How much worth is selling a G5 Tower?

I don't know what to do w/my old G5 now that I just purchased a new iMac. I am thinking on selling for cheap but don't know what to charge for it. I figure someone could at least use it for web n document purposes but it's not very powerful anymore n the harddrive was giving me problems n the fan got loud frequently. How much should I sell one for?
Things to consider:
Needs a new harddrive, has 2GB ram installed.
Can I at least donate it to Apple, do they recycle, buy, what advice can anyone give on.

iMac 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on May 7, 2010 9:21 AM

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3 replies

May 7, 2010 9:58 AM in response to Antone76

I doubt Apple is interested in anything as old as a G5. I believe there is somebody on the forums who refurbishes old Macs and donates them to schools - maybe a Discussions search might turn up the name. For many anything older than two years is considered on its way to obsolete. I recall hearing about schools that basically aren't interested in anything that's older than two years, which makes my jaw drop since I have never owned a computer as young as 2 years.

As for selling, check value on places such as e-bay and Craigslist (CL is good for getting local prices). Also consider what somebody will have to pay to get their hands on a working computer. If I have to pay $40 for shipping, well, I might just look for a computer that is abut $40 more expensive locally since it's all the same in the end (and locally I can at least see it before buying).

If you're going to sell it with an upgraded OS such as Leopard make sure the buyer gets those discs. You're legally required to include them or to erase the upgraded OS. However, even those disc have value. If you're providing a set of retail OS discs, well you could probably get near new value for both Tiger and Leopard retails discs.

No hard drive. Factor in what it'll cost somebody to buy one. For me it is always bottom line cost to me. If I have to buy a drive, pay shipping, etc. then suddenly your computer may cost more for me to have in-hand and working than a more expensive one that comes ready to work (and I don't have to mess with it).

For what it's worth: Mac2Sell offers online estimates for used Apple Macs
http://www.mac2sell.net

Message was edited by: Limnos

May 7, 2010 1:46 PM in response to Antone76

One of my artist friends immediately made an offer to me for my G5 tower when I first got it back. Depending on the graphics card it has installed, it could be rather valuable (I think it's the Radeon card he was looking for, but I forget). If you know any serious artists, you may want to see what they're willing to offer you, they'll probably give you the best price of anyone.

Personally, in the end I decided to keep mine and use it as a central server for my house so that I could save hard disk space on my MacBook by linking to the G5 for my iTunes, documents that several different local computers are going to want access to, and such. To each their own, though, to be sure.

Oh, almost forgot. I don't know if it's still the case, but I know that at one point Apple offered a 10% discount on the purchase of a new Mac if you brought in an old one to trade in for recycling. Pretty sure they still do that for iPods, but like I said, don't know if it is for Macs or not.

Message was edited by: Paul Baptist

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How much worth is selling a G5 Tower?

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