Prices for G4s Collapsing?

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
[Please move this thread to CH if it is off topic here.]



Just wanted to see if everyone was noticing the G5's effect on G4 machines! Are we now moving forward at a speed where older Mac's have to be unloaded at cut rates? There are some incredible deals out there:



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...385400-9787938



(PB 12' NEW (without DVI?) with free iSight for $1100)



I don't know as much about the market for older G4's, but I would imagine that prices for older G4 desktops would also be going down rapidly. This could accelerate if faster G5s and powerbooks at MWSF push the fall models into budget territory.



G4 prices seem to be falling accross the board, but I wanted to talk about the broader trend. I wanted to ask people if they think that now that Mac's are advancing more rapidly whether Macs' tendency to have high resale value will be strongly diminished?



I'm not talking about whether Mac's will be ready for the garbage heap after 2 years like PCs, but whether the mentality that has some people still expecting to get $900-1000 for their Pismo G3s and $1000 for a 400 Mhz G4 up until a few months ago is threatened by a sea change.

What happens to the common idea in the Mac community that you get 30-50% of the cost of your new machine by selling your old one? What happens to places that sell upgrades when people start giving up on their older boxes rather than nursing them along for 4-5 years? Is a sea change taking place? Discuss. . . .

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    yevgenyyevgeny Posts: 1,148member
    I don't think that Macs are going to loose alot of their value (and hence not sell for 30-50%), but that what we are seeing is a result of the fact that we are transitioning to a new chip. The G5 makes it difficult to charge more money for a pro G4 because there is no comparison between the two. When a powerbook G5 comes out, you will see a similar price drop for the powerbook G4's.
  • Reply 2 of 2
    chinneychinney Posts: 1,019member
    Lower used G4 prices would be good news for those of us who don't need a G5 and looking to upgrade to a quality used product. I think that I may be in the market in about 6months or so. But I don't think that used G4s will be bargain-basement specials like old PCs. They are still good machines, even with the advent of the G5, and I, personally, expect that they would still fetch a reasonable price.
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