[Rickster]

I bought an iBook (Dual USB) a couple years ago, and was somewhat dissatisifed with the appearance... so I made a little mod:
Pic: Lights out, LCD on
Pic: Lights on, LCD off

It was pretty easy: I took off the top casing, added a piece of blue plastic, and removed the white plastic that diffuses the light from the LCD so it'd shine nice and bright.

Anyhow, I might be selling it soon, and investigating resale options has made me curious what a minor customization job like this does to the iBook's value... so, what do you think?

[The Placid Casual]

Great work, cool mod! Tasteful and not overdone...

However, I'm sorry to say, as a rule of thumb I think that mods of most kinds tend to lower the price...

Looks good though so you may be lucky,

Peace,

Marc

[MartiNZ]

Yeah, that is quite nice. In fact I've seen quite a few mods that look pretty nice, but I would probably have to say the price would go down given that it doesn't add any functionality and does give a possible greater risk of some kind of fault - even if only perceived risk.

I was going to say something about warranty, but of course this one is a couple of years old. And that being the case it will at least probably affect the resale value a lot less than it would for a newer machine.

[SciFrog]

It is not worth the extra money to customize a computer in general. That said you might sell it easier than a "regular" computer for the same price.

[Lateralus]

Why not put the white plastic back in and take the blue plastic out?

And I dont see how this mod could hurt the value of the machine at all. It's too simple for anybody to really care enough to offer you less money for it.

[icruise]

I thought you were talking about something a little more drastic (tronbook, cough). Just take the plastic out. It's such an easy mod that just about everyone does it, so it's not likely to increase the value, and some poeple might not like the idea of something modified.

[Rickster]

Yeah, unfortunately taking out the white filter seems to be a permanent mod -- you can't get it out without cutting it or ripping up the foam.

I didn't expect this sort of mod to affect the value much, just didn't know which direction it might affect value in. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity, all.

[icruise]

You don't actually have to remove the white sheet to do that mod. I just put the colored plastic over it.

[radarbob]

Yes it's a cool mod, very understated. Nice.

But IMHO it's no value added whatsoever.

Even if a potential buyer thought it was, depreciation on computer equipment being what it is makes such a thing moot pricewise.

Given two *identical* machines at exactly the same price, I'd give you an extra 10 bucks as acknowledgement for having done a nice job.