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Wow, this might be worth it!
- Thread starter eyoungren
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If I had a spare beater car that ran, I'd bargain with that. Seems like a deal to me.
Just fix a few of the Intel Macs alone and sell them off and you'd have your money back!
Just fix a few of the Intel Macs alone and sell them off and you'd have your money back!
Yes, doubtless that the money would be easily returned and that's what kind of kills me. You and I could do this easily if I was still in AZ.
Posted 25 days ago...
The seller's significant-other/partner/lover/guardian/parent
must want to kill the seller for not yet clearing out the garage.
If you are referring to PRAM batteries for late ibooks, they have a capacitor that has to be soldered. I had a sleep issue with my ibook and initally I was told it might be the PRAM capacitor, but I later learned that a defective (though till working) DC-in-Board which can't hold very low power stable was the reason. Much easier fix than having to solder. (Just wanted to share this info, so you can first try, if it is the DC-in-Board, unless you already know it's definitely the PRAM capacitor.)
Oh yeah I know about those and I honestly think that I'm past getting iBokos that have those kind of issues (at least deliberately buying ones with either dead batteires or issues with PRAM in general). I am mostly looking for parts for my 2003 15" PowerBook 1.25GHz. I need a battery, RAM, and a PRAM battery. Once I have those things, I will have an awesome laptop!
DO IT!!!!! And please send me any 15" PB parts that you find!Road trip?
What about you guys living in the US sharing the investment costs and one of you gets the lot and sends the others 1-2 fixable ones for reselling plus one for their own use. So one of you, who has the space and short distance can take the majority, while others will serve to minimize the overall costs for a single person, by joining the adventure . That being said under assumption that shipping of 1-3 exemplars doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Hm,... stupid idea how would one estimate the costs for everyone without knowing, if the Macs are fixable/resaleable.
Too bad I don't live in the US and wouldn't have the room anyway.
. That being said under assumption that shipping of 1-3 exemplars doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Hm,... stupid idea how would one estimate the costs for everyone without knowing, if the Macs are fixable/resaleable.Too bad I don't live in the US and wouldn't have the room anyway.
If I had $1200 disposable or a working car to trade I'd have jumped all over this!What about you guys living in the US sharing the investment costs and one of you gets the lot and sends the others 1-2 fixable ones for reselling plus one for their own use. So one of you, who has the space and short distance can take the majority, while others will serve to minimize the overall costs for a single person, by joining the adventure
Too bad I don't live in the US and wouldn't have the room anyway.
The seller, literally has what amounts to hundreds of computers. Hauling all this stuff off would probably require a U-Haul truck and either a storage unit or an empty garage to keep it. I have none of that so I would end up quite literally having computers wall to wall in our living room.
The profit from this would be quite good though. My wife even sees it and would be on board if we had the money. All you'd need to do is sell at least 12 computers at $100 each and you'd have your money back. Everything else would be turned as profit be it a computer parted out or whole machines.
The seller, I think, is quite aware of the attractiveness of this offer. Unfortunately, I just cannot take advantage of it.
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Even if the machines themselves don't work for the majority of them, at least there are batteries to sell, HDDs, Airport cards, RAM...etc. There would be many ways to make this VERY profitable. Hell, even taking in some of the working laptops to Best Buy will get you $20 for each of the working iBook G4s. I would sell any iBook G3 top cases to be made wonderful colors and that would be fun as well! Anyway, this is a money-making opportunity and I don't think any of us have the money to make the initial investment!
Or is it those that do have the money feel this isn't a good investment? I can easily afford to buy this lot. I can afford to travel out there to pick it up. I don't feel it's the slam dunk profit maker many here see it as.
From my perspective-as a collector-I see it as a good chance to get some decent pieces for my collection with a profit on top of it.
The Macbooks are still good for $100 or so each working, and there are enough Intel Macs there that are in the $100-200. The huge piles of iBooks are reliably $30 each, and as pointed out even if not working the batteries, displays, etc can be parted out. If I had the time, I'd be confident that I'd make a profit on it. It might not be the "slam dunk" profit, but a profit none the less.
And, as a reward for my efforts, I'd get some good iMac colors for my collection along with a couple of acrylic displays, Titanium powerbooks(can never have enough of those!) and a few AlBooks. I see two white iMacs, two VGA TiBooks, four 15" AlBooks, and a 17" AlBook. Some of those would be dupes(although not the white iMacs) for me, but again since they would effectively be freebies for me I'd be glad to have them. Even the 15" iMac G4 would be a good addition.
If Phoenix weren't a few thousand miles from me, I'd likely make an effort to come up with the money.
Well I and many people in the PPC community disagree with you based on our experiences with PPC Macs and for what they are selling or even their trade-in value.
Exactly. I actually don't know what to add to this post because it's perfect.
There is some value one can attribute to a collector. However one has to ask themselves: If there is profit to be made how come the seller is walking away from it? Without an itemized list of the items included along with the condition one cannot really state what value can be attributed to the lot. The cost to buy, haul away, store, test, recondition, sell, and disposing of what has no value likely exceeds the profit to be made.
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Perhaps your appreciation of the PPC systems is clouding your judgement.
Here's the thing…the seller says that you'd need a truck to haul all this away. And the photos he shows he says are just one part of a much larger collection.
Sell the PCs, make the profit on the Macs and Mac parts.
Crowd Fund asking 50-cent contributions for purpose of E-cycle (non-landfill recycling).
Stipulate PC/LCD checkup/distribution goes to local Boy's/Girl's Club.
When contributing MacRumor members & Crowd-Funding total = $600 cash,
make one-time offer to seller for $500,
and use $100 towards balance of Bobtail rental.
Optional: Lottery for valued Apple products amongst participating MacRumor members.
Hell, make a MacRumors Reality TV show outta this.
Stipulate PC/LCD checkup/distribution goes to local Boy's/Girl's Club.
When contributing MacRumor members & Crowd-Funding total = $600 cash,
make one-time offer to seller for $500,
and use $100 towards balance of Bobtail rental.
Optional: Lottery for valued Apple products amongst participating MacRumor members.
Hell, make a MacRumors Reality TV show outta this.
I am beginning to be torn between whether it is a good deal or not. I can also see some uncertain factors.
It's Family time!
I wonder, what would renting/hiring a truck or other suitable vehicle cost? (I've heard, that you have auctions over there, where you can put up an add and the truckers bid and the lowest price wins. - or one hires a truck that would usually help, when you are moving your household).
Point 3 can be outweighed by what Bunn said, it wouldn't feel "a cost factor", if it is hobby fun time.
However (and this goes to pl595, too) one could do a worst case scenario. Imagine all were broken/defective and calculate this. Lets say you could sell each for 20USD as "as is, defective/for parts/untested".
I can't get a clear overview of how many items there are actually, from the sellers text.
Just in case, one gets overwhelmed by the sheer mass and stops after digging through some of them for his own enjoyment (hobby, self needed parts) or lets call it, if you get to the point where it is stress rather than joy, one would have to think what amount of time it would cost even to selling each uninspected for 20USD and if that is worth it.
Hehe, I am picturing the youngren family (including the kids) sitting together in the living room each of them having an ibook in front of them and repairing them.
It's Family time! I wonder, what would renting/hiring a truck or other suitable vehicle cost? (I've heard, that you have auctions over there, where you can put up an add and the truckers bid and the lowest price wins. - or one hires a truck that would usually help, when you are moving your household).
Probably not battries, I think, since they might not hold a lot of charge anymore. The fact that the seller says the laptops need HDDs (and an OS) means also, that you would probably have to buy HDDs for them, which can cost more than some of the ibook models. That would more likely add costs, rather than bring in money from gutting. Unless one would want to sell them without drive and OS, which will minimize the selling price. What if they all have minimum RAM in the 256MB range or only soldered ones? So maybe few money from RAM.
Good question. One has to count in the working hours one has to spend in 1. finding out the status of the items, before selling 2. preparing the adds 3. maybe repairing (if not selling those "as is") 4. maybe invest time in buying/searching HDDs from Ebay for them.
Point 3 can be outweighed by what Bunn said, it wouldn't feel "a cost factor", if it is hobby fun time.
The collector's and hobbyist's standpoint is what would make the deal reasonable. Someone only in for sale, might see a problem with time as a cost factor.
However (and this goes to pl595, too) one could do a worst case scenario. Imagine all were broken/defective and calculate this. Lets say you could sell each for 20USD as "as is, defective/for parts/untested".
I can't get a clear overview of how many items there are actually, from the sellers text.
Just in case, one gets overwhelmed by the sheer mass and stops after digging through some of them for his own enjoyment (hobby, self needed parts) or lets call it, if you get to the point where it is stress rather than joy, one would have to think what amount of time it would cost even to selling each uninspected for 20USD and if that is worth it.
Again, it would depend on how much there really is.
If it could fit in a half ton pickup or SUV, it wouldn't be a huge deal for a lot of folks-if you don't have one, you probably know someone who would loan you one for a local trip, although not cross country.
If it's more box truck size, you'd be looking at renting a U-haul. If you lived nearby, you'd probably be looking at $50 or so to get it for the day. For me, what I'd be looking at would be flying out there, renting one, and then driving it back 2000 miles, which would probably be well over $1000.
Personally, if I were serious about this(which I'm not) and could haul it in a pickup I'd FIRST track down a good, solid Arizona rust free '90s Chevy Silverado, have it gone over by a mechanic there, then fly out, buy the truck, buy the Macs, and drive back. Then I'd be killing two birds with one stone. I'd keep the truck, but if I didn't want to I could probably sell a rust-free one back here for what I paid for it if not more and would only be out the cost of gas.
Another option might be those shipping "pods or containers", the ones they drop off, you load and then they deliver.
You would need to make arrangements for someone to load it, possibly the seller.
You can get a pretty good price quote online.
You would need to make arrangements for someone to load it, possibly the seller.
You can get a pretty good price quote online.
For heavens sake, let it go!
If the collection shown at the pictures is meant to advertise the best pieces of that deal I do not want to know about the rest of it.
Maybe, and only if you have enough spare time and space, you might start to sell single parts and maybe get your money back, but that's a long way to go.
Look at the white iBooks and the aluminium ones too: someone raped out the HDD obviously with brute force - I don't want to think about, how they look like in real an how to put them together again with all sorts of screws and parts missing and a the case being damaged. Can't believe you'll get even a single shiny iBook/PowerBook/MacBook if you put together all the best pieces.
One might/has to check each single piece with the equipment of a bundle of external FireWire- or USB-Drives containing all necessary versions of OS X and a selection of appropriate power-supplies.
I guess this deal ends up to be a big disappointment and a huge waste of time.
Just my 2 cents...
If the collection shown at the pictures is meant to advertise the best pieces of that deal I do not want to know about the rest of it.
Maybe, and only if you have enough spare time and space, you might start to sell single parts and maybe get your money back, but that's a long way to go.
Look at the white iBooks and the aluminium ones too: someone raped out the HDD obviously with brute force - I don't want to think about, how they look like in real an how to put them together again with all sorts of screws and parts missing and a the case being damaged. Can't believe you'll get even a single shiny iBook/PowerBook/MacBook if you put together all the best pieces.
One might/has to check each single piece with the equipment of a bundle of external FireWire- or USB-Drives containing all necessary versions of OS X and a selection of appropriate power-supplies.
I guess this deal ends up to be a big disappointment and a huge waste of time.
Just my 2 cents...
I think many here, including myself, would love to have those to recondition and send back out into the world. It's more about the pleasure that comes from refurbishing old equipment. It all really depends on how many and what condition those items are in. The last thing I'd want to do is pick up the lot only to find I could get a few working pieces out of it and then have to dispose of the rest...even if he were going to give the lot to me.