Appropriate price for laptop: second-hand Mac Powerbook 150
Shown in message
Hello,
[hope you don't mind cross-posting; it's only 2 groups...]
I'd like your opinion on what an appropriate price would be for a
second-hand Macintosh Powerbook 150. Specs: 4MB RAM (!), 100MB HDD, 68030
33MHz CPU.
I believe Apple first sold them in 1994, so they're relatively dated now.
However, I've had the chance to "try before you buy" - used email, telnet
and FTP, with my external 14k4 modem; it actually went really well. Same
with wordprocessing (using ClarisWorks 2.1; software of similar vintage).
Although the screen is passive matrix, it is really clear and quite nice
to use.
No heavy requirements would be placed on it; only those alluded to above.
(BTW: no correspondence re: Mac vs PC advocacy will be entered into!)
Thanks in advance!
Ralph Wahrlich
Please also email replies to:
ralph <at> geo <dot> vuw <dot> ac <dot> nz
Ching Yi Tsai
> I'd like your opinion on what an appropriate price would be for a
> second-hand Macintosh Powerbook 150. Specs: 4MB RAM (!), 100MB HDD, 68030
> 33MHz CPU.
I think $300 - $400 will be a reasonable price, depending on the
condition
of the machine. I owned a 150 when I started University 6 years ago.
Good
little machine that does it's job.
Good luck!
Bruce Hoult
ra...@real-email-below.die.spambot.die (Shown in message) wrote:
> Hello,
>
> [hope you don't mind cross-posting; it's only 2 groups...]
>
> I'd like your opinion on what an appropriate price would be for a
> second-hand Macintosh Powerbook 150. Specs: 4MB RAM (!), 100MB HDD, 68030
> 33MHz CPU.
Bear in mind that you'll be able to increase the RAM size if you want
(I've got a Mac Duo 230 which is also a 68030 at 33 Mhz and I bumped it
out to 12 MB which is quite comfortable for even Netscape 4.0x), but you
*WON'T* be able to find a 2.5" SCSI hard disk to replace the 100 MB one it
has. It's this factor which finally prompted me to get a newer laptop
(266 MHz "G3" ... very nice).
> I believe Apple first sold them in 1994, so they're relatively dated now.
Even more than that -- the 150 is a cut down cheap version of what they
first started making in October 1991 (the 140 at 25 MHz with a passive
screen and 170 at 33 MHz with an active matrix screen).
> However, I've had the chance to "try before you buy" - used email, telnet
> and FTP, with my external 14k4 modem; it actually went really well. Same
> with wordprocessing (using ClarisWorks 2.1; software of similar vintage).
> Although the screen is passive matrix, it is really clear and quite nice
> to use.
If you're happy that you can do what you want to do then that's what
counts. If it's in good shape, nothing broken, and the battery works OK
then I'd say somewhere between $250 and $500 would be fair. You didn't
mention things such as if it's got the internal modem (and how fast) etc
which might put it towards the top end of that scale. (I've got a 19k2
modem in the Duo)
-- Bruce
Ralph Wahrlich
Good point:
- I think battery is pretty clapped-out; after a minute or so on battery
only, the machine just died - not even a warning from the OS!
- no sign of an internal modem - in other words, I can't see any
phone-type socket on the machine
- the keys are a tiny bit "sticky" - that is, some of them need a bit more
pressure. They still seem electrically okay though. It would be nice to
remedy this; does anyone know of some product that cleans/lubricates the
moving parts of computer keys? I envisage a spray-can product or something
like that.
Maybe $300? ($400?...)
Also, there is a HP Deskwriter 600 for sale with the laptop, I forgot to
mention that. Looks like a dirty print head/cartridge or something;
there's a bunch of scan lines missing from the print. Other than that,
looks like quite sharp printing. Maybe $100-150 for the printer??
Ralph
> > I'd like your opinion on what an appropriate price would be for a
> > second-hand Macintosh Powerbook 150. Specs: 4MB RAM (!), 100MB HDD, 68030
> > 33MHz CPU.
<snip>
Patrick Ford
> - the keys are a tiny bit "sticky" - that is, some of them need a bit
more
> pressure. They still seem electrically okay though. It would be nice to
> remedy this; does anyone know of some product that cleans/lubricates the
> moving parts of computer keys? I envisage a spray-can product or
something
> like that.
Don't try it! Youll probably change it from sick to dead. The kb needs to
be dismantled and the conductive elastomers and the pcb contact pads
cleaned. It's not difficult, buut it takes a bit of time
> Maybe $300? ($400?...)
For that condition--$75. $300 would be top price for one in perfetct
condition, and well featured.
> Also, there is a HP Deskwriter 600 for sale with the laptop, I forgot to
> mention that. Looks like a dirty print head/cartridge or something;
> there's a bunch of scan lines missing from the print. Other than that,
> looks like quite sharp printing. Maybe $100-150 for the printer??
What? That's not much less than you can get a new one for!
Considering that it could die at any moment, probably $50 would be enough.
--
+ =================================+
|| Patrick Ford
|| Auckland,
|| Gnaw Thighland, NZ
||(there aren't really any xs in my email address)
+ =================================+