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From: steve@violet.berkeley.edu (Steve Goldfield)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Upgrade/Trade-in Prices--New Apple Printers
Message-ID: <1991Apr1.230125.15672@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 1 Apr 91 23:01:25 GMT
References: <17361@venera.isi.edu> <4903@lib.tmc.edu>
Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
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In article <4903@lib.tmc.edu> drg@mdaali.mda.uth.tmc.edu (David Gutierrez) writes:
#>In article <17361@venera.isi.edu> jas@ISI.EDU (Jeff Sullivan) writes:
#>> Does the recent dropping of IIfx prices presage a drop in the high
#>> cost of the II->IIfx upgrade (the onyl upgrade available to "classic"
#>> Mac II owners)?
#>
#>No - or not yet, anyway. Apple's latest price list (which has the 
#>new-reduced IIfx prices) has the IIfx upgrade at the same price.
#>
#>David Gutierrez

Apple is currently also offering trade-ins and upgrades on
some institutionally purchased equipment. I could trade
in my Mac II for $1500 and get an fx for $5K, the difference
is more than the logic board upgrade even if I also bought
the HDFD. I pointed this out to our local Apple rep;
she said she would look into it. Apple also did not offer
to take monochrome monitors as trade-ins; the rep said
she would also investigate that since trading up monitors
could be a good idea for many people.

Another example of the poorly thought through trade-in
offer; we have a Mac Plus. Apple is offering $250 as
trade-in value (minus $50 because the university's name
is inscribed on the case; all university equipment is
supposed to be inscribed). Why would anyone take $200
for a functioning Plus, even given all its limitations?

As I told the rep, the idea of trading in old equipment
and upgrading is attractive, but only if the prices
make some sense.

Incidentally, I also looked at the two new Apple printers.
The output and the prices are quite nice for both,
but they are soooo slow. A page with a simple graphic
took 30 seconds to print on the personal laserprinter
and a bit longer than that on the ink jet.

Steve Goldfield
College of Engineering
UC Berkeley