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My Turn is Low End Mac's column for reader-submitted
articles. It's your turn to share your thoughts on all things
Mac (or iPhone, iPod, etc.) and write for the Mac web. Email your
submission to Dan Knight
.
I thought you might like to hear about my experience in trying to
purchase a bargain Mac.
This week I went to a liquidation auction in deepest Dorset (UK)
in order to purchase one of three G4 Mac's going in the auction. Two
of the three G4s were 450 MHz machines with 128 MB memory, internal
Zip drives, and a basic 15" beige monitor. The other was a 400 MHz,
64 MB machine with a basic monitor.
I got to the auction early to see how auctions work and to see how
much the multitude of PC' also at the auction were selling. Since
there were so many PCs being sold, I thought no-one would be
interested in purchasing the Macs, so I would get some ridiculously
cheap bargains! (Here in Dorset, Macs are not very popular computers
with local schools and businesses all standardized on PCs).
The auction started and some no-name PCs running at 233 MHz
selling for around £70-80. This was encouraging! Next came two
Dell dual-processor 533 MHz servers; these looked like big machines
but only sold for £375 apiece. Next up were some Compaq 450 MHz
PCs with loads of RAM and disk space and 17" monitors; these were
difficult to sell, with the best attaining £240 (the auctioneer
started bids at £200 and refused to take bids for anything
less). Then some Dell computers running at 600 MHz came up; these
were the best specified machines at the auction, but these too
reached only £275!
Finally the G4s came up for bidding. Based on the PC prices and
the general ignorance of Macs in Dorset, I had visions of buying all
three G4s really cheap, perhaps as little as £250 apiece! After
a dry description from the auctioneer, he suggested the starting bid
should be £500! There were loud gasps around the room. No-one
could believe the starting bid; whispers and disbelief abounded. How
could he suggest such a price for one of those Mac things?
Suddenly, someone accepted the bid and the price took off! 520,
540, 580, 600, 650, 680, 700. The final price was around £750 (I
did not hear the final bid, since there was so much chatter and
disbelief by the PC users around me). If you add the 10% auctioneers
payment and the 17% VAT, these were far from the bargains I had hoped
for.
The other two G4s went the same way, and I left empty handed.
Still, it was great to see the PC users learn the lesson that a
secondhand Mac is worth a lot more than a secondhand PC (especially
from the likes of Dell and Compaq).
The moral of the story?
If your company goes into receivership and you need to clear your
debts, make sure you have Macs to sell instead of PCs!
Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.
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