Beware of Mac Pro 6-core's on eBay

[Shaggymax]

I recently dumped my Mac Pro 1,1 for what was described as a gently used Grade A, 2012 3.33 6 Core Westmere machine.

I am fully aware of the 4,1 -> 5,1 firmware flash and 6-core drop in upgrade.

I opted to play it "safe" and purchase a Mac Pro Six Core 3.33 (Mid-2012/Westmere) w/ 16GB ram, 1TB HD, ATI Radeon 5870 for $2400, which I thought was fair compared to new equally spec'd machine...

What I received was a 2009 4,1 flashed to mid 2010 5,1 w/ upgrade to 6-Core Intel Xeon with the other specs listed above. We immediately opened up an eBay case to try to sort this out...

The machine was missing 2 drive sleds and was missing the Airport card, which was a dead giveaway that this was a hack job. I continued setting up the machine and added an SSD boot drive. After a few days I received the missing parts and continued to test. The machine was whisper quite and runs rock solid.

They offered a refund, but by now (11 days later) we had sold our other machine and sending this back was going to be a huge problem.

The eBay seller: ipowerresale, not once acknowledged the difference between the stock 2012 3.33 hex and a 4,1 hack job. The eBay description did not mention anything about receiving an upgraded / flashed machine. They claimed it was the identical machine. Well a lower mileage 2012 BMW has a much higher value than a similar spec'd higher mileage 2009 BMW right??

In the end they refunded $100...so we paid $2300 for this machine. They had solid feedback, but there's always risk on eBay...I know that I could have built this machine for a few hundred less. I guess no one ever blew the whistle on their fraud-like practices.

Just wanted to share this with my fellow MR's members. If it is too good to be true....

 

[BJonson]

Thanks for the heads up but I would have sent that back. A 2009 single core mac pro goes for about $700 and that chip is about $500. I just picked up 2 more mac pros. One was a 8 core 2009 2.26 for $850 and a 2010 8 core 2.4ghz for $2100. The 2010 machines demand a higher price because of the socket differences in the dual core cpu, a problem that does not exist on the single core but still. I see the 2009 machines as a beta to the 2010 and 2012.

 

[GXPvince]

Man $2300 for a 2009 machine with a 6 core. Like Bjonson said $1200-1400Max.
Btw you can buy a refurb 2012 3.33 6-core from apple for $2600 (plus tax) with the 1 year warranty.

 

[Studio K]

ONe way to confirm which model they are selling is to check the serial number. You can enter the number's last 3 digits on Everymac.com to see which Model year it is.

If they don't provide the number, then it's proabably best to look elsewhere.

 

[Shaggymax]

Man $2300 for a 2009 machine with a 6 core. Like Bjonson said $1200-1400Max.
Btw you can buy a refurb 2012 3.33 6-core from apple for $2600 (plus tax) with the 1 year warranty.

I would have popped on a refurb from Apple, but they been sold out for a while...thanks for your comments and suggestions.

If anyone has a link to an "in-stock" 3.33 6 Core Mac Pro Refurb for $2600ish please post the link or pm. Thanks

 

[GXPvince]

I would have popped on a refurb from Apple, but they been sold out for a while...thanks for your comments and suggestions.

If anyone has a link to an "in-stock" 3.33 6 Core Mac Pro Refurb for $2600ish please post the link or pm. Thanks

I was keeping up with them for a while. Have stopped since right before the new Mac Pro was announced. You can sign up for email alerts at refurb.me

 

[BJonson]

spoke too soon. The 2009 $850 computer just showed up via fedex completely smashed at the top. I refused delivery. Ebay seller b3owolf sold this to me. No damage on the box. Scammers everywhere. Now to get my money back. Fun.

 

[Shaggymax]

spoke too soon. The 2009 $850 computer just showed up via fedex completely smashed at the top. I refused delivery. Ebay seller b3owolf sold this to me. No damage on the box. Scammers everywhere. Now to get my money back. Fun.

Sorry to hear this...it is a pain to deal with, takes time, energy and patience. Looks like you're ahead of the game by refusing the package. Good luck.

MR members:
Just to recap...beware of Mac Pro deals on eBay that look too good to be true. I did my "homework" and still got the short end of the stick...

 

[Studio K]

spoke too soon. The 2009 $850 computer just showed up via fedex completely smashed at the top. I refused delivery. Ebay seller b3owolf sold this to me. No damage on the box. Scammers everywhere. Now to get my money back. Fun.

It's always risky to buy one of these from sellers who offer no details on how they intend to package it. Many people simply improvise something and the handles end up bent in transit.

I try to find offers that ship in the original retail box. I think they are less likely to be damaged in shipping that way. Quite a few sellers do use the original shipping box.
I bought my Mac Pro from a guy who stated he would have it professionally packaged by FedEx----and he wasn't kidding. The box was huge with loads of padding. But most sellers don't offer to do such stuff. So......retail box is what to look out for.

 

[thekev]

Sorry to hear this...it is a pain to deal with, takes time, energy and patience. Looks like you're ahead of the game by refusing the package. Good luck.

MR members:
Just to recap...beware of Mac Pro deals on eBay that look too good to be true. I did my "homework" and still got the short end of the stick...

Is there a reason you didn't pursue it further? There's nothing wrong with selling flashed machines if it's clearly stated and explained in the description so that a buyer can make an informed decision.

 

[philipma1957]

not to say why but the quad core direct from apple is 1819 dollars


http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC560LL/A/refurbished-mac-pro-28ghz-quad-core-intel-xeon

link to it via a discover card and it is a 5% discount. follow my thread


https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1122551/


to install the hex cpu

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-BX80613...?ie=UTF8&qid=1373420468&sr=8-1&keywords=w3680


a hex cpu new with a warranty from amazon cost 616. so 1850 plus 616 = 2466


under warranty just hold the quad core cpu for a while...

so to the op I wish you had asked me. well a lot of people have asked my hex thread be made into a sticky .

now that the 2009 2010 and 2012 will be eol the need will still be there for those that do not want the new pro. so I will ask maybe you could sticky the hex thread for a year. BTW if the new pro can get a cpu upgrade I plan on doing it and posting a big thread . we will have to wait and see.

 

[tjlazer]

Sorry to hear, you should of got more than $100 back. I contemplated getting one online and saw a lot were getting damaged in transit, plus high prices and shipping. No thanks. I got my 2009 on CL and did my own "hack job". Saved a bunch of $ and headache.

 

[Supermacguy]

I had been ebay lurking while looking for a 4,1. It's hard to make out what's a scammer/junk reseller, what's a volume reseller, and sometimes who is a legit single user selling a nice system.
Ultimately I went to a reseller's direct website to get the machine I wanted, and could deal direct, without having ebay as the middle-man if problems arose. I am satisfied with the computer I got. It was shipped in a real MacPro box, but from a different year, which is no big deal, at least it was packed well in the proper styrofoam. The price was reasonable and it performs well and was in good shape as described.
I used MacOfAllTrades.com

 

[Macsonic]

I had been ebay lurking while looking for a 4,1. It's hard to make out what's a scammer/junk reseller, what's a volume reseller, and sometimes who is a legit single user selling a nice system.
Ultimately I went to a reseller's direct website to get the machine I wanted, and could deal direct, without having ebay as the middle-man if problems arose. I am satisfied with the computer I got. It was shipped in a real MacPro box, but from a different year, which is no big deal, at least it was packed well in the proper styrofoam. The price was reasonable and it performs well and was in good shape as described.
I used MacOfAllTrades.com

Hi Supermacguy. i have also read good reviews on Macofalltrades. They're also an eBay seller but they don't advertise that often in eBay. This means they must have a stable customer base and steady sales that Macofalltrades don't depend on eBay unlike other sellers.

With regards to iPowerresale, I read their feedback coming from the threadstarter. The seller acknowledged their error and offered a refund, maybe this seller did not have any intentions of deceiving buyers. I think iPoweresale is related to another tenured eBay seller, Macinabox Company as they have similar location addresses and their ad listing styles, wordings, pricings are similar.

 

[Solomani]

Sorry to hear this...it is a pain to deal with, takes time, energy and patience. Looks like you're ahead of the game by refusing the package. Good luck.

MR members:
Just to recap...beware of Mac Pro deals on eBay that look too good to be true. I did my "homework" and still got the short end of the stick...

A slightly better alternative is to limit your eBay purchases to "local" eBay sellers. These are under the category "eBay New York" or "eBay Chicago" etc. You then can pick up and finalize the transaction in person. In most cases, you arrive to pick up your goods at the seller's home or office. Bring a huge big friend with you, some muscular beefy guy. And a baseball bat.

You will know who the seller is face to face. He will be less likely to sell you a lemon under these circumstances. You know where he lives. And he knows that you know where he lives (or where he works out of).

 

[oldhifi]

BUY from Apple Refurbished...

 

[sbarton]

Ok for gods sake don't buy a refurb mac pro from apple. You'll pay $1000 more than you should for 3 year old technology. Just use common sense and get all the details before you purchase. I just bought a 4,1 from ebay that was advertised as a pristine unit with the original box. The listing had lots of details that made it clear it was a personal machine and when I received it, it was exactly as described. I've been buying off of craigslist for several years as well and I've never been scammed. Just read the listings and look for signs of a sincere mature seller. Talk to them on the phone. It's not that hard.

 

[Studio K]

I have looked at MacOfAllTrades before. I always wondered how they shipped the G5's and Mac Pros. Sounds like they hang onto a collection of retail boxes and use those which is a good practice in my opinion.

I did not end up buying from them because they don't provide any photos of the computer. All you have to go by is their generic description of condition. But they do appear to be a professional operation. I've heard good things about them.

They recently listed a 2009 Mac Pro for $700.

 

[BJonson]

Well after a full night of back and forth B.S. and leaving him negative feedback he finally refunded my money. Boy, never buying a computer again without speaking to the person and seeing real pics of it. Lots of the computers on ebay show a generic pic and say they have 5 of them but they offer a lower price. Stay clear of those.

 

[Omnius]

basically, ebay and craigslist are full of modified mac minis and mac pros that are hack jobs. I regularly find people advertising mac pros on craigslist who turn around and send me photos of hackintoshes or describe a hackintosh.

my favorite is that people just blatantly lie about what model a pro is. Since mountain lion came out, I've encountered multiple people claim they were selling a mac pro 3,1 - 5,1 when in reality they were selling pro 1,1 using boot loader. They always crazily claim its the same thing or that the fact its running mountain lion is proof that its the new model.

They're trying to get a lot more money by selling slightly upgraded old models because its very common to see old models going for prices that they consider to be too low. base model 1,1 pros can be had for ~$300 in new york. Yet somehow if you load it with pirated software or use chameleon boot loader and change the cpu, they think its worth 750-1200.

My favorite are the mac mini 1,1's that people try to sell as 2,1 or 3,1 minis by adding ram.

It's a bad case of caveat emptor.

 

[MacVidCards]

FWIW, I bought a 24" Apple LED display from iPowerresale on Ebay

They shipped it promptly and it was in a well padded box.

It was exactly as described and I have been testing GPUs with it for several months now.

I had a couple dealings with them before, they seem like a company where not everyone knows what they are talking about but overall just trying to make money in an honorable fashion. Paypal and Ebay don't let scammers stay in business long.

Quite possible that they were taken in by an unscrupulous seller and didn't do their due diligence.

In reading their ads, they went to some trouble describing defects in displays.

As far as Mac Pros go, I bought one at Apple store, 2 on Ebay and 2 locally. Being in LA helps as there are ALOT of them on CL. I prefer local as you don't hand over $$$ until you run the thing through it's paces.

That being said, I always knew that iPower was in Santa Barbara, so even if I had trouble I could book a nice hotel there, spend 2 hours in the car, 15 minutes on their doorstep and walk away happy with a sweet weekend in one of the more pleasant places in US.

DISCLAIMER: I do not have any personal or professional relationship with these people.

 

[rdsii64]

buyer beware

One of the things that I am careful of are sellers that only provide a stock photo and no photo of the actual item for sail.

 

[Omnius]

One of the things that I am careful of are sellers that only provide a stock photo and no photo of the actual item for sail.

That's a big tell. In a world of smart phones, someone selling a machine worth hundreds of dollars could put good quality photos up in seconds.

 

[flowrider]

Since we're talking about resellers now. I have only bought new machines and I've had excellent luck with LA Computer Co. and Expercom. I just picked up my last PowerMac a 5,1 from Expercom. In the distant past I've used Mac Zone and PC Connection with success. I sold my 3,1 to Turntronics. They offered me a good price for my old upgraded machine, of course I sent them a lot of pics. The 3,1 is on it's way to them now, I'll let you guys know how the deal turns out.

Lou

 

[Omnius]

Since we're talking about resellers now. I have only bought new machines and I've had excellent luck with LA Computer Co. and Expercom. I just picked up my last PowerMac a 5,1 from Expercom. In the distant past I've used Mac Zone and PC Connection with success. I sold my 3,1 to Turntronics. They offered me a good price for my old upgraded machine, of course I sent them a lot of pics. The 3,1 is on it's way to them now, I'll let you guys know how the deal turns out.

Lou

I'm always concerned when dealing with these businesses. The brick and mortar operations of this type seem less legit than those online sellers in some cases. I'm sure most people in populated areas see these shops that spam on craigslist lots of buying postings where you can usually see they're reselling stuff that was for sale by someone else that they bought and just want several hundred dollars more for.

If you look at long island craigslist or new york city craigslist, you can usually find ads of this type. They try to buy all older model 1,1 pros that come up that typically sell for under $400 or the buyer is asking 500 but is flexible. They purchase the item then try to resell it for hilarious asking prices like 750-900. They generally just sell it exactly as it was or they throw in one or two ghetto used mechanical hard drives loaded with pirated software.

They basically do the same with the older model white imacs and any mac minis they can find but the pros are where you see the most egregious behavior.

I think the most hilarious ad I ever encountered was a mac pro 1,1 where they guy had the dual dual core 2.0ghz cpus, 2gb of ram, the lowest end gpu, 4x 1TB HDDs that he admitted he'd been using non stop for years. It had a DVD drive and a blu-ray player. It was a veritable cesspool of random types of expensive software that wouldn't typically be on the same person's machine because of how varied the professions would be for it. It was running lion.

What he claimed it was, he claimed it was a heavily upgraded 2009 4,1 Mac Pro. He claimed it was running mountain lion, and had 6TB of HD space. He stated it had 2 Blu-ray burners. Had a paragraph about he was using special aftermarket ram that makes the machine run cooler. He referred to it as his blazing fast graphic art work horse that he bought from Apple at the start of 2010. He claimed it had 2 upgraded GPUs (totally different GPUs from the 1 gpu it actually had).

Some of this I got from the posted screenshots, the rest from requested screenshots. When I brought the actual stats to the guys attention, he went stark raving nuts sending me a crazed vitriolic rant that it was a top of the line mac pro from 2010 and theres no difference in mac pros and that I was a liar.

I googled the guy, and from what I can tell, he does very low end photoshop work as like a part time job or hobby out of his garage. In his spare time he apparently lies about computers and demands $1300 for them.

Really, as it sat, that box wasn't worth much but, other than the lack of ram, it was in prime condition to be a computing hobbyist pet project.

Unfortunately, stuff like this is all too common on craigslist and ebay. You really have to do your due diligence. Most of my mac pro work is limited to hobbyist stuff these days but I still get to see the real basket cases and hear people's horror stories.

Laugh of the day:
http://newyork.craigslist.org/jsy/syd/3868813479.html
"CUSTOM INTEL MAC PRO TOWER"