Sounds like a fair offer for a change.
Edit - I misread that as $50 - scrub my comment LOL.
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Wow, didn't realize the iBook G3 Clamshell is so expensive!
- Thread starter Johnny365
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Edit - I misread that as $50 - scrub my comment LOL.
As I said earlier, I don’t get angry very often! A spare parts hoarder who wilfully destroys iBook clamshells — the antithesis of restoration — and then gouges gullible consumers with his hot messes, and without material repercussion? At a very basic level, that isn’t OK. It’s predatory and wrapped in colourful polka-dots.
And also, unless you know the guy has a diagnosis of schizophrenia and he’s openly so, then it’s really not a good idea to be making flippant diagnoses based solely on how you might perceive him.
Lastly, the proposition of having me fight him was your creation.
One should also assume there is a demand for his products or else he would not be doing it.
Oh mah gosh, I wasn’t serious about buying it. Anything over Say 50 bucks is too rich for my blood as I’m not a collector in the traditional sense. A big part of the fun for me is to find cool old macs free or very cheap. It blows my mind that someone would pay that much but hey it’s their money & suckers abound I suppose. The graphite looks very well kept and has all its case candy etc.
Still $550.
As the old saying goes, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
As the saying goes, "Beauty is in the eye of the be(er)holder."
Or maybe people like them. Also, you assume he is ruining laptops which would otherwise go to collectors when there's the possibility he is recovering them from heading to recycler where they would be destroyed.
@B S Magnet Hmm... Then maybe that guide is more applicable for me on a regular basis. I just thought it could be especially useful in times like this, and not necessarily for just you and I.
To be fair, they aren't destroyed - the plastic is still fully intact, and is probably still hiding under there somewhere. He just paints over everything with terrible designs and "art" that looks like it came straight out of a schizophrenia patient, which is why I made that comment. I apologize if it was distasteful.
I'm one to believe that these kinds of things have a distinct way of working out themselves. There is no need for material repercussion when nobody is actually getting physically harmed as a result of his choices. His leverage point of business here might be something we vehemently disagree with, but I've often found in life that you can't protect neither stupid nor gullible - it's a fool's errand. His hapless customers will have gotten themselves in such situations, and they will need to deal with the outcome should they have second thoughts (and even then, eBay will side with them when they declare they want a refund, so they'll still get what they want).
Yes. I suggested an "old fashioned" boxing match with boxing gloves, a ring, and rules to follow; which is fair and honorable. Then you painted over that (no pun intended) with how you would fight dirty, and would raid his stash; which isn't fair nor honorable, and could itself be argued predatory. My point was that not all reactive fighting is equal or proportional, especially for different scenarios.
@djjeff Not necessarily. How sure are we that he hasn't just been trying to sell the same several individual iBooks for some time? Maybe I'm losing track, but do we have a concrete idea as to exactly how many laptops he has discreetly defaced thus far? Because they all look the same to me...
But in any case, I agree with that last point. Better an ugly laptop than a nonexistent laptop. In the unlikely event he's saving them from the recyclers and not just scooping them up from eBay, then I suppose that adds some redemption to his work. And then again, we have no idea exactly how many unsold eBay listings end up getting thrown out, so perhaps it holds valid either way in an invisible way to us.
To be fair, they aren't destroyed - the plastic is still fully intact, and is probably still hiding under there somewhere. He just paints over everything with terrible designs and "art" that looks like it came straight out of a schizophrenia patient, which is why I made that comment. I apologize if it was distasteful.
I'm one to believe that these kinds of things have a distinct way of working out themselves. There is no need for material repercussion when nobody is actually getting physically harmed as a result of his choices. His leverage point of business here might be something we vehemently disagree with, but I've often found in life that you can't protect neither stupid nor gullible - it's a fool's errand. His hapless customers will have gotten themselves in such situations, and they will need to deal with the outcome should they have second thoughts (and even then, eBay will side with them when they declare they want a refund, so they'll still get what they want).
Yes. I suggested an "old fashioned" boxing match with boxing gloves, a ring, and rules to follow; which is fair and honorable. Then you painted over that (no pun intended) with how you would fight dirty, and would raid his stash; which isn't fair nor honorable, and could itself be argued predatory. My point was that not all reactive fighting is equal or proportional, especially for different scenarios.
@djjeff Not necessarily. How sure are we that he hasn't just been trying to sell the same several individual iBooks for some time? Maybe I'm losing track, but do we have a concrete idea as to exactly how many laptops he has discreetly defaced thus far? Because they all look the same to me...
But in any case, I agree with that last point. Better an ugly laptop than a nonexistent laptop. In the unlikely event he's saving them from the recyclers and not just scooping them up from eBay, then I suppose that adds some redemption to his work. And then again, we have no idea exactly how many unsold eBay listings end up getting thrown out, so perhaps it holds valid either way in an invisible way to us.
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Maybe.
But as it comes to spare parts on the market, there has always been a demand for clamshell parts (and I’ve continuously owned clamshell iBooks since 2004 and have sought replacement parts for them pretty much constantly since that year). Where clamshell iBooks have met their fate at a recycler or a landfill, it is also just as likely that polka-dot hoard-troll dude never had a chance to leap on them, either.
Which leaves a very limited pool of spare parts out there which aren’t a) being doctored, or b) being used in the service of doctored parts, then offered as grossly inflated prices on an auction web site. Those superficial parts which are being doctored will be exceptionally hard to “fix” them to original condition, as the polycarbonate surfaces are seriously prone to chemically reacting with a lot of adhesives as well as bonding agents in both paint and paint removers.
I think I might take him a slight bit more seriously were he to host his own shopify or woocommerce-styled retail store on his own web site and sell his “““art””” there and not on a general marketplace and using devious language like “rare” or “original” and other deceptive-practice language. He unquestionably has the scratch to afford to have someone to create a web store for him if he can afford to hoard as many clamshell spare parts as he alleges to have.
TBH I just don't care. I have better things to do with my time than follow someone on Ebay who is selling a product I may not agree with.
Has he been trolling this forum? The only trolling I see is this forum trolling this individuals Ebay listings because they disagree with his business.
Yanno I was talking to the new IT guy at our work and found out he is a big PPC era Mac fan who has a number of ppc macs, one of which is a clamshell he bought from his grandpa. Very cool - multi generational ppc Mac story which is pretty cool in my book (well that and a digital audio)
Anyhoo, sorry to hijack the thread
Anyhoo, sorry to hijack the thread
Yanno I was talking to the new IT guy at our work and found out he is a big PPC era Mac fan who has a number of ppc macs, one of which is a clamshell he bought from his grandpa. Very cool - multi generational ppc Mac story which is pretty cool in my book (well that and a digital audio)
Anyhoo, sorry to hijack the thread
Nah, these are the posts I log on for.
@RhianB Why not invite him over? He might be pleasantly surprised with what we've gotten these boxes to do over the past few years.
As supply dries up the price is going to increase. I checked IBM PC compatible the other day seems like the ones in Windows 9x era could be more than expensive than the ones in Windows Vista/7 era.
I am not a huge fan of "pro" sellers in general as they naturally only want to "buy low sell high".
Edit: I checked x86 stuff because I am interesting in NeXT built operating systems as well. They did not support PowerPC at all.
I am not a huge fan of "pro" sellers in general as they naturally only want to "buy low sell high".
Edit: I checked x86 stuff because I am interesting in NeXT built operating systems as well. They did not support PowerPC at all.
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If recovered from a recycler, anyone with a true intrinsic love for the iBook Clamshell would surely treat them with respect and refurbish back to their original configuration, instead of those very controversial creations.
Being a great fan of G3 Clamshells, I too think it's wicked that he treats them this way. As a very keen artist myself, I've zoomed into 2 of his crazy creations to judge his painting skills. Yes they're hand-painted, but the heavy, uneven and untidy brush strokes are very amateurish. Had the paint job been painstakingly performed with an air-brush giving a professional paint finish, he would at least have gained a little recognition for his talent, but still 0/10 for very bad taste of his chosen support.
Put it this way: if I ever found a Clamshell with a totally bad top shell, I'd perhaps consider re-applying a paint undercoat to the lid, and then by use of an airbrush come up with a pleasing scene and retain it myself as a one-off for display and conversation piece. However professional the end result may be I would never release it on the gullible more-money-than sense public.
My opinion on the matter is - if you don't know what you're buying, don't buy it. If you buy it anyway, expect to be screwed. Shorter: caveat emptor.
Yeah there is one for sale locally for €400 euro, was thinking of getting it, I have a keylime (not 466mhz tho) and a blue already but I have no boxed clamshells sadly. Will message seller and see if I can grab it for 250-300 nd il be happy
I have a meeting set up with him for Wednesday, chat and haggle on price, will more than likely be buying it anyway, will take pictures and update then, also would anyone know if anyone makes clear plastic box protectors for clamshell boxes, as I would be having it as display piece.