A3000 - what's it worth?

[tonyyeb]

Hi all

Just dug out my old A3000 and was thinking of putting it on ebay. I have no monitor, keyboard, mouse etc... for it. It is bog standard with no upgrades. What could i expect for it?

Thanks

[Zac67]

Have you looked at the battery??
If it's been stored for a couple of years, there might even be severe damage from the leaking battery - better take a look quickly and remove/replace it even if it's OK.

[murple]

Really depends on the condition and any additions it has (or doesn't have). If the battery has leaked that can seriously ruin the motherboard if not completely kill it. The condition of the case and insides makes a difference. The lack of a keyboard and mouse knocks a few bucks off the value. If it has a hard drive, any software on it may matter. Kickstart ROM version might also be a factor.

It will probably sell for enough to make it worth the hassle of ebaying it. As long as you dont expect some unreasonable price it will almost certainly sell. Look at what others on ebay sold for and you'll see... then start bidding real low and watch the bids come in.

[tonyyeb]

Well as far i remember it has no extras. It does have a hard drive and boots to Workbench 2.0. Had a quick look inside and there is no evidence of leaks or damage. It has an FDD and works fine. It will cost £20 ($40) to post in the UK so on top  of that do you think £30 would be reasonable (£50 in total)?

Cheers

[Fixer]

Mate, if it's in working condition and okay cosmetically then an Amiga 3000 is worth more than £30.

I've been looking for one of these myself actually.

Edit: Also, I think eBay is your best bet for these big-box machines (especially in the UK). Amigas can really push for high prices on eBay auctions these days. Just start it of at 50/60/70 quid, show pictures of everything clean/working and that the battery is fine.

Oh and post a link to the auction here. I think you'll get a good price for it. I might bid on it myself!

[tonyyeb]

Fixer wrote:
Mate, if it's in working condition and okay cosmetically then an Amiga 3000 is worth more than £30.

I've been looking for one of these myself actually.

Really? What sort of value would it go for? How much do you want to buy it for ;-)  ?

[alexh]

A bare A3000 with 2Meg RAM and hard drive will usually sell for about £60-80 + p&p

It really depends if it has fast RAM, any other hardware, accelerator etc.

They can go for over £100 for a 2+16 fully populated one.

If it had an accelerator and a gfx card we'd be talking several hundred (£300+)

[Fixer]

alexh wrote:
A bare A3000 with 2Meg RAM and hard drive will usually sell for about £60-80 + p&p

It really depends if it has fast RAM, any other hardware, accelerator etc.

Oh yeah he's correct; I've heard fast ram is rare and hard to find for the A3000.

Has it got any?

[tonyyeb]

Wow! Is it worth keeping hold of it? is it the sort of thing that will go up in value? I love playing with it but i have little software for it and i can do more Amiga stuff with WinUAE than the A3000. It's great to still have a physical link to the Amiga World... just for the day they rule the world once again!  :-D

[tonyyeb]

Fixer wrote:

Oh yeah he's correct; I've heard fast ram is rare and hard to find for the A3000.

Has it got any?

How would i check that? It can boot to Workbench - does it say it in the title bar? Its been a while... forgive me  :-(

[Fixer]

tonyyeb wrote:

Fixer wrote:

Oh yeah he's correct; I've heard fast ram is rare and hard to find for the A3000.

Has it got any?

How would i check that? It can boot to Workbench - does it say it in the title bar? Its been a while... forgive me  :-(

Yeah it's not hard to spot. As soon as workbench is loaded you should see (at the top) how much chip ram you have and something called "Other Memory". That other memory is fast ram. :-)

[tonyyeb]

Cheers, thanks for that. Ill take a look on Monday.

[murple]

tonyyeb wrote:
Wow! Is it worth keeping hold of it? is it the sort of thing that will go up in value?

Unless someone starts making new Amigas, it probably will gradually increase in value. If you want to save it for later sale, remove the battery before storing it!

[alexh]

The prices of Amiga's go up and down in value quite a lot.

To give you a history:

1994 : Amiga's at the height of their prices
1996 : Amiga's at the all time lowest of their prices, everyone trying to sell to buy a PC
1998 : Amiga's continue to fetch low prices, made worse by the introduction of GOOD emulation on the PC.
2001 : Prices start to go up, especially on high-end items such as accelerators. Reason: Remaining Amiga users now have left school/university have good paid jobs and free cash. Ebay has had some affect on price.
2003 : Nostalgia and Retrogaming become popular, those that sold their Amiga's in 1996 all want to buy them back, prices continue to go up.
2007 : Amiga's back almost to their all time highest, bidding fever on ebay coupled with the now high salaries (£20k-40k) of the top end Amiga owners have made £100 affordable. PPC, 060, GFX cards now in great demand.


2010 : Amiga owners get married, computer junk no longer acceptable in the house, prices start to go down as the supply of Amiga's on Ebay outstrips demand.

2012 : Most Amiga owners now feeling the pinch of having 3 kids and a mortgage as interest rates spiral. Everything computer like not essential must be sold to pay the mortgage and university fee's! Prices of Amiga's hit rock bottom.

[Fixer]

alexh wrote:
2010 : Amiga owners get married, computer junk no longer acceptable in the house, prices start to go down as the supply of Amiga's on Ebay outstrips demand.

2012 : Most Amiga owners now feeling the pinch of having 3 kids and a mortgage as interest rates spiral. Everything computer like not essential must be sold to pay the mortgage and university fee's! Prices of Amiga's hit rock bottom.

Lol! Brilliant foresight.