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.
