Imac G4 and G5. These computers looked so much different from my beige ugly box. I laughed when i first saw the commercials for the bondi blue imac on youtube a few years later because they made fun of the ugly beige boxes as i did being in grade 6.. when i was in grade 9 the school won some money and got new macbook pros. So i asked if he was going to give away any of his imacs or even sell. He said he loved the blue one but the slow orange one in the corner was mine if i wanted it.

No one liked the orange one even when they used the imacs because the thing was SLOOOOOOOOOW. No joke we had 20 minutes lunch and it wouldnt finish booting OSX 10.2. It was because the drive was full and it only had 128mb of Ram. After tearing it apart to fix the non working DVD rom, i brought it back to life and used it throughout highschool for smaller projects along side my macbook that i bought in 2007. That teacher of mine started this. He still has the snow imacs sitting around his class, with the imac g4 and the classic macintosh.

 

[Ih8reno]

When I was younger I always made fun of the people who bought Macs, thinking they overpaid for something just because of its looks. Since then I asked for an ipod touch for a bday gift, my parents and sister put in the $ to get me one, it was so cool and worked so well. From there I got an iphone 4 after being so annoyed by the plastic "smartphone" I got from my cellular provider, release day iphone 4, it was awesome!

Next I got an amazing gift of a Macbook Pro 2011 13 inch base model. I still use that mac today and upgraded it to a 240gb ssd and 8gb of ram and it works even better now then when I got it. Later on about 2 years ago I'd say at work I noticed a coworker had an ibook G3 with no charger so he didn't know if it worked anymore. He gave it to me and then I began researching it and got a cheap aftermarket battery and adapter (battery is dead now, $20 badly spent).

After that I began finding older macs on craigslist and kijiji and amassed a cool collection especially of Power Macs. Still today I will go out and purchase older macs and see if I can repair and even set them up better then new.

Will I continue to collect? yes definitly

 

[eyoungren]

When I was younger I always made fun of the people who bought Macs, thinking they overpaid for something just because of its looks.

From 1990 to 2003 I was a PC person. I made fun of those who used Windows, labeling them as slackers who refused to learn DOS and thus had no direct control over their own systems. Mac users were beneath that because I perceived Apple as dumbing things down for the masses.

Two jobs in the newspaper industry using PowerPC Macs (G4s mainly) taught me different. I realized that I could cripple my Mac and still get my work done on deadline. The things I ended up doing from time to time would have meant blown deadlines on a PC.

In 2003 when my then PC foiled every attempt I made to try and recover my data off a drive with an overlay (to allow full use of the drive) I decided I'd have enough "direct control" of my PC. I lost all my data, but Apple gained a new user and fan.

That's one of the props I will give to OS9. It just worked. I wish sometimes OS X was as stable and sturdy as OS9.

 

[spf2]

I too thought that Apple products were overpriced and for people who didn't know better. But I know that I was always jealous of them. I was not able to afford them and that was the excuse that I've always made. I was first introduced to the Macintosh ( 128 or 512 not sure) in junior high. It was in the computer lab where we went to type our reports. Compared to the electronic typewriter, this thing was too cool. When I got to college, I built my first PC which was a Pentium 133. It was great but it was no Mac. The best I could do was to install Linux ( how I hated downloading all the disk sets on 19.2k modem) on it and "imitate" the graphical look. It satisfied my needs for a while until... I was introduced to the G4 Yikes at my first job. The creative team had the G4 machines. Now, I was jealous of not only the GUI but also the physical look. I did however managed to find an empty G4 case from a Apple repair place that had placed and ad on one of the usenet forsale groups. I picked that up for $50. That would be my first Mac purchase. I sold my old computer and built my second PC (AMD Athlon XP 2500). This I fit inside the G4 case. It turned out real nice and is what I used for a long time as my main computer. It finally died a few months ago. RIP. I was going to use it to flash a PC video card to put in my mac. Before I could, the motherboard had died. The other parts of the computer have been reused in my current Macs. My G4 and G5 purchases were all at thrift resale shops. All purchased within the last year or so. They were all sold as is and untested . They were missing RAM, hardrives and sometimes even more. This was their last stop before getting dropped off at the recycling center. I have managed to get some of them running great again. I even got Linux installed on one of them. Two of them are still a work in progress. I guess you can say I have been obsessed with them almost my whole life. Now that I have them, I can really say that it was all worth obsessing over. Even though I work with high end servers at work. I still can't wait to get home to fiddle around with my powermacs. All that is left on my want list is a cube , G4 imac , ADC montitor, and maybe one of the vintage Macs (128k, 512 or SE) for old time sake . Sorry for the long winded post.

 

[ctmpkmlec4]

It started with the purchase of two iMac G5s, ALS generation. I got both of them for $250. This was in 2010. Neither came with an operating system, so I bought a Leopard disc and installed the software. I ended up selling one for the price I paid for both. For me, it was the design of the computer and the look and feel of OS X that drew me in. I had never used a Mac before 2010.

I started collecting PowerPC Macs because I loved the design of them. And, they were cheap-ish to purchase. If I had to pick favorites, I would choose the Cube and B&W G3. My wife says I'm addicted, but there are worse things to be addicted to.

My house still has two PCs. One runs Windows 7, the other Ubuntu. Since I got my new iMac, my PC sits on the floor. Poor thing.

 

[MysticCow]

I'm not a collector.

I just use PowerPC Macs.

THIS. So long as my PowerPC's are still working, I plan on using them. Even my old iMac G3's. Until they go to Mac Heaven, I am going to keep them and use them.

 

[gooser]

myself a collector? maybe. maybe not. i own 9 macs with seven of them being ppc's but i have bought seven of them during the last two years so i've only recently acquired a flock. a little background: around 2010 apple started removing features that i use daily. things like optical drives, firewire ports, the ability to upgrade and repair them, the ability to run older software and lower resolution screens for my less than perfect eyesight. i can honestly predict that i will never own another brand new mac. they no longer offer anything for me. but that's all right. i just decided to get some of my favorite machines while they're still readily available. i have 6 scattered throughout the house and 3 in a closet to be used as a spare someday. i may start getting some spare parts for them. i'm not a young person so it's conceivable that what i have could last me the rest of my life. if i live long enough the internet could grow beyond the capabilities of my macbooks but if that happens i'll just get a mid priced chromebook to surf with and continue to use my old macs for everything else. life is good.