$25 PowerBook 190CS with 32MB RAM expansion

[androda]

Perhaps not as cool as some of the other conquests here, but I recently bought a PowerBook 190CS 'for parts' from eBay. (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Apple-Macintosh-PowerBook-190cs-Powers-on-Parts-or-Repair/263974755872)

Upon receipt of the laptop, I took it apart and what do you know?  A 32MB RAM upgrade card!  I was expecting none at all, or at most a 4MB one.  

I suspect that the floppy drive may be bad because it's not reading my boot disks.  Need to make another one and see what happens.  Anyone remember whether the 190 needs a system enabler?  If the floppy drive doesn't work, I'm not too worried.  Should be able to boot from PCMCIA or SD/CF to IDE.

Mostly I'm just excited about the RAM card.  Those things are expensive.

 

[Solvalou]

Nice find, these things have absolutely rocketed in value lately. I almost had a heart attack seeing a PB 145 going for over £100 here in the UK, and mines in better shape and in an original bag!

Is it just me or are pretty much every Macintosh system going up alot lately? I can't even see the crappy early PPC models for peanuts anymore. Atleast here in Europe.

 

[androda]

I think it's mostly the 'eBay effect' where the seller has to charge more.  eBay takes 10% of the final sell price including shipping.  So people are incentivized to mega overcharge.

 

[CC_333]

I think it's mostly the 'eBay effect' where the seller has to charge more.  eBay takes 10% of the final sell price including shipping.  So people are incentivized to mega overcharge.

I hate that.

It's not just the cost of old Macs, though; EVERYTHING has skyrocketed in price over the last few years. And with some of the "stuff" going on lately, prices are set to go up even more over the next year or two.

c

 

[Unknown_K]

What sellers charge means nothing, it all boils down to what a buyer is willing to pay. Supply of decent machines has dried up, it only gets worse from here on out.

 

[Franklinstein]

What sellers charge means nothing, it all boils down to what a buyer is willing to pay. Supply of decent machines has dried up, it only gets worse from here on out.

A pile of useless plastic today is a retirement fund tomorrow. 

Nostalgia is often blamed for driving a lot of the increase in price of many things that previously sold for peanuts, from cars to computers. My step-dad was issued a Classic and a PowerBook 1x0 of some sort for temporary telework in 1995ish. I remember using the Apple IIe and beige Macs (pizza-box LCs and 52/5300 series, mostly) in elementary and middle school to play Oregon Trail or The Playroom. The computer lab's fanciest machine in 1998 was a beige G3 desktop (running OS 8 with the beach wallpaper) and the instructor's new favorite search engine was called Google. In high school the only Macs were for the creative kids, and they had a few newer models including the AIO G3, B&W G3, and an iMac or two. Lucky for me I have at least one of all of these machines so if nostalgia hits, I can easily satisfy it. For others, it can be a more expensive proposition as time goes by.

 

[ArmorAlley]

Upon receipt of the laptop, I took it apart and what do you know?  A 32MB RAM upgrade card!  I was expecting none at all, or at most a 4MB one.  

 A while back, a lucky forum member bought an SE/30 only to find an Xceed Micron grayscale card in it. The seller hadn't known and sold the SE/30 for its going price. What came to mind were the golden tickets from 'Charlie and the Chocolate factory'.

 The rare, high-end goodies *are* out there and you can either pay the obscene prices for them when they occasionally turn up or you can collect as many Macs as you can and hope that a golden ticket lies within.

 Congratulations on your find. It will make Mac OS 8.1 a lot easier to use.

 

[LaPorta]

I hate that.

It's not just the cost of old Macs, though; EVERYTHING has skyrocketed in price over the last few years. And with some of the "stuff" going on lately, prices are set to go up even more over the next year or two.

c

You should see pinball machines. I got mine for $500 from a local guy and restored it. EBay sellers try and sell the same machine for $2k in worse shape than I originally got mine.

 

[just.in.time]

I suspect that the floppy drive may be bad because it's not reading my boot disks.  Need to make another one and see what happens.  Anyone remember whether the 190 needs a system enabler?  If the floppy drive doesn't work, I'm not too worried.  Should be able to boot from PCMCIA or SD/CF to IDE.

The 190/5300 shipped with some middle version of 7 (7.5.3 maybe?). At any rate, as long as you use one version later you shouldn’t need to worry about enablers. Any Disk Tools disk from 7.6/7.6.1 or 8.0/8.1 should work without any special setup.

Congrats on the sweet find!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

If you have any other PCMCIA PowerBook, get and adapter and SD card to set up a general purpose Boot/Utility/App drive for one of the slots. I have a one set up for testing/troubleshooting my PowerBooks.