powermac 7200/120

Three years late, but collectors of old Macs are on the forums at 68kmla dot org. They're kind of cheap as a class, but someone will probably pay better than scrap. Keep in mind, that many/most of the older more interesting boards need capacitor replacements and other repairs and you're probably selling them untested.

Most especially, any of the Power Mac 9150 machines and boards are sought after. Also, any equipment from Outbound (old Mac clones). They used a blue wallaby/kangaroo emblem.

We regularly have discussions in which we wish we could hook into the scrap community to intercept and prevent old boards/systems from being scrapped.

Originally Posted by trag

Three years late, but collectors of old Macs are on the forums at 68kmla dot org. They're kind of cheap as a class, but someone will probably pay better than scrap. Keep in mind, that many/most of the older more interesting boards need capacitor replacements and other repairs and you're probably selling them untested.

Most especially, any of the Power Mac 9150 machines and boards are sought after. Also, any equipment from Outbound (old Mac clones). They used a blue wallaby/kangaroo emblem.

We regularly have discussions in which we wish we could hook into the scrap community to intercept and prevent old boards/systems from being scrapped.

Trag,

Thanks for the information. Not to be negative, but it just hasn't made sense to deal with collectors on forums. They are generally extremely specific (picky) about what they want, need it to be thoroughly tested and guaranteed, want documentation/photos/history/etc. Once you jump through all those hoops, they then want to pay pennies on the dollar compared to what you can get on eBay. Maybe my 5-10 communications with collectors are the exception and not the norm, but it just doesn't seem worth my time to bother. I've read many forums where they say the same thing "how to intercept and prevent old boards/systems from being scrapped", but in reality they only want a very small percentage or very specific items. E-scrappers just dont have the time and resources to be the curator of a waste repository that collectors can pick through. I don't know how to solve the problem, but as long as I can sell motherboards to my buyer, i'll make a small effort to pull good ones, but overall i'm cashing in. If your forum wants to provide me a grant to do otherwise, i'm all ears!

Originally Posted by Ecycle Atlanta

but it just hasn't made sense to deal with collectors on forums. They are generally extremely specific (picky) about what they want, need it to be thoroughly tested and guaranteed, want documentation/photos/history/etc. Once you jump through all those hoops, they then want to pay pennies on the dollar compared to what you can get on eBay. !

I understand the general issue there. It's not worth getting $10 more for something if you put $20 more effort into it. So, here's the question, is there some circumstances in which it would make sense/work to pull some machines and/or boards out of your stream for sale to collectors? Would it need to be a bulk kind of deal? Can distinctions be made between models, or does it need to be everything that says Apple on it? How fine can the sorting be?

Collectors, including me, don't know the details of how your business works. Perhaps we can get some scrappers and collectors together and figure out what works for both sides...

If you're selling some stuff on Ebay, you must be willing to put some time into sorting specific items out of your stream... But I agree, and we have told visitors to our Mac forums many times, that they will probably get a better price on Ebay.

Not all collectors are so finicky. Or, not everyone into old Macs is. The folks at 68kmla.org are varied, but there are folks who want some old Macs (for whatever reason) and are willing to put in some effort to fix and maintain them. However, you're right, that also means they're cheaper, because they're the "do it on a shoestring" folks. I'm sure folks here can relate. But you will find folks who will take/buy boards with little more than a photo showing that the board hasn't had a battery explode on it.