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Just Bought 31 iMac G3's

MAC MAN JW

MAC MAN JW

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Yesterday i just happened to go on Ebay just for fun😀. First thing that pops up under the Apple Desktops section is a "lot of 31 iMac G3's" starting bid is $100 with no bids yet and only 20min to go. so i just had to click on it😀 and i see local pickup only and then see it is only 6 Miles away from me🙂 Need to say more i put a bid on it after i spent 10 min. conning my parents in to letting me bid. it was not a easy job😀 in the end i won it for $100. it comes with keyboard's,mice,power cords. and is being delivered to me tomorrow for free🙂 the bad news is 16 out of the 31 don't work but it was not said what was wrong with them? it may be as easy as a Bad HD or it may be a Bad PAV board?. I will post pics of them when i get them😀. But for now hear are the pics from ebay. i will post updates on this Thread when i get the iMacs/start working on them😀 Photos will be coming soon😀.

1.JPG

3.JPG

2.JPG Photos from the ebay auction
 
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MAC MAN JW said:
Yesterday i just happened to go on Ebay just for fun😀. First thing that pops up under the Apple Desktops section is a "lot of 31 iMac G3's" starting bid is $100 with no bids yet and only 20min to go. so i just had to click on it😀 and i see local pickup only and then see it is only 6 Miles away from me🙂 Need to say more i put a bid on it after i spent 10 min. conning my parents in to letting me bid. it was not a easy job😀 in the end i won it for $100. it comes with keyboard's,mice,power cords. and is being delivered to me tomorrow for free🙂 the bad news is 16 out of the 31 don't work but it was not said what was wrong with them? it may be as easy as a Bad HD or it may be a Bad PAV board?. after i Test/Fix/Cleen each one i will hopefully be able to sell them locally on Craigslist🙂 (But keep a few for my self😀). I will post pics of them when i get them😀. But for now hear are the pics from ebay. i will post updates on this Thread when i get the iMacs/start working on them😀 Photos will be coming soon😀.

View attachment 327850

View attachment 327851

View attachment 327852 Photos from the ebay auction
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I will gladly purchase one from you (although I'm probably not local) 😛
 
jessica. said:
This is borderline a for sale thread, no?
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Don't worry🙂 i am not trying to sell them on macrumors i will be only selling them locally and maybe to family members🙂 I put i am selling them in this Thread so people then know i am not keeping them all🙂 i just made this Thread to show my progress on fixing them🙂. if you want i can retype the post or you can edit it?🙂



jessica. said:
And why would anyone buy 31 iMac G3s
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I Bought them to make sure computer repair is what i want to go in to after high school this will give me a good taste of what true computer repair will be like🙂
 
Contrats on the winning bid.
That's quite remarkable.

I have 1 G3 iMac and i'm not sure what to do with it. I can't imagine what to do with 31 of them.

Once you have a chance to play with them, let us know what the specs are for them.

You certainly have lots of things to play with now.

Good luck!!!
 
MAC MAN JW said:
Don't worry🙂 i am not trying to sell them on macrumors i will be only selling them locally and maybe to family members🙂 I put i am selling them in this Thread so people then know i am not keeping them all🙂 i just made this Thread to show my progress on fixing them🙂. if you want i can retype the post or you can edit it?🙂





I Bought them to make sure computer repair is what i want to go in to after high school this will give me a good taste of what true computer repair will be like🙂
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Cool it on the emoticons kid. Just because you're like 14 years old doesn't mean you need to use one every sentence.
 
MovieCutter said:
Cool it on the emoticons kid. Just because you're like 14 years old doesn't mean you need to use one every sentence.
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G5 Mac Daddy said:
Do the smileys bother you? Show me where the bad smiley touched you.....
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That made me 😀
(see what i did there?)

And to the OP, you're not supposed to post "for sale" stuff in the forums.
Personally, I don't think you've crossed that line. But you're standing on it.

As for working on the G3 iMacs, they aren't too hard if you're not going to remove the CRT.
I've worked on much worse and much easier, so ram, hard drive, etc is about average.

Normally, i'd advise going slowly, being careful where you put screws as you removed them, and maybe take pictures as you go to ensure that you can put it all back together.

In your case, just look at one of the other 30 you have if you can't put it back together.

Have fun and feel free to ask questions.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Great catch!
Just be careful around the CRTs - even when powered off they hold enough charge to give you a nasty shock. Same goes for the power supply: a lot of big capacitors in there that could be holding a charge if the bleed resistors have failed.
 
I remember when my school had several dozen of these delivered new back in the day, crazy how time flies. Either way, thats not a bad deal for those now. Hopefully you can build several working units from the ones that don't work, if they don't just require simple tweaks to get them running again. Selling them on craigslist you should be able to make a good chunk of money if you can advertise them right.
 
minifridge1138 said:
Contrats on the winning bid.
That's quite remarkable. I have 1 G3 iMac and i'm not sure what to do with it. I can't imagine what to do with 31 of them.
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Thanks🙂 I will be seeing iMac g3's every wear i look😀 i still have 7 imac g3's of my own as well so i will have 38. i don't plan on keeping all but 3 of the 31.

MovieCutter said:
Cool it on the emoticons kid Just because you're like 14 years old doesn't mean you need to use one every sentence.
Click to expand...

17 Years old.


minifridge1138 said:
And to the OP, you're not supposed to post "for sale" stuff in the forums.
Personally, I don't think you've crossed that line. But you're standing on it.

As for working on the G3 iMacs, they aren't too hard if you're not going to remove the CRT.
I've worked on much worse and much easier, so ram, hard drive, etc is about average.

Normally, i'd advise going slowly, being careful where you put screws as you removed them, and maybe take pictures as you go to ensure that you can put it all back together.

In your case, just look at one of the other 30 you have if you can't put it back together.

Have fun and feel free to ask questions.
Click to expand...

Thanks😀 I edited my post so we will have no more issues. I have 7 imac g3's of my own i have taken them apart before they are not the easiest but not that bad😀

Phil A. said:
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Great catch!
Just be careful around the CRTs - even when powered off they hold enough charge to give you a nasty shock. Same goes for the power supply: a lot of big capacitors in there that could be holding a charge if the bleed resistors have failed.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip🙂 I do know all about CRT's i fixed my CRT Tv and know what all the parts do and what to stay away from🙂

92WardSenatorFE said:
I remember when my school had several dozen of these delivered new back in the day, crazy how time flies. Either way, thats not a bad deal for those now. Hopefully you can build several working units from the ones that don't work, if they don't just require simple tweaks to get them running again. Selling them on craigslist you should be able to make a good chunk of money if you can advertise them right.
Click to expand...

That is why i like iMac G3's so much🙂 In first grade they had a new slot load imac g3 blueberry i loved the look of it and would go on it when ever i can. then in 5Th grade they had a computer lab full of imac g3's that i went to at lest 3 times a week😀 I hope to get at lest 8 out of the non working ones working🙂


New Pics of them tomorrow😀
 
I would say...nice buy!

Lets say you have to give 16 doa ones away...that still leaves you with 15...even if you take lowball price of $20 each and keep one good one for yourself...leaves you free imac + $180 profit and a great learning experience...

Yes well done young man!
 
Did they come with Airport Express cards? If so, with the adapters, they will be worth more that the Macs.

I have a 400 MHz slot loader, just because it looks good sitting on the shelf.
 
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I know the OP said he was getting them delivered for free, but I bet regular shipping for one of those things is more than it's worth. 🙄

I still see those G3s turn up on craigslist for $75-$100 from someone trying to strike it rich. I had a indigo one, but I couldn't get rid of it for FREE!

Now that I'm on the subject, I seem to be craving one now to bring back those old childhood memories of Bugdom and Nanosaur. 😀
 
For awhile a few years back I made a few dollars from a little mistake Apple made. Certain iMac DV models would NOT update to 10.4 properly unless they had a firmware update. And if someone ran the OS update without the firmware update, the computer would boot next time to a black screen.

The easy work around was to let it fall asleep and then wake again or to connect an external display. At which point you could run the firmware update and the machine was A-OK again.

S I would buy up black screen ones and more than half had this simple issue. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't get a few like that.

Only slot load ones had this issue, I think the tray load were a different beast.

Good luck !!!🙂
 
Update

tom vilsack said:
I would say...nice buy!

Lets say you have to give 16 doa ones away...that still leaves you with 15...even if you take lowball price of $20 each and keep one good one for yourself...leaves you free imac + $180 profit and a great learning experience...

Yes well done young man!
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Thanks🙂 It looks like only 4 out of the 31 are truly dead😀. some of the rest only needed RAM to make them work. good thing i saved the pc 133 ram out of old pc's i got rid of. I will be happy as long as i make my $100 back every thing after that is a plus😀

stroked said:
Did they come with Airport Express cards? If so, with the adapters, they will be worth more that the Macs.

I have a 400 MHz slot loader, just because it looks good sitting on the shelf.
Click to expand...

No they did not come with airport cards🙁 but i have 3 with adapters that i will put in, they don't work with are wi-fi any way because it is 802.11 N Wi-fi🙂

MacVidCards said:
For awhile a few years back I made a few dollars from a little mistake Apple made. Certain iMac DV models would NOT update to 10.4 properly unless they had a firmware update. And if someone ran the OS update without the firmware update, the computer would boot next time to a black screen.

The easy work around was to let it fall asleep and then wake again or to connect an external display. At which point you could run the firmware update and the machine was A-OK again.

S I would buy up black screen ones and more than half had this simple issue. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't get a few like that.

Only slot load ones had this issue, I think the tray load were a different beast.

Good luck !!!🙂
Click to expand...

Thanks🙂 I did get one With 10.4 on it and the firmware is not up to date and would go to a black screen when booting but i booted off a OS X install disk and erased the HD so i can put OS 9 on it to do the firmware update🙂.

After a long day testing the imacs i found only 5 are truley dead😀 It seems that they wear all running off the school network and will only boot os 9 in safe boot i will do a clean install of OS 9 Or OS X on all of them🙂 Some are missing Hard drives but i have found a few and now only 2 are missing them. 1 imac just needed a HD but when takeing off the cover a screw fell inside, i took off the cover but the plastic snapped and went all over i will take blame for this one🙁. Hear are the Pics i will post more tomorrow😀

DSCI0867.JPG My parents are letting me use the living room for a day😀

DSCI0875.JPG One is ready for a OS X Install🙂
 
good luck! its a cool project. I can not imagine though, what I would do if my son came home with all of those. 😀
 
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