Re: Let Down at Goodwill

[bjblackbear@ibm.net (B.J. Major)]

Gary Sutton <otter@oz.net> wrote:

> Had a really big disappointment at the Bremerton Goodwill today.  Back
> in their electronics section, we noticed an Apple IIGS sitting on the
> shelf, waiting patiently for someone to give her a good home.
> 
> The label said:  'Apple IIGS:  Includes 7 parts.  Monitor, 
> Keyboard/Mouse, Disk Drive, Hard Drive, Printer, Joystick, Memory Box'
> 
> The price was listed at $129.95, which neither I nor my roommate would
> normally be willing to pay for a GS.  However, this one allegedly had
> a hard drive and we felt that would make it worth the $$.  We turned 
> it on and got 'Check Startup Device' with the cute bouncing apple 
> icon.  That was when we got suspicious...  We then went to the 
> control panel and had a look at the RAM Disk settings  (she had only 
> 1.25M), and the slot settings; which were all at their defaults.
> 
> Next, we turned it off and carefully opened her up.  Only card inside
> was the standard Apple IIGS RAM card.  At that point, we had seen 
> enough.  We closed her back up and put her monitor back on top.
> 
> I think that whoever priced it, somehow mistook the 3.5" drive with an
> actual disk sticking out of it for a hard drive, and as for the 
> "Memory Box", that was simply what they chose to call the computer 
> itself.  Sheesh!  Seems people are getting more and more clueless 
> about computers every day.  :3

FWIW, don't expect people who work at Goodwill to be extremely
knowledgeable about computers; it's just not their business.  They are
only in business to resell what's donated to them.  Yes, that GS you saw
was terribly overpriced and obviously a mistake was made by someone
there who priced it.  At the Federal Way Goodwill store, I got a
complete GS system (including disk drives, keyboard & mouse) sans
monitor for $25.00, which is what they are usually priced at in the
Goodwill stores.

> 
> I think this must have been our biggest let down in our coupla years 
> of thrifting and I hope that anyone else who considers buying that GS
> will be intelligent enough to open it up and look inside first before
> shelling out that kind of $$ for a stock GS.  Usually when they come 
> up for sale, they can be had for around $50 - $60 around here...
> 
> --Otter

Maybe you could have pointed out to them that indeed it did not have a
hard drive?  I'm not saying they would have necessarily changed or
altered the price, but they need to know that a mistake was made.


-- 
--bj   Auto reply will not work; please reply to bjbear@ibm.net
Proud owner/user of Apple Computers since 1984
Barbie & Ken doll fan since 1961