Random anecdote, but I tend to have particularly good luck with poorly-packaged items coming from New York. I think because NY->Bos is a straight-shot with minimal processing.
I love it. I just acquired a 128K (my first) and as anticipated the drive doesn’t physically accept disks. So I’ll be doing one of these soon enough for the first time...
The EZ135 is what I used back in the day. I remember it seeming like the smarter choice. And wow was it incredible to have 135MB cartridges considering I'd been living with a 160MB HDD and floppies.
No trace of them in my possession nowadays... eventually Zip disks became ubiquitous and...
I bought an as-is 800K in an external recently which was fully seized up as well. Ended up needing a heat gun to get it to budge; soaking in isopropyl didn't cut it.
Hah - along with 'Keep Retrocomputing Affordable', which I am loving.
Maybe they're just nobly trying to prevent Johnny G et al from buying them all up and re-selling for massive markup.
Looks lovely all cleaned up!
1.6 GHz is quite the upgrade from stock -- quite a fast G4, especially for one that can run Mac OS 9. It's the upper echelon of native classic performance. Great score there. Useful for all sorts of things.
Recapping does seem prudent as the oldest G4s are getting...
So awesome - loving that 'insert disk' icon. Best of luck with the drive and experiencing the contents of that disk. Perhaps some Lisa fans can help you out with the drive.