Thread

Macintosh Classic II Price

68kMLA 68k 31 posts Feb 23, 2015 to Mar 2, 2015

#1 Mon, 23 Feb 2015 - 03:12 68kMLA

Someone is selling a Macintosh Classic II in my area and they are asking for offers? I know nothing about the machine (I think it works though)

What are they worth? What should I offer him as a fair price?

Thanks

#2 Mon, 23 Feb 2015 - 04:01 68kMLA

Depends on condition and completeness. Boxes and all? Around $100 US maybe. Just the box? $20 US.

#3 Mon, 23 Feb 2015 - 04:17 68kMLA

I don't think he has the box or manuals. Just the Classic II

#4 Mon, 23 Feb 2015 - 04:22 68kMLA

It all depends on the condition. Just the machine, $30-50.

#5 Mon, 23 Feb 2015 - 04:53 68kMLA

If by chance the machine has been re-capped (highly unlikely) it's easily $50-75, maybe more if there's an FPU inside.

(No, I'm not selling my re-capped Classic II with an FPU).

#6 Mon, 23 Feb 2015 - 05:28 68kMLA

30-50$ and also whatever you feel its worth

#7 Mon, 23 Feb 2015 - 13:07 68kMLA

I will say also around 30 $ (including keyboard and mouse) 20 $ for the unit (untested) only.

If the Classic is working (HD) and the case not too yellow..a bit more.

#8 Mon, 23 Feb 2015 - 23:51 68kMLA

Classics aren't really worth all that much as they're neutered of any internal expansion. A Classic II is basically an SE/30 without a PDS slot and less ram expandability.

#9 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 - 00:15 68kMLA

Actually a Classic II is an LC with an internal display, it has the same GLU as ive seen.

#10 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 - 02:02 68kMLA

Wish we saw those sorts of prices in Australia for the Classic II. They seem to go for about AU$100+ most of the times I see them.

#11 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 - 02:46 68kMLA

The Australian market is different though, the stuff is much more rare than it is here.

#12 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 - 03:31 68kMLA

Thanks, I got an email from the guy selling the Mac Classic II and he had to pull the ad because when he want to set it up, it did not turn on.

He wants to fix it before posting it again. I am guessing bad caps or something.

#13 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 - 04:00 68kMLA

techknight said:
The Australian market is different though, the stuff is much more rare than it is here.

Yup.

I'm tempted to import a working pizza box. Shipping would be high but not as bad as for a compact.

#14 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 - 04:30 68kMLA

toholio said:
Wish we saw those sorts of prices in Australia for the Classic II. They seem to go for about AU$100+ most of the times I see them.

Yeah but on eBay - where you shouldn't buy compact Macs

And they were very common Macs in the days in schools due to a Coles supermarket promotion, at least in Victoria.

#15 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 - 05:33 68kMLA

Byrd said:
Yeah but on eBay - where you shouldn't buy compact Macs And they were very common Macs in the days in schools due to a Coles supermarket promotion, at least in Victoria.

Where's the best place to look? The occasional one comes up on the MacTalk vintage sub-forum but I've never seen one at a garage sale or the like.

I know there must be a lot of them tucked away in garages...

#16 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 - 09:39 68kMLA

Gumtree, or eBay at "bad times" (eg. auctions ending on weekends, early morning etc); Classics certainly go cheap

http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_odkw=classic+ii&LH_PrefLoc=1&_fln=1&_sop=10&_catref=1&LH_Complete=1&_from=R40%7CR40&LH_Sold=1&_osacat=11189&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xclassic.TRS0&_nkw=classic&_sacat=11189

I'd not bother with a Classic II personally unless you need it to complete the entire line, just look for an SE/30 + keep a spare SE/ for parts.

#17 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 - 17:00 68kMLA

I haven't seen a working Classic II in the $30-50 range in Canada (Ontario) in quite a while . . . I've been looking, but everyone seems to want at least CAD$100, even on Kijiji and Craigslist, never mind ebay prices. About 10 years ago I would often see working compact Macs for $30-50, but those days seem to be gone. Maybe if you luck out in a garage sale, but it seems as if neighbourhood recycling drives have cleaned up a lot of old computer equipment (which is where a large part of my electronics horde went a couple years back). The Ottawa computer recycling place had insane prices for used junk last I looked. I know they are often cheaper in the US, but exchange and shipping makes up the difference in price pretty quickly. Maybe I just don't know were to look or don't look intensively enough to find the deals. If anyone wants to point in a better direction to look, I'm all ears! It would be nice to pick up an SE/30 for a reasonable price one of these days . . . .

#18 Thu, 26 Feb 2015 - 23:13 68kMLA

Byrd said:
I'd not bother with a Classic II personally unless you need it to complete the entire line, just look for an SE/30 + keep a spare SE/ for parts.

In my case it's mostly for nostalgia reasons. You know that feeling when other models just don't feel quite right?

#19 Thu, 26 Feb 2015 - 23:35 68kMLA

I sold a recapped Classic II to a forum member back in 2010 for $83 half of which was shipping. The prices bounce up and down quite a bit.

#20 Fri, 27 Feb 2015 - 02:27 68kMLA

Well Now is the time to sell. its tax time and everyone has somewhat expendable income.

#21 Fri, 27 Feb 2015 - 04:40 68kMLA

OK so I got it. It was not working as stated before. Had the Vertical Bars White/Black. However a quick wash got it going again. Looks like it will need a recap. However other than that it seems to be working quite well. I paid $60 which for Canada/Calgary prices I think is OK (we don't have as many available). Came with a very yellowed keyboard and Mouse.

I know it is a poor mans SE/30 but its actually quite snappy. 8 MB Ram 60 MB Hard Drive

#22 Fri, 27 Feb 2015 - 06:04 68kMLA

I don't know why, but the Classic II has always visually appealed to me in a way that other compacts don't.

#23 Fri, 27 Feb 2015 - 07:41 68kMLA

It's a cool machine if you don't want to upgrade a compact and it looks better than the pre-SE models.

#24 Fri, 27 Feb 2015 - 08:13 68kMLA

I like the II form factor also. Its a very clean design and one of the first with the curved styled front. (well the Classic, not the II specifically) That front curve styling was carried into the first round of G3s.

#25 Fri, 27 Feb 2015 - 09:01 68kMLA

Nice, some things i like about the Classic II

- it has an ASC I/C

- It has a mic in port

- With a hacked off 50 pin scsi cable and and FPU, and a lot of patience one could install a FPU.

- I think its a sick fast 6.0.8L Machine.

- SCSI I/C seems to be really fast, So, because of the limitation of ram, you can compensate by using virtual ram, and a 10,000 rpm 8mb cache hard drive and you can pretty much have as much ram as you want with almost no slowness.

- might make a good Unix machine?

- i like how its impossable for the screen brightness to be less then visible.

- Revision 1 board, I have a programmer capable of making a modified rom for this rev. Thanks to Dougg3!

#26 Sat, 28 Feb 2015 - 21:31 68kMLA

Classic II is the only compact Mac I own ... or ever owned. Really liked messing around with it, and have it running on OS 7.55. With an adapter that cost more than the computer itself, I can get it online and browse the internet with an older browser. Also have it hooked up to a SCSI CD-ROM drive (also more expensive than the computer).

#27 Mon, 2 Mar 2015 - 02:08 68kMLA

So I have been playing with my Classic II for a couple days now, and honestly I can't find 1 thing that it can do that my SE can't. I mean it has the 68030 so it should play better/more games etc. But I have not found a good game or app that works better on the Classic II that does not work on the SE. In fact some older games like Lemming don't work because of speed issues.

For a while I had high hopes for Speculator the Spectrum Emulator but it is so slow its unplayable. I am guessing its still to slow for NES/Gameboy emulation?

Anyone doing something cool with their Classic II that won't work on the 68000 line (give me an excuse to play with it)

Thanks

#28 Mon, 2 Mar 2015 - 05:01 68kMLA

If you're looking outside the scope of games, a Classic II is far better for productivity programs, especially newer ones like Word 5.1 (which runs on an SE but runs much better on a Classic II). Some games do run smoother (Battle Chess is the one that comes to mind for me) but I think you'll notice the most improvement in productivity software.

Try playing some sound files on it. Convert something recent to the System 7 format, then play it. I remember doing this with an SE/30 once, so a Classic II can handle it just fine.

You can test the limits of your Classic II by installing 7.6 on it (the SE can only go up to 7.5.5). Alternately, find 6.0.8L and watch it scream. Personally, I like mine as a 7.5 box since it's a fast enough Mac to handle it (mine has 10MB RAM, which you'll need if you want to max out the System).

If you want an add-on, track down a FastMath Classic II math coprocessor. They're rare, but worth every penny if you want to use it for something which requires them. Again, you'd be doing it more for proof of concept these days, but it would give you something to play with on this machine.

EDIT: Just saw the above comment about the mic port. Find a microphone and give it a try

#29 Mon, 2 Mar 2015 - 06:19 68kMLA

I love my Classic II, but its mostly for sentimental reasons.

#30 Mon, 2 Mar 2015 - 22:07 68kMLA

My Classic II is kind of love-hate. So far, it's been very high maintenance--I've recapped the logic board, and partially recapped the Analog Board. It's very stable now, but I still haven't managed to track down everything wrong with it (the sound is still highly distorted, even through the headphone port).

It's a great machine to have around, though, especially thanks to the 1.4MB floppy drive which you can use to write disk images downloaded from the web to 400/800k floppies for older Macs. It's also very responsive running 7.0.1 and plays a darn fine round of Crystal Quest!

#31 Mon, 2 Mar 2015 - 22:22 68kMLA

A Classic II was the first Mac I ever owned. I miss it dearly.