Hmmm, maybe 20 was a little on the cheap side...
Perhaps they would have been happier with 21...
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Ebay listing that made me chuckle
- Thread starter Alex_K
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Hmmm, maybe 20 was a little on the cheap side...
Perhaps they would have been happier with 21...
Nah, it's the last 13in MBP with a C2D. It's super-duper rare and worthFor that amount of money they could at least have offered an i5/i7.
Oh yeah. How foolish of me to overlook that. You've helped me to regain perspective here.
I present another bargain!
![wWXDlK6.png]()
Wow, what a steal!
That thing's worth many times half that!
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"Why make gazillions when we could make... thousands?"
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I think this is a problem with eBay in general rather than Macintoshes in particular. I remember stumbling on this listing and wondering if it was time to seriously consider stopping the internet:
![DORGFed.jpg]()
eBay changed the rules recently so that fixed-price items remain on sale forever, and you can list 1,000 items for free - beforehand you had to pay - with the result that people are just dumping stuff on eBay in the hope that there's one person mad enough to pay, or drunk enough, or perhaps there's a teenage Youtuber who earned £17m last year and wants to fill his house with golden bicycles.
In the past you had to pay to list items and pay to relist them, so eventually you'd have to lower your prices or end the listing, but now you can just list something and forget about it. In the following case the seller is presumably using software to set the price, but has forgotten to update the headline:
![TgV3QJv.jpg]()
That's right, you save minus four hundred pounds. It can't be money laundering because the listing wouldn't still be around. Also, there's this:
![NpNbUIa.jpg]()
In the case of clamshell G3s, one popped up briefly in an Ariana Grande video last year. At that point a load appeared on eBay, presumably because sellers expected Youtubers to snap them up as retro toys, but looking at eBay listings the "boom" never materialised.
I've never wanted one because they're difficult to fix, you need an external wifi dongle to surf the internet, they only have an 800x600 screen, they only support 800x600 resolutions on an external display, the newest is twenty years old, they're just very slow, you can't use them out of the house because people will think you're a poser, etc etc etc. Apple's translucent plastic designs generally struck a good balance between practical and good-looking but I've always felt that the clamshell iBook went too far in the latter direction - the lid is much too large for the screen, for example, and it's just too big for what you get.
eBay changed the rules recently so that fixed-price items remain on sale forever, and you can list 1,000 items for free - beforehand you had to pay - with the result that people are just dumping stuff on eBay in the hope that there's one person mad enough to pay, or drunk enough, or perhaps there's a teenage Youtuber who earned £17m last year and wants to fill his house with golden bicycles.
In the past you had to pay to list items and pay to relist them, so eventually you'd have to lower your prices or end the listing, but now you can just list something and forget about it. In the following case the seller is presumably using software to set the price, but has forgotten to update the headline:
That's right, you save minus four hundred pounds. It can't be money laundering because the listing wouldn't still be around. Also, there's this:
In the case of clamshell G3s, one popped up briefly in an Ariana Grande video last year. At that point a load appeared on eBay, presumably because sellers expected Youtubers to snap them up as retro toys, but looking at eBay listings the "boom" never materialised.
I've never wanted one because they're difficult to fix, you need an external wifi dongle to surf the internet, they only have an 800x600 screen, they only support 800x600 resolutions on an external display, the newest is twenty years old, they're just very slow, you can't use them out of the house because people will think you're a poser, etc etc etc. Apple's translucent plastic designs generally struck a good balance between practical and good-looking but I've always felt that the clamshell iBook went too far in the latter direction - the lid is much too large for the screen, for example, and it's just too big for what you get.
In theory I'd agree with that - until I owned one, then I found the huge bezel something of a subtle reassurance of protection for the screen and an imaginary veil of privacy for what you're doing on it.
I think this is a problem with eBay in general rather than Macintoshes in particular. I remember stumbling on this listing and wondering if it was time to seriously consider stopping the internet:
![DORGFed.jpg]()
£999 for a 48K ZX Spectrum in a wooden display case, with the option to make an offer? I think I'll pass.
You're absolutely right, eBay has become a haven for the delusional, who have convinced themselves that old technology automatically guarantees a small fortune if sold online, especially when pitched to retro enthusiasts and the nostalgic. The same hardware that I found on eBay in the past for £10, £20 or from other places for free because they were manufactured in the millions and through obsolescence, became considered worthless, are now being offered on there for more than ten times what I'd paid, just because some chancer thinks that its age will net them a bonanza.
Of the past 6 Macs that I've bought in recent years, only two of them were obtained via eBay.
Also, there's this:
![NpNbUIa.jpg]()
Also ridiculous. By 1995, The One had deteriorated from an intelligent, well written magazine for 16 bit gamers to absolute dross and it wasn't worth the £3 price at the time, let alone the almost £3k that they want to sell their copy for now! Regardless of whether it's the final issue and "Ultra Rare."
The bed looks fantastic. I find hardware of that era fascinating - it seems to be a Media 100 video editing suite with a pair of Lacie 20Vision 1600x1200 LCD screens from the early 2000s - because it cost a fortune when it was new, and was at least for a while absolute top professional gear, but nowadays it's totally obsolete and even a simple laptop can duplicate 99% of its functionality with no extra hardware at all.
It might be that it still has a little bit of use for time code conversion, or perhaps it has a professional-standard plug socket or something. It's also possible, albeit unlikely, that you could use that official Final Cut licence to upgrade to the newest version of Final Cut. Judging by the fact it's Media 100i the system seems to date from 2002 or 2003.
Valuing that kind of thing is difficult. I used to have a small collection of Kodak DCS digital SLRs - huge, heavy things built on film cameras. They were technically obsolete but looked impressive. The same is true of late-1990s rackmounted samplers and ADAT recorders etc.
The difference is that whereas digital-era audio gear still has a definitive quality - it's big and power-hungry, but 16-bit stereo sound at 96khz is still acceptable - digital-era video gear hasn't aged well because people want 4K nowadays and I imagine early-2000s Final Cut doesn't have 4K output. Even if it did it would be no fun to edit 4K video on a G4.
There appears to be a G5 or Mac Pro at the bottom of the frame. Personally I think the price is fairly reasonable, because it looks to be a museum-quality and period-correct editing system, and you could probably get a couple of blog posts or Youtube videos out of it. Sadly like most desktops postage is impossible and Stockton-on-Tees is 227 miles away from me.
It might be that it still has a little bit of use for time code conversion, or perhaps it has a professional-standard plug socket or something. It's also possible, albeit unlikely, that you could use that official Final Cut licence to upgrade to the newest version of Final Cut. Judging by the fact it's Media 100i the system seems to date from 2002 or 2003.
Valuing that kind of thing is difficult. I used to have a small collection of Kodak DCS digital SLRs - huge, heavy things built on film cameras. They were technically obsolete but looked impressive. The same is true of late-1990s rackmounted samplers and ADAT recorders etc.
The difference is that whereas digital-era audio gear still has a definitive quality - it's big and power-hungry, but 16-bit stereo sound at 96khz is still acceptable - digital-era video gear hasn't aged well because people want 4K nowadays and I imagine early-2000s Final Cut doesn't have 4K output. Even if it did it would be no fun to edit 4K video on a G4.
There appears to be a G5 or Mac Pro at the bottom of the frame. Personally I think the price is fairly reasonable, because it looks to be a museum-quality and period-correct editing system, and you could probably get a couple of blog posts or Youtube videos out of it. Sadly like most desktops postage is impossible and Stockton-on-Tees is 227 miles away from me.
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So I found these listings when I was looking around eBay one day. Not only are these IMO horridly overpriced, but some are just downright misleading. I wish I had some money to buy one of these just to see what they're like to use. These made me chuckle for sure.
IIRC Apple never released the Clamshell iBook G3 any of these colors:
This one looks like it has a cheap skin/decal applied, which makes me cringe:
And this one is just overpriced IMO:
Some of these aren't even in super good physical condition (cracking of the plastic around the Apple logo on the Clamshells, etc.)
IIRC Apple never released the Clamshell iBook G3 any of these colors:
Apple iBook Clamshell G3 . Special "BLACK SILVER" Limited Collection ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | eBay
20th AnniversaryApple iBook G3 Clamshell 1999 2019. Apple iBook Clamshell G3. 1999 2000. Important to Read Before Buying an iBook Clamshells 1999. Working with APPLE COMPUTER SINCE 1980. the use of the Internet on this machine whether WIRED or WIRELESS is quite limited, slow...
www.ebay.com
Apple iBook Clamshell 366 MHz S.Edition + 40GB HD "PITCH BLACK" RARE ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | eBay
20th AnniversaryApple iBook G3 Clamshell 1999 2019. Apple iBook Clamshell G3. S.E. Special Edition. GREAT & UNIQUE iBook. Included: Apple WiFi Airport Card WEP. S.E. 366 MHz. Important to Read Before Buying an iBook Clamshells 1999.
www.ebay.com
Apple iBook Clamshell . Special Edition S.E. DVD . Rare "GOLD" Dual OS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐ | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Apple iBook Clamshell . Special Edition S.E. DVD . Rare "GOLD" Dual OS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐ at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
This one looks like it has a cheap skin/decal applied, which makes me cringe:
Apple iBook Clamshell G3 1st Series 1999 "Collector" SSD + Dual OS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐ | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Apple iBook Clamshell G3 1st Series 1999 "Collector" SSD + Dual OS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐ at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
And this one is just overpriced IMO:
Apple PowerBook G3 PISMO 400MHz DVD + 60GB + GIFTS = SUPERB ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐ | eBay
Apple PowerBook G3 PISMO 400MHz. With an iBook or PowerBook G3 (2013 Revised in 2020) The fact of the matter after all these years (19 years+) is that. PISMO 400-60 (1 GB RAM). Important to read Before Buying an PowerBook G3.
www.ebay.com
Some of these aren't even in super good physical condition (cracking of the plastic around the Apple logo on the Clamshells, etc.)
So I found these listings when I was looking around eBay one day. Not only are these IMO horridly overpriced, but some are just downright misleading. I wish I had some money to buy one of these just to see what they're like to use. These made me chuckle for sure.
IIRC Apple never released the Clamshell iBook G3 any of these colors:
Oh, yeah, that guy. His whole thing is taking beat-up iBooks and 'customizing' them to sell on eBay at (imo) ridiculous prices. I've always wondered where he gets all those computers from.
I honestly don't know who he's trying to fool. I mean, most collectors are knowledgeable enough to spot fakes, especially fakes as obvious as those (I once saw him selling a "prototype" iBook for a color that doesn't exist), and anyone who wouldn't be able to spot the difference probably either a) doesn't have enough money for those, or b) isn't interested in a 20 year old computer anyway.
He has an Instagram account and a website, which reveal that (a) he looks nothing like the eBay profile picture (b) he's appallingly bad. He also has a Flickr account.
Like a lot of the most busy people on Flickr he lacks the most important element an artist can possess - self-awareness. Or any kind of critical distance.
Furthermore I suspect he uses G3 iBooks not because they're retro, but because he really hasn't advanced in any way since 2001. Again, Flickr has a lot of people like that. They're relentless! They tend to have accounts on all of the art sites, and they eventually overwhelm the place with badness.
Like a lot of the most busy people on Flickr he lacks the most important element an artist can possess - self-awareness. Or any kind of critical distance.
Furthermore I suspect he uses G3 iBooks not because they're retro, but because he really hasn't advanced in any way since 2001. Again, Flickr has a lot of people like that. They're relentless! They tend to have accounts on all of the art sites, and they eventually overwhelm the place with badness.
That should be illegal they are an endangered species.