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Maybe it's just me (PPCs on eBay)....

W

WGoins88

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 8, 2011
134
0
But am I the only one that thinks this is unbelievably overpriced?

http://cgi.ebay.com/G3-Powerbook-PI...ple_Laptops&hash=item3a6424dde8#ht_1350wt_907

I couldn't even get that out of my MDD if I tried. Plus the 500MHz Pismo isn't even that fast... trust me. My 500MHz G3 iBook is a total slug when web surfing, and video is nearly impossible, even with MacTubes and maxed out RAM.

Just as an example... I just bought a 333MHz Lombard Powerbook for $5 via a private sale. Yes, $5. It will be here within the next few days. Some of the PPCs in general on eBay are insanely expensive.

Not trying to offend the seller of that Pismo if they are on here... but that price is insane.
 
thats fairly normal, its a apple laptop so the price is low no matter how high the price is , to get a apple laptop people are willing to pay any price , in comparison with their desktop counterparts which are not even worth the postage to some ,
its the same here in the uk , while the G4 PowerMac's, G4 mini's,G4 iMac's dropped recently dramatically the iBooks and Powerbooks are priced much higher , there are people who try to get for a white iBook G3 near £200 ,that are $320 and you need to pay that if you want a fully working one with a battery that still holds some charge
and the latest PowerBooks G4 1.3-1.67 go for easy double that if there is a battery that holds some charge and if it isnt dented to badly ,sometimes just short of the price you got to pay for a brandnew mini ,
and all to often software comes only preinstalled without disc's ,downloaded from some torrents and installed as that easy brings the price up , if they even manage to preinstall leopard they got from torrents too on them ,then they can easy double the price , and people are paying regardless



thats why i completely ignore the apple laptops now , and most of the desktops too , no disc's, empty battery , dents ,scratches , means not worth to bid for
 
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I hope no one buys those. It'll just encourage people to sell obsolete stuff at those silly prices. The only way I'm going to pay a premium is if the unit is in good condition and has its box and all its accessories.
 
Well....the one thing I can say is that these are the prices that those sellers think is worth it for the product. If it won't sell at those prices, the seller will eventually lower the price, so keep watching.

As for the OP's Pismo listing. It does indicate that the seller has refurbished the computer and likely put some time and money into the laptop so perhaps her or she spent $200 or more dollars in effort and equipment and he or she feels $299 is a reasonable price he or she is willing to sell it for. The market will dictate whether he or she is right or wrong.

I have felt the same way in the past when selling some action figures on eBay. All the guides and documentation would seem to indicate that some of the figures I had should be selling for $20 or more yet when I had starting bids over $5, let's say, I rarely had any bites. The only action I had was with auctions starting at 99 cents...and sometimes I got a fair return, most times not. Certainly only 1 out of 20 got me anywhere near where I thought I should be.

So...either these won't sell and the price will drop. Or they will sell to people who want a cheaper laptop and not have the hassle of refurbishing.

(I do agree though, that it's steep and should be a lot lower since one can buy a much newer and faster laptop for similar prices. The market and buyers will dictate.)
 
300 for a Pismo is great shape is quite normal. You can regularly buy a Sawtooth G4 tower or Gigabit ethernet for under 100 on ebay or craigslist and they are more powerful than a Pismo. The price of a portability = slower hardware for more money. Keep in mind also that the Pismo is one of the most sought after PowerBook's ever. Right up there with the 12" Aluminum PB.

The scariest overprice I have seen was a never opened G4 Quicksilver tower that they were asking 1600 for. Even never being opened makes it worth 300-400 tops.

Speaking of stuff for sale I have a few random parts for sale mostly for PowerPC if anyone is interested.
Here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1117768/

Shameless self promotion haha :)
 
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i only say one thing ...typical APPLE customers ,
they pay any price you ask for something with a :apple: logo on ,as long as the price is high enough

sold a external usb WD harddrive 750gb where i did stick one of the apple stickers on and it sold £50 more then the drive which was already 2 years old did cost new :confused :

my mini G4 the same thing i bought it for £140 , but i prefer eMac's and sold it again for £230 a couple weeks really later , if the buyer would have looked in the listing he could spot a image of the original listing when i bought it

all i had to do listing in the apple section only
 
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That's exactly what it is. They will pay it because it's Apple. I can't believe that just 2 years ago I sold a 800MHz Quicksilver 2002 tower on eBay for $265 + shipping.

On the other hand, there ARE some overpriced Apple products on there that have been on there for months and months. I've seen G5 towers on there for 4-6 months because people still think they are worth $600-800.
 
I feel bad for any sucker who buys that. These ads are designed to appeal to people who know nothing about computers.
 
i seen even better adverts , someone placed a included snow leopard disc in the picture of his listing for a iBook g4 and sold it for about £380
the add sounded like
"MacBook g4 bought weeks ago, but i cannot handle Mac so selling again installed leopard but snow leopard disc included ...happy bidding if you got questions dont ask me "

and its true these ads are for people who know nothing about computers and even less about Mac's , and many want a Mac laptop now , mainly people who switched recently and bought a imac or mini new and now want a laptop from apple too, but cant afford a MacBookPro new from apple and everything that looks similar to the MacBook and has a apple logo is a MacBook in their eyes if its running OSX
when i sold my hackintoshed netbook and i clearly stated it as MSI WIND U100 i still got questions if thats a new release from apple
ok i have to admit if you squint hard enough you could mistake it for a small MacBook , but you really have to squint hard ,but the windows logos on the keyboard should give a hint too that its clearly not made by apple or?
 
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MacHamster68 said:
i seen even better adverts , someone placed a included snow leopard disc in the picture of his listing for a iBook g4 and sold it for about £380
the add sounded like
"MacBook g4 bought weeks ago, but i cannot handle Mac so selling again installed leopard but snow leopard disc included ...happy bidding if you got questions dont ask me "

and its true these ads are for people who know nothing about computers and even less about Mac's , and many want a Mac laptop now , mainly people who switched recently and bought a imac or mini new and now want a laptop from apple too, but cant afford a MacBookPro new from apple and everything that looks similar to the MacBook and has a apple logo is a MacBook in their eyes if its running OSX
when i sold my hackintoshed netbook and i clearly stated it as MSI WIND U100 i still got questions if thats a new release from apple
ok i have to admit if you squint hard enough you could mistake it for a small MacBook , but you really have to squint hard ,but the windows logos on the keyboard should give a hint too that its clearly not made by apple or?
Click to expand...

Yeah it really is scary that people can't be bothered to do 20 minutes of research to find this stuff out. Its like the survey recently said that most people still didn't know that a hybrid car has a gasoline engine and an electric motor in the same car. :cool:
 
so what do we learn from all that
before you bid or press buy it now , no matter how cheap or expensive it is a couple minutes google would give you all info you need about it ,sometimes ebay is helpful too , if you just look at the same products sold you sometimes even find out all the flaws the product can have and if it is really worth the money in general, obviously there are exceptions if something is very rare and in full working order and in excellent condition it will have a higher price , but then YOU can maybe justify to pay more , but always set yourself a limit you are willing to pay and stick to that, then you dont have to regret it
 
I hate to say it, but that doesn't look too far off actually. The Pismo is highly desirable as the last PowerBook with modular expandability and an excellent keyboard. It doesn't have a full 1GB of RAM or a G4 daughtercard, but it's not the idiotic buy that everyone seems to think it is. There are a lot of Pismo die-hards out there.
 
I recently sold my g4 ibook 800mhz with an airport card 250gb hard drive new keyboard and 1.12gb of ram for 300. I made 50 bucks on the deal cuz it only cost me 250 for the ibook and the upgrades. Id say it was worth 300 but no more than that. Last night i bought a mid 2009 macbook for 420 with applecare til 8-12. I feel i got a deal given the average macbook price on craigslist is 600-700 here in detroit. What im saying is for every person trying to charge a premium theres someone desperate selling to the first person that makes an offer. Everyone else falls in between. Those of us who know better pay what an item is worth while the rest pay the premium. Unfortunately theres more of them than there is of us.
 
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