WTB: Amiga 3k or 4k system

[irishmike]

Greetings All:

I am having a very hard time finding a system for me.  I would in a heartbeat buy a A1 but the price (as you all know) is very steep for someone with shallow pockets like myself. ;-)

Anyhow, I live in Independence, Missouri (USA) and I am looking for a good A3K with Monitor preferably with at least OS 3.5 on her.  I do not have a lot of money to work with and the less the better (the wife thinks I have lost it).  Anyhow, if you have box you would sell and live within 60 miles of the Kansas City Missouri Metropolitan Area, I would like to hear from you, you may send me a PM here if you have one to sell!

I would be able to trade some parts (PC) as well if you wish and of course I need the price up front so I know whether I can do it or not.  I am looking for the following:

Amiga 3k (or 4k) with a good amt of ram
OS 3.5
Keyboard and Mouse
Color Monitor

What I have for possible trade is:

40 GB (Apple Branded) Seagate ST940110A laptop (2.5) hard drive in excellent condition (currently using for backups of my PC system) afixed to a USB 2.0/IEEE1394 interface that powers off the bus.

20 GB Western Digital WD200  3.5 EIDE Hard Drive (excellent working condition)

a Standard old 52X CD-ROM (not much excitement)

ATI Rage 128 Pro AGP 4x Video Card... think 32 MB RAM

The video card and hard drives are stored in anti-static bags and are definitely good parts!

If you are interested (even if just to buy anything listed above) please PM me.

Hope someone can help me get my machine!

Thanks,

Mike Needham

[Phonic]

Mike, just an FYI...

You may not have to look so close to home for a box system and monitor.
I sell a fair amount of PCs (sorry) in tower cases and they're not that expensive to ship.
Given that I always overpack (thick layer of peanuts/double boxing) to withstand UPS' drop-kick test I've sent mid-tower systems in huge boxes for as little as $16 from VA to NY.

As long as the box is what UPS defines as "Oversize" it works out a lot cheaper than trying to cram as much as possible into a smaller box, so if somebody does have a system a little farther afield you shouldn't worry too much about shipping charges. It will take a lot more in the way of packing materials etc but you should have a greater scope of where you can buy from.

Hope this helps.

[amigadave]

Mike, if you have been reading the forums on this site, you must know that an Amiga A3000 or A4000 is not an inexpensive project for people with shallow pockets.  A500's can be found cheap and expansions for the A1200 are generally cheaper and easier to find than an other Amiga model.  Good luck in your search, but please be realistic about cost.  Amiga's are an expensive addiction.

[dnelsonfl]

Mike,

Amigadave is right. A good, clean 3000 or 4000 is not cheap. Two years ago I picked up a 3000 for $50 and it came fully loaded along with a a3640. That was off Ebay! Now I'm seeing them priced $80 and up, and not always fully loaded. I tried to get a 4000 cheap for a year before finally paying $150 last October for one from somebody from the comp.sys.amiga.marketplace newsgroup. (Google doesn't always seem to refresh the messages often, so you might want to try your ISP's group server for that newsgroup). Another source to check is Amibench. Most of the buyers/sellers are from Europe, but there are quite a few in the US on there now and then as well. Of course, there's always Ebay ... if you're patient and don't mind loosing many an auction to finally win one at your desired price. Expanding your search beyond your 60 miles will also help you in your search. Good luck, and with either system you'll be very happy.

[irishmike]

Hello All:

First off, I do appreciate the insight you all are imparting.  The systems I have seen on Ebay are too high once shipping is considered into the price, not the price itself, though I will absolutely not pay $200 for a 3k.

$80 may not be a problem ;-)

Secondly, I had asked for response if the person responding *had* one to sell and then to please e-mail me what they want to sell it for and I would evaluate whether or not we can do it based on condition and etc!

I am not going into this blind, but now anyone reading this thread knows that $200 is too high but up to that will be entertained and I would like to negotiate some kind of trade as well as stated in my original post.

To the folks that suggested an A500 or A1200, that will not work out for me.  I recently sold an A500 that was just given to me by a friend on Ebay... I definitely need a minimum of a 2500 but prefer a 3000!  I do plan to run OS 4.0 with an adapter card in the future.  Or simply will eventually afford a A1XE or the like if I can't make the 3k go to my liking.  I would like to replace my PC with it.

So, once again re-iterating, I am interested in buying an Amiga 3k (or 4k) I do not have a lot of money to spend, though any computer in good working order is worth a couple of hundred dollars IMHO... as long as it meets my requirements.

Again, I am glad that the community is advising me on this and I do understand, but one must understand that the last 3k on ebay that I bid on was at $168 plus $50 shipping so well over what I will spend.  I do need a local person selling or a resource in the Kansas City Missouri Metro Area to buy one because shipping will make it well out of my range.  Also, I am waiting to hear from a dealer on a used 3K for what the price will be there... the shipping was only $21.00 and that would be reasonable.

So IF YOU HAVE A 3K or 4K THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SELL AND LIVE IN THE KC AREA, I would like to hear from you!

Thanks,

Mike

dnelsonfl wrote:
Mike,

Amigadave is right. A good, clean 3000 or 4000 is not cheap. Two years ago I picked up a 3000 for $50 and it came fully loaded along with a a3640. That was off Ebay! Now I'm seeing them priced $80 and up, and not always fully loaded. I tried to get a 4000 cheap for a year before finally paying $150 last October for one from somebody from the comp.sys.amiga.marketplace newsgroup. (Google doesn't always seem to refresh the messages often, so you might want to try your ISP's group server for that newsgroup). Another source to check is Amibench. Most of the buyers/sellers are from Europe, but there are quite a few in the US on there now and then as well. Of course, there's always Ebay ... if you're patient and don't mind loosing many an auction to finally win one at your desired price. Expanding your search beyond your 60 miles will also help you in your search. Good luck, and with either system you'll be very happy.

[Tomas]

I definitely need a minimum of a 2500 but prefer a 3000!

Are you rating them by the model number or something?? Because i thought that an a1200 was better than an a2500 in pretty much any way. A towerized a1200 is pretty comparable to an a1200 and have loads of expansion cards like powerpc, graphics cards and so on which will enable you to use OS4 once it has been released.

I believe the a1200 is the only one that run OS4 beta so far.

[Oliver]

$150 would be very cheap for a 4000 where I am.  I've never seen one that cheap.  I would happily grab one at that price (or a bit higher).

[vk3heg]

Oliver wrote:
$150 would be very cheap for a 4000 where I am.  I've never seen one that cheap.  I would happily grab one at that price (or a bit higher).

An Amiga 3000 with lots of extra's (memory, serial ports etc). recently went for $455 on ebay aust.


I'm also looking for a A3000 at a good price, as long as there's more than 8mb of ram on the thing, it runs at 25mhz, OS 3.1, keyboard/mouse. the rest is not important... ( i have a couple of 9gig scsi hd's hanging around)

---
Stephen

[Oliver]

vk3heg wrote:
An Amiga 3000 with lots of extra's (memory, serial ports etc). recently went for $455 on ebay aust.

Oh well, Australia is like that.  There are some good deals on 1200's here though.

[irishmike]

Well, Like I say, local would be best and also I have a wife that limits my computer budget ;-)   I was unable to make an A500 work out and decided when I sold that machine that the next minimum would be an A2500.  Obviously, if I could make one of my old Macs work as an Amiga I would do it :-D  Anyhow, I was able to spend $150 on a PC and I managed to pick up a PIII 500 MHZ system which I have doctored up to the current config and have a total of $300 in her... this includes the SATA 120 GB Hard Drive!   Basically she has allowed me the rebates from the new parts for the budget for the Amiga.

Currently, not to gain pity or anything, I have been unemployed for over 3 years now and that really makes the budget tight for me... therefore, I have very little to spend on the Amiga.  Just thought you guys would like to know that I am not being unsympathetic.  Most guys I work with (sell parts to and buy used parts from here in KC) are looking for me as well, they would buy one cheap and then sell it to me if they had one come through, they otherwise would not touch an Amiga at all!

Anyhow, please contact me if you have a 3000 to sell!

[irishmike]

Hello all:

Sold off the trade parts just wanted to make sure that the community knew that they are no longer an option.

Still looking to buy a 3000 and if you have one to sell, please let me know as before.

Thanks,

Mike

[irishmike]

WooHoo!

I just won my eBay auction for an A3000.  Very happy to be getting one.  Ended up a little more than I wanted to spend, but did well.

Just wanted to let everyone know!