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[Rainier]

I'm leaning quite far in the direction of a Pismo laptop, or, less lean, a G3 iBook.
Ebay is sketchy and my experience buying computers there is checkered.
Anyone bought from "UsedMac.com"?
If so, your take on their service, product descriptions, pricing, etc?
Many thanks.
Rainier in Central Oregon

[Rainier]

My iBook G3, 900 MHz, arrived in the mail today. It was chilled, traveling from warmer southern California to central Oregon.
Plugged it in, turned it on. Mac OS X 10.4 booted. Checked all the specs: yep, it's what I ordered.
The machine is in pristine condition, as is the power brick and cable.
I used UsedMac and I would order from them again.
Right now OS9 is slowly loading from the iBook's CD/DVD drive. No speed records being set on that drive.
I'll keep the 40 GB and 640 RAM for now. Plan to upgrade to an SSD and check if more RAM can be squeezed in somehow. Can't remember the specs on max RAM.
Anyway, UsedMac is recommended.

[smilesdavis]

prices are a joke?

400 for a beige g3

[Knezzen]

Prices are what prices are. There's a finite number of working machines and the person running the site has to test the hardware, host the site, manage inventory, shipping and in the end make a buck or two as well. Prices are very much humane, I would say.

Too bad there's nothing like this in the EU. At least not that I know of.

[MigMac]

Yes it's really bad there's no such retailer here in Europe.

As to prices, they very much depend on what the buyer wants/desires/dreams of. On a personal level, I wouldn't mind spending quite a lot for an enhanced Pismo 500 (SSD, 1Go ram, G4 CPU upgrade?) in great condition (clean screen, working battery -at least for booting and some extra time). The laptop + the parts + the time spent on refurbishing it = quite a sum. I'd go up to 600/700 bucks for that, which is barely more than what you spend on a brand new crappy and ugly PC.

Does it look like a wish ad? lol, yes 

[Bolkonskij]

Thanks for sharing your experience @Rainier. Have fun with your "new" iBook :-)

From a quick glance I have to agree with Knezzen. If you take in the work invested and offerings (I saw there's a 60 day warranty) I'd say prices are quiet civil. Indeed, too bad we don't have something like this in the EU.

[smilesdavis]

Yes it's really bad there's no such retailer here in Europe.

As to prices, they very much depend on what the buyer wants/desires/dreams of. On a personal level, I wouldn't mind spending quite a lot for an enhanced Pismo 500 (SSD, 1Go ram, G4 CPU upgrade?) in great condition (clean screen, working battery -at least for booting and some extra time). The laptop + the parts + the time spent on refurbishing it = quite a sum. I'd go up to 600/700 bucks for that, which is barely more than what you spend on a brand new crappy and ugly PC.

Does it look like a wish ad? lol, yes 

missed on quite recently for 20 bucks

[Rainier]

I spoke with someone there. He said prices were "market driven." i.e. higher price is a product of higher demand.
I paid what I consider a fair price for my iBook. Compared to machines on ebay, this one is clean and has a slight warranty. I'm using the G3 a LOT, figuring if there are weaknesses, they'll show up under load.

[smilesdavis]

no idea about that alleged market but i know ibooks g3 go around 20 eur here

i did once pay 50 for the first iBook G3/500 (Dual USB - Tr) because it came in the box and im stupid but more than 2 digits is imho overpaying

[Bolkonskij]

no idea about that alleged market but i know ibooks g3 go around 20 eur here

That's actually very cheap! These are working units? Where in europe are you located? (since you stated prices in euro) Would you help our community members and ship them in case somebody is interesting?

[laulandn]

That's actually a phenomenal price, if I saw that I'd grab it without thinking!

One thing about the "market driven" prices:  It's collectors that are a factor, and rarity.

That is why what you see at usedmac.com is not related to how powerful/fast the machines are, which would be the case with new equipment.  Especially why a lot of the ones with G3 cpus have higher prices than those with faster G4's in them.

Other than any 20 euro ibooks g3 that you may find out there, the usedmac.com prices seem reasonable, especially since you're getting it from some sort of retailer, as opposed to pressing your luck with ebay.

[smilesdavis]

its a super small "market" of a few collectors. if said collectors are no techheads and have no fun in repairing old units, then a market opens up for repaired units which is even smaller.

personally i started a local repair club with a few very very tech savy individuals that can do everything (designing macintosh portable mainboards from scratch etc)...

20 is my personal maximum since a year to acquire new computers or gear

this is what i got last week

- Apple Power Macintosh 4400/160 **free**
- Apple PowerBook 190/66 **free**
- Apple PowerBook 540 (psu only) **free**
- Apple Power Macintosh G4 1.42 DP (FW 800) boxed **free**
- Roland LAPC-I **free**
- Sound Blaster 16 (CT2230) w/Roland SCB-7 **free** -> i need those for OrangePC386 getting sound and midi out of Logic PC 1.9/2.0 and Cubase PC Audio 1.6 )))
- Emagic LOG2 MAC 20,-
- Emagic Logic Gold for Mac (box, contents, no dongle) v4.0 20,-

it all boils down to 3 things

gg
ez
skill issue

[MigMac]

Usedmac.com... my brief experience 

I contacted them about a Tibook and a Pismo. My first question was about import taxes, custom duties from the US to Europe.

Reply? Two lines, one was "check online" ...

Then I browsed the Pismo page and stumbled upon their options, well, have a look at what they offer (see pic). According to them you can add up to 2GB RAM and have a 1Tb drive ?!?  ? on a Pismo?

Sent another message in which I asked them to clarify. No answer from their sales contact person.



Possible cure for that guy by the name of M.P. (stands for mega punk)

- refrain from selling outside the US

- a compulsory training course in Japan or South Korea to learn at least the basics for customer service.

- one hour session of sports with me. Program? Krav-maga and kneecapping

[Bolkonskij]

No reason to be angry. From my experience, this is just something most Americans have no experience with and are very hesistant to do. (e.g. shipping overseas, customs declaration etc.)

I do agree with you though that it'd be nice if they would simply clearly state "shipping only to the U.S. and Canada" or something like that.

Which brings us again to the topic that it'd be really nice to have such a shop in Europe ...

[MigMac]

I do agree with you though that it'd be nice if they would simply clearly state "shipping only to the U.S. and Canada" or something like that.

The thing is that they actually ship overseas and you can choose Fedex, UPS... if/when you do that, the minimum is to be able to tell customers about taxes even just estimated amounts.

I wouldn't buy stuff from people who claim they can put a 1Tb drive in a Pismo.

[Bolkonskij]

That's a fair point.

[laulandn]

True and good point. 

Hearing "2g of ram" "1tb harddrive" in a Classic system means one of two things:  They REALLY know what they're doing, it's going to be expensive, use harder to find parts, and probably push the thermal limits...or...HUGE red flag.  They may be stuffing parts in that technically work, but are they really testing it enough?  (in real world conditions/use, or just making sure it boots and leaving it sitting running for 24 hours and doesn't crash?) 

If you really need that much ram, that large of a drive, maybe you shouldn't use a Classic system for it, they certainly weren't designed for that originally (def not G3's).  They may work...but...I don't know, can't exactly put my finger on it...  If it were my ONLY computer, yes, but, in a 25 year old machine?  Things like the memory and ide (or scsi) controllers may have issues or bugs just dealing with those large sizes.  They may work, but how stably?

I was thinking good thoughts about usedmac.com up until now, but that, and MigMac's "customer experience" are making me more cautious. 

[MigMac]

I was thinking good thoughts about usedmac.com up until now, but that, and MigMac's "customer experience" are making me more cautious.

This is my experience, other users may have different ones, especially if they had an exchange with another contact person.

I was also thinking that their "options" menu is generic for all computers so maybe they contact you -once you've ordered- and tell you "well, this or that is not possible with the machine you selected...the max we can do for this model is X and Y" idk