Compact Macintosh Value? Plus, SE, SE/30

[ZaneKaminski]

I recently stumbled upon a collection of 68k Macs for sale: two Plus, an SE, an SE/30, along with 4 IIsi and 4 LC. Plus a few Apple IIGS, disk drives, etc.

I'm a pretty experienced designer of PCBs, so I know how to inspect the condition of the logic boards and make sure the machines are in good condition or at least easily fixable.

My plan is to buy them, repair any outstanding faults, replace capacitors with new electrolytics, and then resell, hopefully turning a profit which will pay for the development of a future 68k Mac project.

Now, my question is, you see Plus and SE models priced at ~$100 on eBay. My suspicion is that this is pretty overpriced, that the sellers re-list and re-list until someone pays their price. I was hoping to sell the Plus and SE for around $60, new caps and all. Is this reasonable? And what about the LC and IIsi models? Are those in demand at all?

 

[EagleTG]

I've picked up my fair share of all of the LC series for between $25 and $40.  All of these wind up needing capping.

The toaster Macs are "generally" under $100.  Most of them vary between $40 and $75 depending on condition, included accessories, functional status, etc.  The SE/30 trends higher, maybe $100 or so (again depending on condition, accessories, functionality).  The original 128k being the most expensive of the lot in my experience, the price of which also seems to be wildly variable.  Color Classics are also higher.

Your suspicion is correct, eBay sellers are generally higher.  One nice tip, if you go to eBay and do an advanced search/filter you can flag "Sold Items" which will give you an idea of what people are paying for stuff.  Keep in mind, shipping cost is generally a concern as well and probably figures into the buyer's bid amount.

Good luck!

 

[EvilCapitalist]

Without including shipping, this is the breakdown I've seen in the past few months:

Common machines

Plus - ~$50, more if they include a keyboard and mouse since those aren't as common as the ADB variety, if you have a kb/mouse/HD you'll see them up to ~$100.  Once you get into original condition with accessories and a box in good shape you can touch nearer to $200

SE - ~$50, including a kb/mouse don't seem to make much of a difference.  Add a box and accessories and it gets over $100 fast.  These shouldn't need caps (except maybe the analog board) so recapping here probably won't net you anything additional.

SE/30 - ~$50-75 if broken or on original caps, ~$150 if recapped.

Classic / Classic II - ~$75 if working and recapped.  These have gotten a lot cheaper recently.

Less common machines

Originals - ~$250 if working, more when you add accessories and the boxes

512Ks - ~$100 if working

Color Classics - ~$150 if dead/not recapped, ~$250 if recapped and fully working

Color Classic IIs - I've only seen a handful hit eBay in the past few years and they all were gone pretty fast.  Prices were all above $500.

For the non-compacts, LCs are cheap and plentiful though they all need recapping.  You don't see the IIsi all that often but it usually stays under $100 unless it comes with a portrait display.  The IIgs can go for quite a fair amount if you've got the 3.5" and 5.25" drives, a monitor, good add-on cards, and more than the base amount of RAM.

The takeaway is that machines in fully working order with accessories always go for noticeably more than bare machines.  Recapping helps but only with the desirable models that actually need it.  Accelerators also lead to a bump but not as much as when they're sold separately from the machines.  Something you'll notice if you spend a fair amount of time on eBay is that it's the same few sellers listing consistently high buy-it-now auctions.  It's even worse now that eBay doesn't say if something sold for a best offer price instead of the list price (for auctions where that is offered).  If you filter out the buy-it-now listings and go for just the auctions you get a much clearer picture of what something can fetch reliably and I would use those figures when you're calculating whether this endeavor will be worthwhile.

 

[EagleTG]

It also depends how much you value your time and/or enjoy working on the machines.  For me, I'm OK not making a whole lot on resale, as I enjoy the process of repairing the machines.  Once they are up and running, I tend to enjoy them far less.  LOL

 

[ZaneKaminski]

Thanks for the advice. Your note on pricing, E.C., was very helpful. I bought the machines and I will make another thread about my efforts to repair them. Some of the machines are in excellent condition, whereas others are really poor.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Wow. I should get my Color Classic II back up and running!

 

[ZaneKaminski]

Yeah, I had no idea how much they were worth. I always found the Color Classic ugly. It and the Quadra 800, they kind of look like llamas. Man, I wonder if anyone has fit a Color Classic into an SE case, or performed a color SE/30 mod.

 

[joethezombie]

Llamas?



Well I'll be damned!

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Joe, this is hilarious! I can't stop laughing. It's hard to write and laugh at the same time. 

Yeah, I had no idea how much they were worth. I always found the Color Classic ugly. It and the Quadra 800, they kind of look like llamas. Man, I wonder if anyone has fit a Color Classic into an SE case, or performed a color SE/30 mod.

I don't like the Colour Classic that much myself too. I think it looks too much internally and externally to the LC575 range. But hey that's my opinion. 

I wanted to create a true Colour Classic (classic case with color screen) but you cannot fit a color CRT in there. The only way you can add a color screen to one of these is to fit a LCD... But it won't look legit. Joe and I had other ideas. Have a look at it here.

 

[Bunsen]

fit a Color Classic into an SE case, or performed a color SE/30 mod.

The major difficulty there is that the colour CRT (and as far as we can tell to date, this is true of all colour CRTs that size) is too long front to back for any other compact Mac case but the CC.

 

[ZaneKaminski]

Hmmm, I couldn't bear to tear out the CRT and put an LCD behind the glass. Too bad the color tubes won't fit. About the llamas, I meant the way that the Quadra 800 and Color Classic have rounded legs, and then the Color Classic has a "head" that sticks up too.