The last Mac I bought of a Mac vendor was 2.5 years ago, a B&W G3 350 with DVD drive. At that time a nice machine for the price. After that, I’ve bought two other Macs, a PowerBook FireWire 400 and a Dual 500 G4. I bought both as secondhand Macs. Why can you ask, well the main reason was money. I bought the PowerBook last december for about $1800. It was a standard G3 400 MHz with DVD drive etc. The G4 Dual was bought last month for the same price. Which is decent for this machine. My problem with money has several reasons. I buy my Macs for myself, not for a company, so on new products I pay 19% VAT, on a used one I pay nothing extra. If I had a company I could deduct the VAT of my taxes. I can’t so, for the price of little more than a 700 MHz iMac, I got a Dual 500 G4. Not a bad choice IMO. And I don’t make $3000+ a month. I want to stay in the Mac market and support Apple, but that requires a premium. That premium is something I don’t have.
I know apple needs ppl to buy their new products, as any company does, but as long as I can get a good used Mac for a decent price, would I be mad to let it pass, or what?

I’m in the same boat as you are, hoytt.  I’m working, but grossly underpaid, and as is de rigeur in the U.S., I paid for the bulk of my professional education with loans. 

Really, it’s irresponsible of me to even be thinking about buying a new computer, when the one I have functions perfectly.  But I need a change, I want a stable OS, particularly bc I’m hoping to become a consultant and I expect to be handling a lot of data.  In addition, I want to register my displeasure with Microsuck by switching platforms (and what a platform to switch to!  OS X is the Charlize Theron of microcomputer operating systems).  But the hardware and peripheral investment, and investment in new apps for X, is a big deal.  Even with used equip, I won’t get buy spending less than 2 grand, and that’s squeaking by.

In short, you’re doing the right thing for you, and in this case, I don’t think it’s really hurting anyone. In fact, u may be doing Apple a favor by buying others’ used equip because it allows them to purchase new stuff.  Also, assuming you were willing to become a PC drone for the sake of price, you’re doing Apple a favor by sticking with them and purchasing OS apps.

Nothing wrong with second hand!! Out of all of my machines only two were new, and of of them arrived today (dual 800).  Was was very happy with my old system, however hubby decided that for once in my life I would have a new top of the line.  Not bad birthday present, but I could have bought a lot of stuff for my old system with that $$.

Macs are well built and will work for years after they are “out dated”. My Mac+ still works! If it does the job you need, why speed the extra bucks?

For those who don’t want “used” but still want to save refurbished ones can be easily found, and will save you a few bucks too.