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Powerbook on Ebay, good buy?

C

chemtw

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 5, 2005
25
0
Hey, guys I could use some help on this one. I bought through buy it now option on ebay last night a powerbook 15" new revision which seems like a really good deal. Here is the info from the auction "
"You are bidding on a excellent condition Powerbook G4 with 1.5ghz processor, CDRW/DVD Drive (burns cds and plays DVDS),512mb ram 1 so dimm! , 80gb harddrive, and its loaded with software! THIS IS THE LATEST POWERBOOK M9676LL/A with the scrolling trackpad , airport extreme, and bluetooth!
On the drive is,TIGER OSx 0fficeO4, FinalCutHD, FinalCutExpress, DVDSTUDIOPRO3, Quark6, Toast6,SHAKE,FilemakerPro6,Ph0toshopCS 8,IllustratorCS,INdesign, Dreamweavero4, Fireworks04, Flash04, Keynote, and ILIFE05!!
Powerbook comes in the original box with all charger,dvi vga cable, svhs cable, books and recovery dvd.
Buyer pays $27.00 in shipping.
I TAKE PAYPAL ECHECKS AND MONEY ORDERS."
Does this sound to good to be true? the buy it now price was $1799. I checked prices on all this software and its expensive. The seller has high feed back in the 200's but now a days with almost anything being compromised im wondering if I made the right choice. I paid through paypal by echeck and it hasnt cleared yet so please let me know what you think. I asked the seller about the software, but havent heard back from them.
 
chemtw said:
Hey, guys I could use some help on this one. I bought through buy it now option on ebay last night a powerbook 15" new revision which seems like a really good deal. Here is the info from the auction "
"You are bidding on a excellent condition Powerbook G4 with 1.5ghz processor, CDRW/DVD Drive (burns cds and plays DVDS),512mb ram 1 so dimm! , 80gb harddrive, and its loaded with software! THIS IS THE LATEST POWERBOOK M9676LL/A with the scrolling trackpad , airport extreme, and bluetooth!
On the drive is,TIGER OSx 0fficeO4, FinalCutHD, FinalCutExpress, DVDSTUDIOPRO3, Quark6, Toast6,SHAKE,FilemakerPro6,Ph0toshopCS 8,IllustratorCS,INdesign, Dreamweavero4, Fireworks04, Flash04, Keynote, and ILIFE05!!
Powerbook comes in the original box with all charger,dvi vga cable, svhs cable, books and recovery dvd.
Buyer pays $27.00 in shipping.
I TAKE PAYPAL ECHECKS AND MONEY ORDERS."
Does this sound to good to be true? the buy it now price was $1799. I checked prices on all this software and its expensive. The seller has high feed back in the 200's but now a days with almost anything being compromised im wondering if I made the right choice. I paid through paypal by echeck and it hasnt cleared yet so please let me know what you think. I asked the seller about the software, but havent heard back from them.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good deal, but you never can be too sure of people over the internet these days. Enjoy your new PowerBook G4 (sounds awesome!!!).
 
Just a heads up, I read somewhere that the item with the most frauds on Ebay was the Apple PowerBook, so be careful. They take advantage of our O.C.-ness of the Apple computers. :)

Edit- Just realized that you have already bought the computer, so I hope everything works out for you. It looks like the software you get will not technically be legal unless he gives you the CD's for it. If he were, that would be a HUGE savings.
 
Thee software is probably illegal. Most of the time these people either borrow the software from someone else and install it or they just install it on their new machine. I highly doubt that you will receive the physical CDs and the license, but I could be wrong.
 
macbaseball said:
Thee software is probably illegal. Most of the time these people either borrow the software from someone else and install it or they just install it on their new machine. I highly doubt that you will receive the physical CDs and the license, but I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

I agree, I doubt that you will get the discs, but just having all of that software pre-installed on your 'book- awesome!
 
I thought 1799 was a good price too. I hope all is well. I am tempted to cancel the transaction just in case it is a fraudelent sell, as I do not have it yet in my possession. Is it easy to pick up if that software is illegal, i mean if I am doing updates and so forth what could happen? Thanks again
 
chemtw said:
I thought 1799 was a good price too. I hope all is well. I am tempted to cancel the transaction just in case it is a fraudelent sell, as I do not have it yet in my possession. Is it easy to pick up if that software is illegal, i mean if I am doing updates and so forth what could happen? Thanks again
Click to expand...

You're not going to get caught. They catch people downloading it, not just having it on their machine. You will be able to get updates for the software, it's just if you have to erase your hard drive, then your screwed because it would be impossible to get all the little files spread around the hard drive.
 
Just don't fall with the Western Union trap.

They offer you to send them "securely" money via WU, with a password or something like that so they supposelly can't get the money before you get the machine. But the truth is that they can cash the money easily without sending you the machines. Use paypal or something like that to pay. It's more secure and you get an insurance like credit card.

Enjoy, me too I brought my powerbook on eBay, just take care, e-mail the guys before buy it now next time, ensure everything is alright, it's not long to discover if it's scam or not by talking with people.

By the way, you won't get original software at this price, they are illegale version.
 
You have to ask yourself why is this guy selling his brand new powerbook?
If is sounds too good to be true....

Check his feedback. Has he sold many high priced items before? See if you can pay with a credit card.

If it doesn't feel right, I'd back out of the transaction. Better to have the seller pissed off than to get taken for eighteen hundred bucks.
Just my thoughts.

Good luck and enjoy it if you get it.
 
macbaseball said:
You will be able to get updates for the software.
Click to expand...
Not likely...

And especially not from companies who require registration of the serial numbers, or online activation.

Here's the problem: Your seller is a self-admitted thief, as they are selling $4K or more worth of stolen software. Me, I wouldn.t have bid on it in the first place...
 
As far as the price on the PB goes, it's the same as the educational price so for that reason I'd say it's not a great price. However it's also not outrageous either.

As far as the software goes, eBay has a policy that you cannot sell computers without software they are licensed for. That means the seller is required to provide disks for all the software on the computer.

In the past eBay had a big screen that they made you acknowledge before you listed a computer (that spelled out what I just said). Last time I listed a computer (2-3 months back), I don't recall seeing the screen so they may have dropped it if it was hurting business.

But, if I were you I'd go search through eBays pages and look for the software restrictions and verify what I said. Then I'd go and throw that in the sellers face if it isn't included. The threat of some negative feedback can often get some things accomplished.

Good luck.
 
CanadaRAM said:
Not likely...

And especially not from companies who require registration of the serial numbers, or online activation.

Here's the problem: Your seller is a self-admitted thief, as they are selling $4K or more worth of stolen software. Me, I wouldn.t have bid on it in the first place...
Click to expand...

The serial thing might be true for some companies, but most of the software that is on the computer is made by apple, and they never require you to submit a serial number. You can usually find the updates in the Software Update.
 
Pistol Pete said:
use paypal and you will be fine
Click to expand...

Umm, no, not true. Paypal has some bad policies. Go look at paypalsucks.com or one of the other similar sites. I don't know if they're better now but they used to screw people over with their policies. Freeze your account, not allow chargebacks if you received a bad item, etc.
 
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