Second hand ibook, anything to beware?

Hi everyone, I m a newbie to the mac world, so i decide to get an ibook off ebay, just to see what mac is really about, so is there anything i should be aware of?

oh its a 800MHz ibook G4, 384MB Ram, 30 GB hard drive

check that the seller has good feedback .... the higher the number of feedback ratings the more experienced a seller they most probably are. I wouldn't buy such an item from a new seller with little or no feedback.

Research the iBook you like and see what kind of inherent problems if any, it might have.

Does it come with original system install discs? While not essential, you will need to consider purchasing these as with any 2nd hand system, you're bound to need them.

What are the original machine specs compared to the specs of the one for sale on eBay ... are you buying a upgraded Mac, like, has there been more RAM added, or a larger HD, or any added bonuses ?? Don't worry about what software is installed as you shouldn't buy the Mac for the installed software IMHO.

Look at as many of this particular type of Mac as you can, on eBay, to see if you are paying a reasonable price. It helps to see what other people are selling and what they are asking.

Be aware of the terms and conditions .... read them carefully to see whether you are buying 'As Is' or if there is a 'DOA' clause.

Wrapping up, you should ask as many questions as possible. This also establishes a sort of rapport of sorts with the seller and you can gauge there attitude sometimes, which is certainly useful.

It is risky, but if you are careful you can pick up bargains.

Oh, I nearly forgot .... beware of what's known as "Shill Bidding". To me, that's anyone bidding on the item that has 0 feedback next to their username. There are many occasions where the final price has been inflated due to these fake bidders pushing up real buyers bids ...


Finally, there's this:

Last-minute bidding

Placing a high bid in the closing seconds of an auction-style listing is called “sniping” within the eBay Community. Sniping is part of the eBay experience, and all bids placed before a listing ends are valid - even if they're placed one second before the listing ends.

To help avoid disappointment, ensure that the maximum bid you enter on the item page is the highest price that you're willing to pay. The eBay bidding system automatically increases your bid up to the maximum price you specify, so entering a higher maximum may help prevent you from being outbid in the closing seconds of a listing.

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What Spawn said. The G4 iBook is (was) a decent little machine, it ain't gunna blow your doors off, but it works pretty well. Two things to ask about, at that age the battery is about run out of useful life. Ask the owner to go to About This Mac, More Info, Power and find out the cycle count. Anything near 500 has run out of gas.
Second, make sure you get the original system installation disks, if the owner still has them. Good luck!

Thanks for the tips, well the seller is pretty good, and the ibook does come with the original restore discs, with reasonable price (since it doesnt include the airport extreme)
Oh so anything that i need to be aware of once i receive the ibook, like i should check that program/reinstall the whole OS before i try anything.

PS: i know its unwise to buy from ebay without actually see the object that you are buying, but thats the budget i got, toooooo bad i spent most of my money on a new PC just before i found out how wonderful Mac is =P Well if i enjoy the ibook i will make sure my next computer will be a brand new Mac.

Oh to Sherman: i dont think the owner is the actual owner, that ibook is probably a ex-lease one, he is selling the lot of them, like 5 in last month and 5 this month.

I have bought a few Macs off eBay and haven't had any real problems. Like I said, if you're careful, do your homework and don't overspend too much on the purchase, you can get a good deal.

If you have the original System Install Discs I personally would wipe the HD and do a fresh installation, which would involve zeroing out the HD data.

I've picked up Macs which came preinstalled with all kinds of goodies like MS Word for Mac, Photoshop etc but I'd rather just clean the system up than leave it as I find it just to have those apps. Besides the license issues, sooner or later if you have to do an install, you will lose them anyway if you don't have the software discs ...

That's fine, leased, owner whatever. If the seller knows what s/he is doing they will have wiped the disk so that no info from the previous user will be left over. If that hasn't happened, just run the installer, choose to reformat and start new. You don't know where that 'Book has been!

Sherman Homan said:

Ask the owner to go to About This Mac, More Info, Power and find out the cycle count. Anything near 500 has run out of gas.

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This is a good thing to know. I wasn't aware of this point as I use Desktops. But I have bought portables with various battery conditions.

Is there any risk with running a portable that has a dead battery or one with little if any charge? I always run it from the Mains but I know the battery does have some charge but do wonder if keeping such a battery installed is a bad or poor practise ....

Hey guys, got my ibook haha. what a beauty......ummm but got a question now, well i dunno if i need to reinstall the OS again, because the ibook comes with the registration page, so is that mean the previous owner has done a fresh re-install of the OS?? So should i re-install again, is there anything like a spyware for mac?

I just saw this thread today... and it would appear that had I seen it sooner, my advice would have helped.

Never buy a computer unless it comes with the ORIGINAL (not copies) install/restore discs for ALL of the software included... OS included.

If it is at the registration page, then it is a clean install. Do you have the original discs?

D3v1L80Y said:

I just saw this thread today... and it would appear that had I seen it sooner, my advice would have helped.

Never buy a computer unless it comes with the ORIGINAL (not copies) install/restore discs for ALL of the software included... OS included.

If it is at the registration page, then it is a clean install. Do you have the original discs?

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Yeah i do, it comes with 3 OS discs, 4 software restore and a worldbook plus a hardware testing thing, Umm so registration page means a clean install, is that mean i dont have to re-install myself, since i ve done a whole lot of updates anyway thanks for the help

PS: Oh guys, if i do wish to install the OS again. how should i do it?

Installing the OS is pretty straight forward, whack the disc in and boot from it then following the on screen instructions. If you want to totally erase all the data then install the OS just put the disc in boot from it then go to utilities, disc utility and erase the just proceed with the install, that's how i do it there maybe a simpler way.
Oh and there isn't any "spyware" as such that infect Macs well nothing to worry about

nirvana said:

Installing the OS is pretty straight forward, whack the disc in and boot from it then following the on screen instructions. If you want to totally erase all the data then install the OS just put the disc in boot from it then go to utilities, disc utility and erase the just proceed with the install, that's how i do it there maybe a simpler way.
Oh and there isn't any "spyware" as such that infect Macs well nothing to worry about

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Coool no spyware hahaha, way better than PC........oh right one more question, so its install the OS first and then the software discs right? And its funny that the OS 10.3 only comes with 3 discs while the softwares comes with 4 discs

what software discs are they?

Sillykid86 said:

Coool no spyware hahaha, way better than PC........oh right one more question, so its install the OS first and then the software discs right? And its funny that the OS 10.3 only comes with 3 discs while the softwares comes with 4 discs

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I'm not sure if I know what your referring to. But if you mean the reinstall disks versus the os 10.3 installation. The reason the reinstall disks come with 4 disks is because the reinstall disks come with your ilife software and other programs. If you use an OS disk to wipe your drive instead of upgrading or using the original disks you run the risk of losing ilife. So...thats another thing I would check before you reinstall, check to see if you have the ilife disks.

That's why we always say to use the upgrade option in leopard instead of erase and install.

ummmm sorry for the confusion guys, my ibook comes with 3 OS X install discs, and then there are 4 ibook G4 software restore discs, a hardware testing disc and a world book, so i was wondering if i m going to run a clean install, i should run the OS X disc first, and then the software restore discs right?>

PS: since its all me asking question, one more question then, people told me they usually just put the mac to sleep instead of shuting it down, well i m PC guy for most of my life and when i finish with my PC i usually shut it down, so how is mac differ from that, is it bad to shut my mac down all the time?

Thanks

I always shut down my mac when I'm finished with it i can see no reason why shutting down your mac is bad. If you wanted to do a totally fresh install i.e getting rid of everything then you would need to do what i said above. Just ensure that software like iLife etc is all on the on the other discs so once you have finished installing the OS you can install all the other software.

nirvana said:

I always shut down my mac when I'm finished with it i can see no reason why shutting down your mac is bad. If you wanted to do a totally fresh install i.e getting rid of everything then you would need to do what i said above. Just ensure that software like iLife etc is all on the on the other discs so once you have finished installing the OS you can install all the other software.

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Thanks mate.

PS: again one more question, NeoOffice and Open office, which one is better

Never used them sorry

nirvana said:

Never used them sorry

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no worries, so what office suite do u use?>

Microsoft (i got it for free) otherwise i would probably open office