Why do used older Macs still cost so much ?

[Shadow]

Macs retain their value for longer. People still use their Macs for years after they've been discontinued. I personally plan to keep my MacBook for 7 years without another format (I did one to get more HD space). I plan to do 1 or 2 more upgrades (a 200GB HD from Toshiba in about June) and an external monitor when I get a desk in my room. After that, maybe an external DVD Writer and I'm set for the next few years. I will do that because I know Mac OS X doesn't get as clogged up on older hardware as Windows does. I can practically guarantee that my MacBook will be able to run at least the next 3 versions of OS X, because of historical records. A Mac bought at a time when OS 9 was commonly used will still be able to run OS X 10.4, which is more than 3 versions of the OS.

In contrast, my HP desktop which is probably 3 years old now (roughly) cannot run Windows Vista at a satisfying speed.

 

[BornAgainMac]

You can run all the old OS 9 stuff and really fast. Over time, it will get harder to find a machine to run OS 9.

 

[Will_reed]

Unlike an old dell or compaq which is likely to be thrown in the garbage Macs have a certain vintage value.
Essentially their collectors items I mean it's cool to have an old 128k mac on display, Maybe you'll switch it on from time to time to bring back old memories but mostly its a nostalgia thing.

 

[maccam]

All right, I have been waiting for a thread like this to come up.
Here is a comparison between Mac and Hell...ur..um...Dell right?

Mac- 600 mhz = Dell 1.2 ghz

Mac- 700 mhz = Dell 1.4 ghz

Now for ram. Most ram in Dell is shared ram which means that the graphics card takes from the ram. So here is a another comparison between the two

Mac- 512 mb ram w/ a 64 mb VRAM = Dell- 512 mb ram w/ a 64 mb VRAM SHARED
Now on the dell when you are running at full speed you really only have 256mb of ram.

And on Mac you also get $300 worth of stuff already installed
with Dell you get GIGABYTES of misery

 

[2ndPath]

One additional thing driving up the prices for used Macs it probably the fact that currently the Mac market share is growing and Macs get more and more popular. Because the used Mac supply scales with the Mac marekt share from a few years back, the current demand should scale with the current sales market share of Macs. I don't know how much that makes, but it probably contributes a bit.

 

[SteveG4Cube]

The main motivator to move to a newer computer would be USB 2.0

You can use USB2 devices through a combo hub like this:

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/usb_hubs.html#uf300

I used my Cube at home every day until about a year ago when I got my iMac G5. I still use my eMac 800mhz at work just fine. I even picked up an original iBook 300mhz to play with. Gotta love the old skool.

 

[cube]

You can use USB2 devices through a combo hub like this:

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/usb_hubs.html#uf300

What I want is USB 2.0 speed. It would have to be a USB2.0/FireWire converter (limited to 400Mbps), which still nobody has made. I use a FireWire/UltraSCSI converter, so why not that too.

 

[Vidd]

The previous posts about supply and demand are pretty accurate, I think.

Besides that, just look at the Cube and how cool it is!
I know it's terribly outdated now but I still want one!

 

[Old Mac Geezer]

Hello all,

I am a new member here and a long time Mac user, I was scanning Ebay this evening and for the life of me I just don't understand why so many old used Macs like the Cube and G3 models are still selling for $300 $400 and sometimes even $500 or more!

Why are people still shelling out big bucks for old used 450Mhz G4 models and 700Mhz iMacs when you can buy a brand new Mac Mini for $500 and some change or a brand new Dell 3Ghz complete system with monitor in the $600 range of course I know why folks loves Mac's but what is the lure to these old slow out dated Macs

Because of the upgrade potential of most of them. What other platform allows you to upgrade a 12 year old machine to run the latest operating system?? Try running Vista on a 12 year old PC. With Tiger and maybe even Leopard, you can. You can go back as far as the beige PCI Macs and still upgrade them enough to get Tiger running at a fair speed with a G4 board, a bigger hard drive and enough RAM. The older the machine, the harder it is to keep it running stably at a good speed, but old Macs are still very useful even when they have limitations. Now that PowerPC is dead, I would expect that prices will start to slide on PPC based Macs simply because native PPC support from the mainstream will dry up eventually. You'll still have hobbyists creating and doing new things with older hardware, but most people will abandon them sooner or later.

Oh, and another reason prices are high is the demand for spare parts as older machines break down or need upgrading. I have bought whole systems for the sake of a few components that were faster or more capable than what I already had and kept the leftovers for emergencies or for building a new machine when I had enough parts again. Stripping an old machine for parts can actually be more profitable than selling it whole in many cases.

 

[brad.c]

Macs aren't the only thing overpriced on eBay--it's been my experience that a lot of things are selling way too high. I was buying up accessories for my Canon Rebel online, and would see asking prices very close to what I'd pay new in-store. I bought an Altec Lansing iM7 speaker set in Future Shop (Canada) for $150, when people were bidding over $200 (before shipping) for used models that same day.

 

[Lancetx]

I still have an iMac G3/600 that I originally purchased brand new well over 4 years ago now (for under $800 at the time). It still gets almost daily use for iTunes, web browsing, e-mail, etc. I honestly don't know anyone personally that still uses a Windows PC they bought 4-5 years ago. Those PCs either died from some kind of hardware failure along the way, or else they got so gummed up with malware that they were just simply tossed out. Meanwhile, that old iMac I have still works as well now as it did the day I bought it. Not that I have any intention of selling it, but that's why an old iMac like that is probably worth 3-4x what a PC from that same time period is worth today.

 

[cube]

Besides that, just look at the Cube and how cool it is!
I know it's terribly outdated now but I still want one!

If it were terribly outdated I wouldn't be using one still.

The prospect of having to move to a Mac Pro monster is not enticing.

I also don't like not being able to just clone my sytem disk onto a Mactel system disk.

Plus, x86 is not elegant.

 

[Vidd]

If it was terribly outdated I wouldn't be using one still.

The prospect of having to move to a Mac Pro monster is not enticing.

You have to admit it is quite slow by today's standards.
Regardless of the long life of Apple computers, 5+ year-old machines aren't the powerhouses they once were.

 

[cube]

You have to admit it is quite slow by today's standards.

I'm not running Photoshop, Aperture, Final Cut, or the latest 3D games for now, so it doesn't feel slow.

I tried when I was still at 450MHz and you can even do some GarageBand.

 

[QCassidy352]

That's because you are using the wrong metrics. Price/performance ratio doesn't matter. Price/usefulness ratio is what counts.

That's not how I see it. What matters is what you could be getting for that same money, or a little more.

Sure, a 450 mhz G4 or 700 mhz G3 will still be somewhat useful, but when they're going for over half the price of a new mini (or more), that's insane. And not just because the mini is (exponentially) faster. It also has a warranty, and parts that don't have 4 years of wear on them.

You have to look ahead when buying these older macs. Ok, so it still has some life in it today, but in 2 years? And even if it is, will parts be failing by then? For $50 or $100 I'd take that chance, but not for the hundreds that people routinely pay for this very old technology.

 

[Old Mac Geezer]

That's not how I see it. What matters is what you could be getting for that same money, or a little more.

Sure, a 450 mhz G4 or 700 mhz G3 will still be somewhat useful, but when they're going for over half the price of a new mini (or more), that's insane. And not just because the mini is (exponentially) faster. It also has a warranty, and parts that don't have 4 years of wear on them.

You have to look ahead when buying these older macs. Ok, so it still has some life in it today, but in 2 years? And even if it is, will parts be failing by then? For $50 or $100 I'd take that chance, but not for the hundreds that people routinely pay for this very old technology.

The Mac-mini is a waste. You'll be replacing it far more often than if you spent the extra for an iMac. I tried adding up the true cost of a Mac-mini compared to the 17" and 20" iMacs, and by the time you outfit the mini with the same RAM that comes standard in the iMacs, bought a monitor of similar size to the iMacs, and upgraded the hard drive to the same size, the mini actually costs MORE, and is a worse machine because you can upgrade the iMac further when you outgrow it and use it a little longer. The mini reaches it's limits as soon as you try to bring it up to par with even the cheapest iMac. The iMac also comes with a faster graphic card built in, so the mini is never going to be as good for games or serious graphics applications. The sweet spot in the Apple lineup right now is in the 17"-20" iMac, not the Mac-mini. So looking at the cost of buying an iMac versus buying a CPU upgrade for a G4 tower, the CPU upgrade wins for most people with modest computing needs.

 

[cube]

Plus:

- People don't like going from a very upgradeable computer to a hardly upgradeable machine like the Mac mini or iMac.
- If you have a pro 22" CRT, you don't want to downgrade to an iMac 17-20 LCD.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I'd love an iBook.. something about the PPC processors just feels more sturdy

 

[Eric5h5]

Macs aren't the only thing overpriced on eBay--it's been my experience that a lot of things are selling way too high.

Not to pick on you, but I had to laugh when I read that. The entire point of auctions is to get the price as ludicrously high as possible.

--Eric

 

[shu82]

I find that the G3 machines are really quite useful still. I really have been buying quite a few lately for friends and family. The laptops at least are at a really good price point right now considering their usability. As far as the web is concerned the processor is secondary in the argument. On my 466 graphite while running tiger, I can stream youtube, and wma files just fine with the 8mb of vram. I just got my girlfriend an ibook 800 g3 with 32 mb of vram for under 300, and she can do casual net usage that I do and stream non-choppy video full screen.

I bought a wallstreet for $60 just to have a os8 box, run my old games, and to the net to check email and boards. It won't do youtube but I am writing this right now with it! Even my powerbook 180c is still a screamer running system 7. There is no net of course, but it still works great for being built during the cold war!

I have never bought a mac that I can't still use.

 

[Roba]

The Clamshell's and especially the 466 models go for quite high. People just like the design i guess and that maybe true in the case of the Cube as well.
I got £415/$800 for my Key lime upgraded Clamshell. That is quite a lot of money for a seven year old laptop and i was pleased with that.

 

[dollystereo]

My dual 1ghz G4 is the nicest mac I have ever had, better than any other computer I have right now, even my shinny MBP.

2cents

 

[brad.c]

The entire point of auctions is to get the price as ludicrously high as possible.

Oh, absolutely! But the entire point of buying used merch privately is to save money. If prices are getting jacked up through over-excited bidding on standard products, then the sky's the limit of you talk about items people care about.

 

[steamboat26]

IMO used macs are overpriced, even the elusive Sawtooth i have been looking for (earliest one, now 8 years old) still fetches $150 to $200 on ebay, craigslist, and mac resellers.

My family owns a 500 Mhz G3 imac (in sig) and it still runs quite well. My sister uses it for browsing the web, writing papers, itunes, and some light iphoto work. Not too shabby for a 6 year old computer.

 

[gothiquegirrl]

Sure, a 450 mhz G4 or 700 mhz G3 will still be somewhat useful, but when they're going for over half the price of a new mini (or more), that's insane...

I only spent $200 on my G3.. but would have probably spent up to 3 on a better used Mac. I would have done this because I'd never used a Mac before and I wasn't sure If I would like it. If i hated OS X then $200 bucks still got me a back-up computer for when my PC gave me hell.... and When I was sick of using it, I wasn't gonna cry when i threw it out or gave it away. There was just NO way i was gonna shell out $800 on a ( maybe useful for my interests) mac mini cold turkey never having used a mac ( since 2nd grade) . It just wasn't gonna happen. I gladly paid half-price (ish) for a mac mini to have the chance to "try-out" OS X BEFORE i invested $2000 on something that was actually gonna serve my purpose... Cause lets face it.. I don't see how "power-users" can get a lot of use from a lower end stock mini in the long run.

While I'm on this point.. let me also say.. There is no way I could have tried out Vista on a 5 year old PC to see if I "liked" it.

You have to look ahead when buying these older macs. Ok, so it still has some life in it today, but in 2 years? And even if it is, will parts be failing by then? For $50 or $100 I'd take that chance....

I think a lot of people like me ARE looking ahead. I got to experience what all the "fuss" was about for reasonable price.. I'm totally getting my money's worth in the meantime.. and If this thing doesn't work in two years , that's ok. I'm totally hooked on Macs, Which was the "future" I was hoping for... Not to mention I bought myself some time so i have the luxury of "waiting for the next best thing" for a while. Cause i'm totally getting a MB or a MBP....

I firmly believe that you should use a computer until it doesn't do what you need it to do. This is my bargain basement web browsing machine. That's what I bought it for... I expect it's gonna be way more useful for a lot longer than any PC i could have bought for the same price. The fact that I can also run my webdesign software and other graphic software is a plus i wasn't expecting.

Ang