I have a Power PC G4 that is about 30 years old. I thought it would be fun to wheel it into the local Apple Store and ask if I could get any credit for a trade-in. Possibly none of the current staff would recognize it as a computer. I booted it up a couple of days ago and with the help of my son (a coder of the “Hand Made” school) got everything onto a hard disk. Making disk image of the startup disk literally took all night. I have erased the hard disk and have a Leopard installation DVD in the drive in case anyone wants to play with it. I will also include an ancient cable for the monitor hookup. Does anyone have a better idea what to do with it?
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I hate to say it, but it would run better with Tiger…
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Apple had a program where they will recycle older computers - I did it about 5 years ago with a 2007 Intel iMac and a 2007 Mac mini. There is definitely no trade-in value.
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I highly doubt you’d get any trade-in value from Apple, but you might consider listing it on eBay or a vintage computer forum, especially if it is well equipped with RAM or storage.
Machines this old usually are not worth the trouble of shipping, but sometimes you can find a local hobbyist who may be interested in it. You might also consider breaking it up and selling the parts, e.g., the power supply, SuperDrive, RAM, etc.
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Old Macs like this are great for playing old games, if you have any. Depending on the model and the installer/restore CDs/DVDs you have, you may be able to boot into classic Mac OS (e.g. my QuickSilver-2002 included Mac OS 9.22 on its system image). And Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and older versions can run the Classic environment. Mac OS 9 (and older) can also run 68K-based apps through its own emulation, both when booted natively and via the Classic environment.
For myself, I’ve got quite a bit of PPC games and a massive CD library of 68K-based games. They mostly run in modern emulators, but definitely run better natively or via classic Mac OS’s 68K emulation. Except for a few of the oldest apps which use the original Sound Manager that went away in System 7 - in order to play them with sound, you need something that can run System 6 or older.
If you don’t want to keep it, others have given good advice. Look for users groups or hobbyists or retro-computing groups who might want it. And even if it doesn’t work, there may be retro-computing YouTubers who would fix it on camera for a video 
.
Apple won’t give you any money for it, but they’ll recycle it. But I’d consider that a last resort.
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You’d be surprised. People who I assume are collectors are interested in “vintage” Macs. I sold a Vintage working Apple Powerbook 5300c PowerPC with AC adapter on Ebay for $295 plus shipping in December 2021; it sold just 11 days after I posted it. Shipping to a buyer across the country was $50. It was in working condition with all essential parts, which I’m sure helped.
Looking at Ebay’s sold listings, I see three Power PC G4s sold in the last few months for $100-$150.
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Generally speaking, computers decline in value over time, bottom out, then start rising again. Did you see what the PDP-10 auctioned off by the Allen estate went for? $189k… of course it helped that it was operational.
There’s an interesting market even today for high-spec Silicon Graphics (SGI) workstations. Some of these ~30-year-old machines remain in service as controllers for various machines and instruments in a range of manufacturing and even health care settings. While the market definitely is dwindling, there are a few people who still make a reasonable income supplying machines and parts with limited warranties.
Personally, I have a few working SGI machines in my collection. After Apple’s OS X, the next best UNIX desktop user interface was SGI’s IRIX. They really were delightful to use when they were in their heyday, and there still are a few active hobbyist forums for it online.
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Speaking of the PDP-10 / PDP-11 there are some very nice kits to build a controller switch panel (smaller scale) and you provide your own RaspberryPI 3/4/5 and it actually emulates the ancient operating systems. The entire MIT A.I. ITS Lab full of actual home folders with actual files is provided for the PDP-10 one. Here’s the site. Not cheap but one heck of fun project if you don’t mind soldering everything up. Supports actual serial terminals so if you have a VT100 or equivalent it will work. 10 users supported.
At worst, it makes a very nice conversation piece with the blinking lights. Yes, you can actually access memory, read and alter the contents using the switches. It’s fully functional.
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Yes, funnily enough, I have both! You don’t need serial terminals if you don’t have them, you can use emulators or an emulation of the “original” TV terminal under ITS. (I was at MIT in that time period so it’s a blast.) I just wish I could score a space cadet keyboard.
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Yeah that’s a lotta keys. This is closer, but way expensive: Keymacs keyboard
Yes! to installing Tiger rather than Leopard.
And then go GitHub - classilla/tenfourfox: Mozilla for Power Macintosh. and chase down, as the URL says, TenFourFox, the freeware spinoff of Firefox for Tiger.
I ran a Mirror Drive Door PowerPC G4 for 15 years – who says Macs are expensive! I should never have let it go – but was migrating.
Play games, do a bit of word processing, keep it running for another ten years and it’ll go on EBay for $1,000
I love my M3 MBA – but I’d love to have that G4 back!