You’d be surprised what sells on ebay. I recently unloaded a vintage Zip drive with SCSI interface, a Nintendo GameBoy, an audio cassette guided tour of MacWrite and MacPaint, and the Mac version of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The best way to check for the market is to search for what you have on ebay and see what people are trying to sell it for. To see what they actually sold for, do an “advanced” search (an option at the far right end of the screen) and check the option to search for “sold listings”. You’ll find that some things never sell, but others may be worthwhile.
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Priceless, surely.
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Please try FIREFOX. I hope to hear of a pleasant outcome!
I have a 20" 2007 iMac with a pitiful Core2 Duo processor now has El Capitan on it. I found that FIREFOX has an up-to-date browser that runs on it that also supports 1PasswordX and works just great for what it is.
Actually, (profanity suppressed) I am more pleased with 1Password on THAT computer than I am on Mojave as the latest 1Password upgrade (7.5) killed its extension in Safari and nothing I’ve tried has come close to re-enabling it, so it is back to running the full 1Password-copy-cut-and-paste all the damn time until I can get some tech support somewhere. I am not a fan of 1Password7.
May 20, 2020 update: for anyone curious, I am using 1Password v6 on my 2007 20" El Capitan machine out of necessity as v7 requires a macOS upgrade which is not possible on a Core2 Duo based iMac. The machine is surprisingly peppy on usual day to day work. My newer I7 4Core iMacsmokes it surprisingly on Internet work, I suppose because of the cache sharing.
Re: StuartJ
I have ended up converting my iMac to a dual-boot Linux machine. It is an interesting process (still in progress) -if folks are interested I could share the “long version”. Firefox runs fine in Ubuntu (Linux) --but is useless in OS 10.6.
About 1Password; I have been using it form “day 1” but version 7 is a total disaster: bloated, buggy, unmanagabe even for long-time users and I’m no fan of the subscription model. I am using V6 which is a bit bloated but works fine so far. Once V6 is disabled I will SADLY switch to another password manager. It was nice while it lasted but I stopped recommending what was my “go to” app for many years.
I have a habit of anthropomorphizing equipment that has served me well or had a significant impact on my life or career. Then I become sentimental about it. Some things I have no intention of parting with, like the original Apple ][ Plus I bought in high school (and still works!). That little machine literally set the course for my college studies and entire career. I also have the original 9” beige Macintosh (still working!) I bought in 1984 while working at the computer store where I previously bought the Apple ][.
OK, stupid, I know. But when it comes to all the computers since then, I keep thinking that it’s a shame for them to end up in the trash or being recycled if there are folks out there that could part them out. Several times I’ve been either frustrated by a lack of parts for something or grateful somebody still had some.
I’ve also been interested in donating some of them to museums. Particularly if they still work, it seems that they could still bring joy to someone, somewhere.
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The Museum Of Printing in Haverhill, MA is actively soliciting old Macs and LaserWriters:
“The Museum has recently acquired a couple of Macintosh Plus’s, initiating coverage of the new era in composition. Donations of a matching LaserWriter+, older Macs, or software to match would be most appreciated. Donations of current or intervening or prior digital type hardware and software would also be appreciated.”
They also have a great library of books and documentation about hardware, software and history related to graphic arts, and they appreciate donations of these materials as well. Macs are a major presence due to the fact that they revolutionized and continue to be of major importance to the industry. My husband is a journalist specializing in graphic arts for decades and was involved in the launch of the museum. We’re big fans. We’re sorry we didn’t hold on to our first generation LaserWriter to donate it.
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Coincidentally, I ran a side business for years that did printing and graphics design and had a lot of the related equipment. Over the last decade or so it has morphed into software development but your post certainly brings back fond memories.
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Adam wrote “I also struggle with the power requirements of running old hardware “just because I can.””
To some extent. But leaving out the Mac Pro, which provides a significant and welcome amount of my office heating and is turned off during the summer, all my oldies put together use about the same amount of power as my lighting. Insignificant compared to heating (electric), cooking, and major appliances. I don’t need much heating in our climate (and no air conditioning) and I don’t have a dishwasher or clothes dryer, so it’s even less significant compared to the US average. Most people would save far more power by ditching the clothes dryer than by avoiding old computers.
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Here in Portland OR we have a non-profit called FreeGeek where your computer stuff can be recycled. Volunteers who rebuild the computers set up the OSs, etc. can earn a computer. Others go to non-profits, some are sold in the FreeGeek store or online. Non recyclable items are broken down into components, i.e. plastics, circuit boards, disk sleeves, etc., and bind for recycling. https://www.freegeek.org
I always break down my HDs for the magnets. Rare earth magnets are expensive and I have lots of uses for them in my shop. So strong they will hold a thin item, I hang flags, to a nail head in a wall.
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I wish I had kept an old 68xxx mac. I have ancient MS word and excel files that are no longer readable.
I did go through the process of opening more recent “xls” files and saving as “xlsx” to preserve their longevity.
The next challenge is TurboTax. My wife was asked if she could open tax files from 2009! She could, but only because (a) she kept all the executables, and (b) because she hadn’t upgraded to Mohave ( much less Catalina).
Moral - keep old macs / OSes with unique properties for future use. Even regular file format migrations isn’t always enough!
I also have a cupbard full of things I no longer use…
If the lockdown lasts much longer, out of boredom I may actually try to see if I can connect my Mac SE to my linux box over AppleTalk (via an old PowerBook 5300 that has both AppleTalk and Ethernet) and then some newer Mac for wifi.
@MMTalker What a fantastic site and a great cause. Your commitment to them is well worth applause! I have a dear friend who is a former head of library science at several universities, now retired in NH, who will absolutely love the site! I’m enjoying it myself. Thank you!
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Two tips for opening old MS Word files (I haven’t tried old Excel files) that might work for you.
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Open the old files from within a recent version of Word (not by double-clicking on the file’s icon). File menu → Open (you may have to choose “Open Any File”). Make sure that the file that you are opening has the “.doc” extension appended to its name.
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Try the free program LibreOffice.
https://www.libreoffice.org/
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I second @randy2 suggestion of LibreOfice. It is my go-to, even opening long since abandoned Clarisworks and AppleWorks files for me from back in the early '90’s. It is an amazing resource. Once opened you have several options to re-save the file in a different format.
Even a little better is NeoOffice, which is based on LibreOffice but is better integrated into macOS and, for whatever it means these days, is “more Mac-like.”
ETA There is a “Professional” version that offers more features than the App Store version; there is a link on the landing page. US$29.99 and well worth it for the years I’ve used it.
Thanks for all the resources, randy2. I used freecycle yesterday to find good homes for both a 2007 Gateway laptop and a 2006 MacBook Pro (1,1), both running Mint Linux. I’ve got another 8-10 computers including a Dell Server that will find their way up there in the next week.
Some guy used to turn original Macs into a fish tanks with real fish (not included with the tank mod).
Ah, the Macquarium, a term coined by Andy Ihnatko. 
I bought a 2009 Mac Mini that won’t work beyond 10.11 and a second-hand shop advertising monitor and set them up as a permanent rolling photo show. The monitor hangs on the loungeroom wall and displays about 7000 holiday photos in semi-random order just in screen-saver mode. It can be a traffic stopper and is a brilliant reminder of all the places we’ve visited.
Such imaginative uses are made possible by people who buy old hardware on Ebay etc. and refurbish them. Last year I sold an ancient G2 and a G3 to people who specialise in restoring old machines for gamers and collectors. So there’s a market.
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