Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Education, iBook
Henrico County, VA taxpayers to iBook bargain hunters: Stay home!
Last week, I casually mentioned that the Henrico County Public School system in Virginia was dumping iBooks for $50 each. Many of you made clear your plans to try for one, some of you even stating you were planning to drive from miles and miles away just to get a shot.Turns out that's not such a bright idea, folks. As many readers pointed out, these iBooks are low-end 500MHz G3 models and they've been used and abused by high-school students for a whole year. Local technicians familiar with these machines have even chimed in to say that most of the 1000 iBooks being sold have logic board problems or worse. In other words, $50 for the iBook and another $50 in gas and tolls, for argument's sake, and you're probably already losing money. Any hopes you had of profiting on eBay should have been dashed when you saw that there was a one iBook per person limit - even if you live locally. More after the jump...
And now, of course, we've all drawn so much attention to this event
that the residents and taxpayers of Henrico County are mad as hell and
they are not going to take it anymore. That's right... they've called
an emergency meeting to try to change the terms of the sale of the
"I-books" so that only Henrico residents are elligible to purchase
them, or at the very least get the right of first refusal on them.
According to a local news station, "it's expected that Henrico supervisors will hold a meeting Wednesday and vote on an emergency ordinance that will allow the county to offer the computers to Henrico residents first." Readers of the Richmond Times-Dispatch have quite a bit to say about this too.
I hate to rain on everyone's parade, but they have a point. After all, they did pay for those iBooks with their tax dollars and they ought to have an opportunity to get some additional value out of the poor, discarded iBooks. Ultimately, however, I think the best solution would be to donate these iBooks to local libraries in Henrico County and surrounding areas so that the taxpayers that paid for them can continue to enjoy them for what little time may be left in them.
According to a local news station, "it's expected that Henrico supervisors will hold a meeting Wednesday and vote on an emergency ordinance that will allow the county to offer the computers to Henrico residents first." Readers of the Richmond Times-Dispatch have quite a bit to say about this too.
I hate to rain on everyone's parade, but they have a point. After all, they did pay for those iBooks with their tax dollars and they ought to have an opportunity to get some additional value out of the poor, discarded iBooks. Ultimately, however, I think the best solution would be to donate these iBooks to local libraries in Henrico County and surrounding areas so that the taxpayers that paid for them can continue to enjoy them for what little time may be left in them.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
apainter said 8:14AM on 8-03-2005
I live in Virginia and was planning on making the 2 hour drive with a buddy of mine to go get one. I'm a tech in the education game myself and know what kind of damage kids do to things in 4 years. I'm not surprised if these machines have problems. I think that's something that a lot of people have forgotten about this: These machines are trashed for the most part.
But for the low cost of $50, if you get a few months use out of the machine it's still pretty good in my book.
On the issue of Henrico county citizens having first -dibs, I think that is the fairest thing they could do. They have been playing for the high cost of the program for the past few years and deserve to have a chance to get something back out of the program before out-of-towners or out-of-staters.
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Joe Smith said 11:03AM on 8-03-2005
Some of you don't know your macs. These computers are pretty much indestructible. Sure they have been abused because the teenagers using them thought they came free. I would hazard to guess that they would still have a couple of years of life left.
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abb3w said 11:57AM on 8-03-2005
I'd agree that limiting it to Henrico residents isn't overly unfair-- although this should have been thought about beforehand. I'd also agree with apainter that these are probably marginally viable machines at best.
But $50 was way too low a price for even marginal machines. Barring abuse beyond the normal ambient destructive power of a teenager, the 256 RAM module, 10GB hard drive, and Airport (non-extreme) card will be intact, easily covering the $50. If you've a use for a salvaged copy of Appleworks, even better. If the whole machine is working, it's spectacular value for the money.
Peeking at Ebay completed listings, $200 might have been closer to fair market price, even given the "AS-IS" element and mediocre specs. Some manner of auction (EG: Uniform Price Auction, $50 minimum bid, pick up on site) might have given them an effective way to raise more money, and cut down on the level of circus involved. Of course, I don't know if they tried that already and didn't get the same level of word of mouth....
Still, I've reserved Monday and Tuesday as vacation days anyway. I can always go fishing instead. =)
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Will Hudgins said 1:25PM on 8-03-2005
I'm a student in HCPS, and I must say that I agree with everyone who lives here. We should get them first, because it is our tax dollars. Henrico didn't organize it very well, but oh well. I was pretty mad, however, that the students from high schools don't get a chance to buy them before everyone else. Some of us don't want Dells.
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Eoghann said 2:30PM on 8-03-2005
Thank goodness the county taxpayers prevailed. The sale will be limited to Henrico residents, and won't be next Tuesday. But hey, if you're still scheduling a vacation around this sale, be sure to drop some money at our fine dining establishments and entertainment facilities.
Then go home.
Bless your hearts.
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Jason said 2:50PM on 8-03-2005
I agree that this sale could have been handled much better than it has been, but unfortunately I disagree with the direction that Henrico has now decided to take the sale. If it had started off as a sale to Henrico residents first I wouldn't have minded so much, but after advertising for the sale to be on a first come-first server basis and providing a section of the Virginia Code of Laws on their webpage stating how the sale is to be handled I feel they are going against Virginia Laws at this point. Before the site went down a few minutes ago for the update I was able to copy the Code in question:
"Sec. 16-12. Sale of surplus property.
All sales of property pursuant to this chapter shall be accomplished by means of competitive bids, public auction, firm price offered to all persons wishing to participate in the sale, or negotiated sale to other units of local government. The director of general services shall use whichever method he believes will raise the highest revenue for the county."
The director(s) chose to offer the firm price option listed above, which as stated is offered to ALL persons wishing to participate in the sale. As the law is written, county residents are not offered any special treatment in this.
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Karl said 4:34PM on 8-03-2005
I agree, they should've made the right decision in the first place instead of putting the world on notice, and then saying never mind. I also planned my vacation around this 'event', and am disappointed that they apparently county supervisors can change their laws how they see fit. Don't get me wrong; as much as it sucks for me not to be able to get an ibook coming from Maryland, county citizens morally should get first dibs.
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Sterling Ambivalence said 4:30PM on 8-03-2005
Do you know what shccks me? That they didn't do this at first! At first, I've been reading that they gave students and teachers first crack, and then I read that students were upset that they didn't offer them the items first.
I'm also of the opinion that these machines should be sold starting at $100. Unless there's some Virginia statute that prohibits them from making a profit from these sales, they should be using this to get a little extra money for the school system (I think they had gotten them from Apple for $50).
Well, you fanatic Mac travelers, even though there won't be a Mac sale in Henrico next Tuesday, about 100 miles north on the weekend before, you can go nuts at the Apple Store opening at Pentagon City.
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apainter said 9:18PM on 8-03-2005
I'm glad things worked out to give Henrico residents first chance, but I have to say I was all hepped up to go next week and snag on for myself.
Oh well, back to stuffing quarters into my PowerBook fund jar. :-)
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super_structure said 11:42PM on 8-03-2005
The high school seniors were offered to buy their computers at the end of this past school year, which just under 1200 students did. Unfortunately, it was the freshmen through junior year students that had no opportunity to buy "their" laptops.
One of the reasons the students and parents were so upset is that they had been paying $50 out-of-pocket per laptop per year insurance on these. Plus, any major replacement (lots of mainboards replacement) cost $100 each. Plus, a substantial number of the students really enjoyed having an iBook and would like to hang on to them. These people were getting screwed by some line of the county code meant for selling furniture and such, not really technology.
I agree the county should have foreseen what was going to happen, but they didn't. It probably seemed reasonably fair until people from all over the country talk about planning entire vacations around buying a $50 laptop that they realized they weren't going to have much of a chance of getting one. They raised hell with the local politicians and got the law changed (for 60 days, anyway). I really can't fault them for that, even though it means I won't be getting a laptop either: I live outside the county by 5 city blocks.
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Kimberly said 1:36AM on 8-18-2005
Henrico County made national news because of these iBooks. As a student in HCPS, I had an iBook for 4 years. Out of those four years, I had my computer for a record of 2, maybe 2 and a half years, because it was always broken, and being sent of to texas for it to be fixed. I have a dell at home, so I'm glad we are getting dells next year. They work better. Apple screwed HCPS over when they gave the $50 bucks a year, plus $100 bucks extra if it breaks. Macs are NOT industructible. For the record, if it had been offered to me, I would have gotten one, b/c I want a laptop and $50 bucks is cheap for a laptop. I wasn't gonna go get injured to get one at RIR(Richmond International Raceway) just to get a computer that was gonna work half-way. There should have been waaay more cops out there then there was. Have a nice day!
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