End of TiPB Lease - What to Do?

interactinteract
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
My three year lease on a TiPB is ending very soon. I have to make a decision on the option to buy-out at the end of the month - basically pay even more money to keep the laptop.



I have a Titanium PowerBook 400Mhz G4 (click here to see full specs.)







It came with an external firewire burner that works very, very well. It's a SmartDisk FWCDRW-V8 - best thing is that it doesn't need an external power supply.



I've added some ram (384mb total,) an airport card and upgraded to 10.3 (came with 9.1 and 10.)



Everymac.com estimates the system is worth $1050-$1150 USD, but I know they're usually high.



Here are the issues with the laptop (and I'm being very picky):

- purely cosmetic crack in the cd tray (very minor and only one.)

- one inch scuff on PB and several minor other minor scratches

- the S and DELETE keys on the keyboard have a tendancy to pop off. I use this computer 8+ hours a day and it happens about every two weeks.

- ethernet port. The port is loose and it's a nightmare trying to use an ethernet cable. I bought the airport card to get around this issue and I had almost forgotten about it.

- battery. It will last 60 minutes on the lowest brightness and the lowest processor.



I'm considering the following:



1) Return to laptop. Sell the ram, 10.3, airport card and cd burner.



2) Exercise the buyout option (I believe it's $805 USD) and try to sell the entire system - laptop, ram, 10.3, airport card, cd burner.



3) Keep my baby and have it as a secondary computer. I'm probably getting another 15" PB or the new iMacs.



I'd like to hear some opinions from other people in regards to selling the latop/returning it. Does anyone have a guess what I would get selling it? With the battery and the ethernet port, should I just walk away from the system?



Thanks.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    eBay is your friend
  • Reply 2 of 7
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    You're in Calgary... is that $600 buyout in CDN funds? If so, buy that baby and sell it for sure. You'll make enough money to see some Flames games next season.



  • Reply 3 of 7
    interactinteract Posts: 47member
    Updated the $600 CAN to $805 USD.



    Are you guys sure about selling something with a ethernet port that hates everything and a battery that needs to be replaced?
  • Reply 4 of 7
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    Well, you just almost doubled the buyout price from when I first posted my recommendation...



    I'd do a search on eBay for completed items anyway, sometimes it's surprising what things go for. The ethernet might not be that bad, I can't recall ever using that port in any of my last few PowerBooks...
  • Reply 5 of 7
    progmacprogmac Posts: 1,850member
    i wouldn't buy it out for $805US, that is quite high. i just bought a powerbook 550mhz for $650. what company leases computers? i have never heard of that.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    Actually, they lease computers up here like crazy. That buyout is pretty high though... I'd say a little too high.



    I thought most were 10% buyouts at the end. Hmm.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    escherescher Posts: 1,811member
    I definitely would NOT take the US$800 buyout. For just US$300 more, you can buy an iBook G4/1Ghz, which will beat the pants off your old TiBook. You probably won't get much money by selling the parts you added, but it will still defray some of the cost of a new PowerBook.



    Escher
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