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WindowsXPuser

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 15, 2020
52
34
Check eBay for the A1103 Mac mini G4 and you’ll see tons of $300 and $500 listings and very few under $200. What’s happened here? These aren’t rare machines nor are they particularly capable or powerful.
 
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Certificate of Excellence

macrumors 6502a
Feb 9, 2021
898
1,390
d00d mac mini g4s are l337.

Aye dios, let me get this right:

[)00[) /\/\4( /\/\|/\/|5 4P\3 /337.

Joking aside, sellers looking at ridiculous powerbook prices and trying to make some quick Xmas cash on a box that probably costs $10-15 US to ship. I got mine for free.
 
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Amethyst1

macrumors G3
Oct 28, 2015
9,540
11,780
I'll sell you one for $199.98.

(Of course, at that bargain price, you cannot expect a hard drive or power supply to be included with your purchase. I'll sell you either of these for just $199.97 each. Or you can get the complete deal - Mac mini, hard drive and power supply! - for just $599! Think about it - a genuine Mac for less than $600!)
 
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wicknix

macrumors 68030
Jun 4, 2017
2,616
5,294
Wisconsin, USA
Just not very well. No wifi, no sound (without external speakers), and frequent mouse lockups, but it does run.

On another note, I'd sell my 1.42ghz oc'd to 1.5 for $100 plus shipping to the continental united states. The price reflects a registered morphos key tied to the machine. That was like $95USD. So i'd be selling the mini for a whole $5. I want to register my G5, and this would pay for it.

Cheers
 

netsrot39

macrumors 6502
Feb 7, 2018
360
502
Austria
Mac Mini G4s are neat machines for mid 2000s stuff (DVD playback, games, word processing, etc.) but nowhere near the value of hundred of dollars. They are very good for OS X Tiger and wicknix's Lubuntu 12 but not really powerful by any means. OS9 does not run very well on it and MorphOS is way to expensive (not really clever to put more money into the machine than it is worth when it comes to software IMO). I have 3 Mac Mini G4s (1.5 Ghz model by factory). The first two cost me around 50€ while the third one cost me only 30€. So I was under the impression that prices are actually dropping. Personally I wouldn't pay more than 50 bucks for one since their usability is quite limited nowadays and they are not quite collectables yet. They are fun to play around with of course (if you are into retro stuff) but still the price tag should be adequate for what you get.
 

DearthnVader

Suspended
Dec 17, 2015
2,207
6,392
Red Springs, NC
Check eBay for the A1103 Mac mini G4 and you’ll see tons of $300 and $500 listings and very few under $200. What’s happened here? These aren’t rare machines nor are they particularly capable or powerful.
Check Ebay's sold listings for a realistic idea on what these machines are really selling for.

 

aurora72

macrumors regular
Jun 7, 2010
186
89
Türkiye
It caught my eye too. But most of those high-priced listings seem to come from the same person. Is this act called 'Price Fixing' ?
Mac-mini-G4-pricing.png
 
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m1maverick

macrumors 65816
Nov 22, 2020
1,343
1,252
It caught my eye too. But most of those high-priced listings seem to come from the same person. Is this act called 'Price Fixing' ?
If they come from the same person then no, it wouldn't be price fixing. Price fixing requires competitors to collude with one another to affect the price.
 

ervus

macrumors 6502
Apr 3, 2020
408
308
As ever, there are plenty of shenanigans on ebay. They have gradually shifted their model to be like amazon: with the exclusion of non-business sellers. The upside is the return/refund policies. Now there is basically no point in feedback ratings because it's the same as buying stuff from walmart.
 
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m1maverick

macrumors 65816
Nov 22, 2020
1,343
1,252
As ever, there are plenty of shenanigans on ebay. They have gradually shifted their model to be like amazon: with the exclusion of non-business sellers. The upside is the return/refund policies. Now there is basically no point in feedback ratings because it's the same as buying stuff from walmart.
I don't trust Ebay's rating system. I left constructive negative feedback for one of their high-volume sellers and that feedback was removed at the request of the seller. Ebay didn't even notify me that had done so. I happened across it for another reason. Why have a feedback system if you're going to remove negative feedback at the request of the seller?

Also I have a number of items which are awaiting my feedback. However, I am holding off on providing it as the seller has not provided feedback for me. I am satisfied with the transactions / sellers but refuse to provide feedback until a seller has provided theirs for me. All too often I have provided feedback and received none in return.

As a buyer I very much like Ebays refund policy.
 
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JMacHack

Suspended
Mar 16, 2017
1,965
2,424
Man this is like shopping for classic cars on craigslist “NO TIRE KICKERS I KNOW WHAT I GOT!” For a rusted out Nova.

I’ve always said that classic computers are to millennials as classic cars are to boomers.
 
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Certificate of Excellence

macrumors 6502a
Feb 9, 2021
898
1,390
1984 Commodore 64 <-- Classic
1985 Mercedes Benz 300D turbo diesel<-- Classic


2005 Mac minig4 <--- not Classic :D

Mac Minis for $100 shipped (with ppc osx) is too much. $300+ is an abject ripoff & that seller is a schmuck. Stock Mini g4s are $50 or less shipped boxes all day long. Suckers are born every second. Don't be a sucker.
 
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mmphosis

macrumors regular
Jan 3, 2017
219
298
Pricing on ebay can get crazy sometimes, but I see one for $25. I have one I got for free many years ago, and another I paid $20 for with a box of misc. hardware from a garage sale. The mini G4 may be sought after because it is the highest performance prior to the maybe somewhat finicky G5 series. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a G5, but maintaining liquid cooling would not be fun for me. I like the small footprint (size) compared to the G5s or Talos. Sought after Open Firmware may be a reason, but Power11 — with open firmware as nice as that would be, it is too bulky and pricey for me. I am cheap, and quite satisfied with what I already have.
 
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Amethyst1

macrumors G3
Oct 28, 2015
9,540
11,780
The mini G4 may be sought after because it is the highest performance prior to the maybe somewhat finicky G5 series.
I’d take a 2004/2005 15”/17”PowerBook in clamshell mode over a mini any day. Only slightly faster CPUs but twice as much RAM and a much faster and fully Core Image-capable GPU make a big difference in OS X. The only reason I see for getting a mini is for running OS 9, of all things. YMMV.
 
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