Anyone notice the price increase of G4 minis?

I have been casually looking at buying a G4 mac mini, but as I have watched them the prices have been slowly going up instead of down. I sold my original 1.25Ghz mac mini over a year ago and I would have to spend more than I sold it for to pick one up today.

Your thoughts? Is something driving demand for these that I am not seeing?

There is not any great demand for them that I can see. What sources are you getting this information from?
I would chalk this up to the fact that most people just don't have a very good idea of what used computers are really worth. They always seem to think they are worth much more, so they try to sell them for more.

Regardless of what some people say, eBay is not a good judge of what a fair asking price is. eBay (and the like) may give a good estimate of the current going prices, but those prices are not always the fair price. Still, as long as enough people pay the higher prices then the fair price won't see the light of day.

A 1-2 year old G4 Mini should only cost no more than $350 nowadays. And that is only if the machine has the higher end specs. Stock G4 Minis from the same time frame should cost less... maybe $250. Those are the fair prices. The price should only be higher if extra peripherals are included (monitor, keyboard, mouse..etc).

Interest in Macs in general has gone up lately, so I would assume it is just greedy sellers trying to squeeze out as much as they can from a potential buyer, when the systems they are selling simply aren't worthy of the prices asked.

DB, I think you hit the nail on the head as interest in Macs has gone up lately and that could be making the price rise a bit even on the G4 mini.

I have both my old G4 1.25Ghz Mini and new 1.66 Core Duo and for anything I use a mini for, the Intel one blows the G4 down. In folding it's putting out one WU a day and at least 1000-1500 point WU while the G4 can barely get one 350 pointer done in 5-6 days. Also the G4 mini will not play 1080p HD without dropping frames while the Core Duo is smooth as can be. That is why I bought the intel Mini for my front room to play HD through my Sony WEGA. It works First Rate.

I am sure you can find a G4 mini pretty cheap on Ebay.

I have been mainly going by eBay. I haven't seen many for sale other places. I think eBay is a decent way to find market value, even if that price may not really be a fair price for that item. If you can find someone to pay you more using eBay, you would be crazy to sell it for its "fair value".

Edit: Example: LINKY

mynameis said:

I have been mainly going by eBay. I haven't seen many for sale other places. I think eBay is a decent way to find market value, even if that price may not really be a fair price for that item. If you can find someone to pay you more using eBay, you would be crazy to sell it for its "fair value".

Edit: Example: LINKY

Click to expand...

Agreed, I use Ebay for that also. Will have to check the mini's out there.

That is a bit high even for a sealed 1.25Ghz. More than I would pay anyway. 256Megs RAM! WOW. To much.

Minis in Tokyo are expensive, a G4 1.25 is 60,000 yen, just normal specs and a new mini is 72,000. I have decided to wait a month and buy the intel.

Intel mac minis seem like a much better deal right now. Even though you would have to spend a little more, you would get a lot more.