eBay bargains - what's your latest conquest?

[Project Alice]

I was just on FB marketplace and saw a rev D iMac G3 listed for what I would say way overpriced. I haven’t really been in the PPC game or vintage computers at all much in the past couple years. Not like I used to be anyway. I can’t remember the last time I actually bought something, but I wanna say it was around 2021.

Here it is:


I wanted to message the seller and offer $50. But before I did, I thought you know, I haven’t even been looking in a few years. I may think thats an outrageous price, but I know this market changes sometimes. So, I went to eBay and checked sold listings. Wow. There are some that sold for reasonable prices.. but most seem to be $200 or $300! Have I really been out of the game that long? I remember paying that much for a boxed G4 Cube with speakers and power adapter included. But an iMac G3?

 

[Dronecatcher]

@Project Alice
I’m finding PowerPC prices are steadily increasing to the point of not being viable unless you’re a collector - conversely Intel prices are going down which is great for bargain hunting.

My last buy was a 27” i5 iMac which came with the aluminium keyboard and wireless magic mouse for £50.

So - swings and roundabouts

 

[TheShortTimer]

I was just on FB marketplace and saw a rev D iMac G3 listed for what I would say way overpriced.

I've seldom found any bargains on there. Is this somewhere that people have enjoyed success?

I wanted to message the seller and offer $50. But before I did, I thought you know, I haven’t even been looking in a few years. I may think thats an outrageous price, but I know this market changes sometimes. So, I went to eBay and checked sold listings. Wow. There are some that sold for reasonable prices.. but most seem to be $200 or $300! Have I really been out of the game that long? I remember paying that much for a boxed G4 Cube with speakers and power adapter included. But an iMac G3?

I paid £15 GBP for my iMac G3 in 2020 and even that I thought was too much because I attempted to haggle the seller down to £10! Anything that's perceived as possessing retro status is now being ridiculously priced in the online marketplace by people hoping to enjoy a tidy payday for hardware that not too long ago would've been abandoned on the pavement. At this stage, you're probably better off just asking around if anyone has an old Mac in the loft, basement, closet etc that they'd like to give away to a good home.

I’m finding PowerPC prices are steadily increasing to the point of not being viable unless you’re a collector - conversely Intel prices are going down which is great for bargain hunting.

Especially due to people flocking to the Silicon range to send emails, watch YouTube and browse social media - all activities that their existing Macs were capable of doing but who am I to deride the march of progress?

My last buy was a 27” i5 iMac which came with the aluminium keyboard and wireless magic mouse for £50.

Bravo!

So - swings and roundabouts

Exactly, matey.

 

[Dronecatcher]

I've seldom found any bargains on there. Is this somewhere that people have enjoyed success?

My current frontline iMacs came from there both £50, local pickup so no eBay postage. There seems to be a constant stream of 2008 - 2011 iMacs and Macbooks usually hovering around the £50 mark in my area.

 

[Project Alice]

I've seldom found any bargains on there. Is this somewhere that people have enjoyed success?

I’ve picked up a lot of stuff on there. All only local pickup. I got a nearly mint PowerBook 1400, and a Bondi iMac off there for $200 for the both. That was probably the most recent thing, 3 or 4 years ago.

I got a sawtooth G4 off there, don’t remember what I paid for that. I got my Pismo off there for $75. Which was in like 2018 probably.

Both my 5,1 Mac Pro’s came from Marketplace actually. They are both dual CPU models and I paid $50 for each. Back when those were going for $400-$600. I almost felt bad only paying that amount lol

It’s kinda hit or miss. But craigslist hardly has anything ever. Its been flooded with dealership ads that might as well be spam. Most people use marketplace instead these days.

I’m finding PowerPC prices are steadily increasing to the point of not being viable unless you’re a collector - conversely Intel prices are going down which is great for bargain hunting.

We’ve finally reached the point where PowerPC Macs are being priced like CRTs. I’ve always found it ridiculous. I’ve seen people trying to sell a cheap 13” walmart special CRT for like $200.
Still, I’m not sure I can fathom paying that much for an iMac G3.

 

[splifingate]

Especially due to people flocking to the Silicon range to send emails, watch YouTube and browse social media - all activities that their existing Macs were capable of doing but who am I to deride the march of progress?

I run the range on comps (in many capacities); but--I must say--my M2 Max Studio makes me feel like I did when I first sat with a DEC Alpha in the early-middle 90's.

I mean, I can do anything, in any capacity, all at the same time, and she's like "o.k.; and..."

Meanwhile, I have spent the entire day efforting and monitoring the Windows Reset PC thing on the 2015 Dell Inspiron 11 3179 . . . it took over eight hours for me to Reset the PC to Factory, and (eventually) update the BIOS.

It has no LAN port, and the WIFI module is currently /N 2.4Ghz. I am caught-up in the event-horizon stasis of the singularity of the necessity of preserving the win64 key for further hi-jinx.

In the interim, I secured:

1) a NIB PowerBrick for the PB5,8/6,7 lappys (eB USD35)
2) a NIB 65wH battery for the Inspiron 3537 (eB USD35)
3) an (additional) lightly-used PowerBrick for said 3537 (eB USD9)

TG for eBay!

 

[DouglasCarroll]

No Ebay, Craiglist or Facebook but every Mac that I now own I’ve gotten for free from electronics recycle discard. That includes a 2015 15” Macbook Pro, 2013 Mac Pro, 2008 Mac Pro, 2011 Macbook Air 11”, 2017 Macbook Pro, 2019 Macbook Pro, and a 2020 M1 Macbook Air to name a few.

Don’t even get me started on all the free Apple Keyboards, mice, monitors, trackpads and iPads I’ve grabbed also…I actually stopped picking them up due to having too many already.

I cannot believe what people chuck in the recycle bin.

😀

 

[B S Magnet]

No Ebay, Craiglist or Facebook but every Mac that I now own I’ve gotten for free from electronics recycle discard. That includes a 2015 15” Macbook Pro, 2013 Mac Pro, 2008 Mac Pro, 2011 Macbook Air 11”, 2017 Macbook Pro, 2019 Macbook Pro, and a 2020 M1 Macbook Air to name a few.

Don’t even get me started on all the free Apple Keyboards, mice, monitors, trackpads and iPads I’ve grabbed also…I actually stopped picking them up due to having too many already.

I cannot believe what people chuck in the recycle bin.

😀

Impressive.

I am curious: where you are, where do you generally find electronics recycling discards which are accessible to, basically, anyone? Around here, it only tends to be accidental, happenstance moments, such as being awake before dawn on the neighbourhood’s rubbish collection day and the occasional skip.

 

[Project Alice]

No Ebay, Craiglist or Facebook but every Mac that I now own I’ve gotten for free from electronics recycle discard. That includes a 2015 15” Macbook Pro, 2013 Mac Pro, 2008 Mac Pro, 2011 Macbook Air 11”, 2017 Macbook Pro, 2019 Macbook Pro, and a 2020 M1 Macbook Air to name a few.

Don’t even get me started on all the free Apple Keyboards, mice, monitors, trackpads and iPads I’ve grabbed also…I actually stopped picking them up due to having too many already.

I cannot believe what people chuck in the recycle bin.

😀

I have gotten a lot of stuff from recycle places, but never free. I got one of my 1.5GHz 12” PowerBook’s for either $5 or $10 USD that way. I know I got a beige G3 desktop and a Macintosh Classic from there too.
I can’t remember everything I’ve picked up that way though.

 

[Tankerthebuberz]

@weckart Oh, yeah, because apparently my iBook clamshell is made of solid gold and comes with a built-in time machine. Gotta love eBay logic!

 

[doctor_dog]

Impressive.

I am curious: where you are, where do you generally find electronics recycling discards which are accessible to, basically, anyone? Around here, it only tends to be accidental, happenstance moments, such as being awake before dawn on the neighbourhood’s rubbish collection day and the occasional skip.

You did not ask me, but will give my perspective because I've done this as well: the secret, at least in the US where I am, is to find a large office building/complex/park that has a publicly accessible sanitation area.

For me, this looked like a 16+ story building at the heart of a business park with a loading dock at the bottom. Lo and behold, there are recycling bins for cardboard, plastic, and (dum dum dum) electronics.

I've not had anyone push back on me either dropping off or taking from that bin, but I do not know for certain if it's frowned upon or not. The rest of the complex requires badge access to get in or out and there are plenty of cameras, I've been operating under the assumption that if it wasn't OK, they'd put a sign out or have some sort of physical access control in place. Whether that is a good/morally correct/etc assumption I leave up to the individual. It may well also be I've found the magical unicorn bin belonging to a building that doesn't care; YMMV.

 

[B S Magnet]

You did not ask me, but will give my perspective because I've done this as well: the secret, at least in the US where I am, is to find a large office building/complex/park that has a publicly accessible sanitation area.

For me, this looked like a 16+ story building at the heart of a business park with a loading dock at the bottom. Lo and behold, there are recycling bins for cardboard, plastic, and (dum dum dum) electronics.

Noice! (sorry, that’s an emphatic “niiice!”)

I've not had anyone push back on me either dropping off or taking from that bin, but I do not know for certain if it's frowned upon or not. The rest of the complex requires badge access to get in or out and there are plenty of cameras, I've been operating under the assumption that if it wasn't OK, they'd put a sign out or have some sort of physical access control in place. Whether that is a good/morally correct/etc assumption I leave up to the individual. It may well also be I've found the magical unicorn bin belonging to a building that doesn't care; YMMV.

The varied mileage, I wouldn’t be shocked to learn, rests on a bit of pernicious social engineering.

That is: if one looks like they “belong” in the area, then any security staffer tucked away, deep inside a room filled with CCTV feeds on, say, up to a half-dozen LCDs, might not blink twice at the sight of recycling bin rummaging, seeing it as probably the person at the bin rearranging contents to fit in more stuff. Besides, if the weather isn’t perfect, they still have their snacks and a comfortable seat in a creature-comforted room. And it’s good mileage for the person at the recycling area.

But if that person looks any bit out of place for any reason… well, bad mileage.

 

[splifingate]

Pursuant to my recently-acquired laptops, I have been sourcing a number of replacement parts to make these Units Whole.

Two weeks ago, I found a nice 90w charger for the Inspiron 3537.

I purchased it via Teh Bay, and waited...

...and waited.

The recent ATL USPS Debacle aside, I remained patient. This is a give-away device, and nothing is inherently critical on this Mission.

Low-and-behold, the charger popped-up on Bay&USPS as being Out for Delivery, yester!

So, I just checked the Delivery Status, and I get:

"Latest Update
Your item was returned to the sender on March 18, 2024 at 8:13 pm in [Locality] because of an incomplete address."

*hrumpf*

So close, yet so far 🤷‍♂️

This is my first Failure with a Bay Item shipped through USPS.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Impressive.

I am curious: where you are, where do you generally find electronics recycling discards which are accessible to, basically, anyone? Around here, it only tends to be accidental, happenstance moments, such as being awake before dawn on the neighbourhood’s rubbish collection day and the occasional skip.

Your question was pitched to Douglas but seeing as others have responded, I thought that I would too.

I live in a highly densely populated neighbourhood in one of the top 10 most densely populated districts of the UK's most densely populated city and this means that I regularly find discards - of all kinds during the course of activities as basic as (very) early morning exercising, a stroll or day-to-day local travelling. Usually, they're either abandoned on the pavement, outside someone's home (often accompanied by a helpful note alerting passer-bys to their status), within a communal location or in the vicinity of a dumpster.

It's guaranteed that on a weekly or even a daily basis that I'll find something but I can't always justify to myself taking them - or I may not even feel enthused to do so if they're in poor condition and/or highly likely irreparably faulty - unless I want surface mounted boards to practice on.

But if that person looks any bit out of place for any reason… well, bad mileage.

This is precisely why I confine my focus to publicly accessible locations because it would be all too easy for me to wind up being profiled and even though trespassing is not an arrestable matter in the UK, I'd rather err on the side of caution.

 

[ToniCH]

I've wanted a G4 MDD for a long time. I always seem to miss them. Have missed 2 or 3 free ones during last year, they were gone before I saw the ads. And couple of cheap ones too, they were pickup only but too far from me. Today I finally found one thats local to me and made a deal on 2002 G4 MDD 1.25 DP, paid little but still quite reasonable. Looks almost pristine. I will pick it up tomorrow. 👍

 

[ToniCH]

I was wrong about the G4 MDD model I bought. To my happy surprise this is in fact 2003 Power Macintosh G4/1.25 DP (Firewire 800)! 🤩 It came with 2 HDDs, Airport Extreme, 1.75GB RAM, Radeon 9000Pro etc. So, it can't boot OS9 but I was not planning to do it and anyways have other machines which can, so no issue for me.

Here are couple of the sales photos and then a pic where I have just removed the original drives and installed a 250GB mSata -drive with deLock red adapter and currently installing Leopard from DVD.

The fans are pretty loud as expected. Maybe I'll dig my boxes and try to find some more quiet replacements. 👍 I plan to get an USB 2.0 card too.

Ps. the speaker grill came with it too.

EDIT: typos

 

[Amethyst1]

[…] this is in fact 2003 Power Macintosh G4/1.25 DP (Firewire 800)! 🤩 It came with 2 HDDs, Airport Extreme, 1.75GB RAM, Radeon 9000Pro etc. So, it can't boot OS9 […]

It can

 

[ToniCH]

It can

Wow, thanks! I've read about that but never tried and didn't even remember it exists anymore. 👍

BTW. the speaker grill is NOS. Maybe the original broke or fell off and PO bought a new one but never installed it. He told me he used the machine for about 5 years and then bought a new one and this one has been sitting in his closet ever since. Now he was moving to a new place and needed to get rid of old stuff.

 

[ToniCH]

Well, another one came my way. Last night I spotted a G5 Quad for sale locally. The case is in bad shape but seller said the machine works. And he asked 20€ for it. So, today I went and picked it up. Didn't haggle.

Why did I get it? Because I have few G5's already but one of them is broken. The 2005 2.0DC of mine crashes every time after maybe 5-10min of running. I've tried several sets of RAM, different drives, different GPU's, different OS installations etc. etc. but no help, its always the same. I suspect logic board or CPU problem. Nothing triggers an error in diagnostics though. Well, anyways - I have a broken 2005 G5 with perfect case and a working(?) 2005 G5 Quad with a bad case. So, heart transplant is in my plans. 🤓

First boot is successful, seems to have a fresh installation of Leopard and only 6.5GB RAM. Didn't even check the spinner. GPU seems the stock 6600 one which I have few already.

The insides look pretty much like new. Very clean and no trace of leakage visible as is. If there is none when I remove the cooler I will rebuild it before reinstalling.

So, first order of business is to run the diagnostics and see if there is anything worth noting.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Not an eBay but rather a CL pickup for $20USD

1. A Linksys vga KVM
2. a 1.44 floppy drive
3. a NEC Zip drive
4. a bunch of random ram
5. 1.25g AMD Athlon xp/KT-748 mobo
6. Blackhawk joystick
7. AMD Athlon /K7vm3 mobo in a clean mid case + power + Ati Radeon 9200se AGP gpu & some ram (lol)
8. A bunch of pata & floppy cables
9. 300w power supply
10. 2 Belkin F5D7000 WiFi cards (work great in my powermacs)

Stuff I’ll look closer at later

11. a sound card
12. Three random Ethernet/coax adapters
13. Bunch of db25 cables & other cables
14.Some other random bits like full height & half height pci card plates, I/o inserts, psu adapter bits, cable adapters n some driver disk/lit on that joystick.

The ram alone ranges in age from DDR2 back to 30pin sticks so a bit to sort through. I’d like to install the zip into my Quicksilver but will need to source a bezel at some point. Here’s some pics:

Anyone have an idea or guess what this is? Looks like it came out of a cart of some type.

 

[splifingate]

Anyone have an idea or guess what this is? Looks like it came out of a cart of some type.

34-pin IDC to Card Edge IDC 3.5" floppy adapter

Haven't seen something like this since my TRS-80 days...

TEAC FD-35F-03-U Jumper Settings - VzEkC e. V.

Ich bin auf der Suche nach technischen Informationen zu diesen 3,5" Floppy Laufwerken. Im Netz bin ich bisher nicht fündig geworden. Es sind 80-Spur DS/DD Laufwerke, also aus der Generation vor den 1,44MB HD Laufwerken. Ich versuche eines davon am PC…

forum.classic-computing.de

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

34-pin IDC to Card Edge IDC 3.5" floppy adapter

Haven't seen something like this since my TRS-80 days...

TEAC FD-35F-03-U Jumper Settings - VzEkC e. V.

Ich bin auf der Suche nach technischen Informationen zu diesen 3,5" Floppy Laufwerken. Im Netz bin ich bisher nicht fündig geworden. Es sind 80-Spur DS/DD Laufwerke, also aus der Generation vor den 1,44MB HD Laufwerken. Ich versuche eines davon am PC…

forum.classic-computing.de

Thanks so much! Y’all are the best

 

[EmilioCube]

A G4 Sawtooth with a 1Ghz Sonnet for 75 Euros that I sold alone for 175 I am using it now to test flashed 6200s that they dont accidentally blow my Cube up.
A 23-inch ADC Display for 90 Euro including a original-boxed A+ condition ADC/DVI adapter.
A 20-inch ADC Display for 25 Euro that was marked as defect because the seller had the brightness set to minimum and took pictures with the sun shining on the display, but for me it works perfect.
A (my second) G4 Cube including a working PSU for 250 Euro in mint condition

 

[Doq]

I picked up a Wii U for 90 USD with its original gamepad. Very hard to find for this price, full sets like this are usually 200 USD or more.

It's not a Mac but it has a PowerPC in it so I'd say it half-counts.

I will run Mac OS on it.... somehow.