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Q: How check if PowerBook stolen?
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Feb 2003
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Hi. I'm considering buy a 17" PowerBook and it's a good deal. Maybe too good. Any way to check a serial number, etc, aganst a database? It has to be done fast as I won't have long to consider the purchase, maybe 1/2 hour at teh buyer's house...
Thanks.
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: nyc til they bury me
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you probably meant a half hour at the seller's house.. but anyway..
If the laptop is indeed stolen, and you're at the sellers house, do you intend on checking the database there in front of them or reading the serial off the laptop and calling it in to check right there in front of them? that would not be very smart.
The good thing is that the seller is trusting you to come to their home, so that at least means that if it were acquired through less than desirable channels it's more than likely a white collar crime that was commited as opposed to armed robbery. People do this all the time where they're a buyer for a company, and they basically over order on laptops and then the surplus hardware "mysteriously" disappears. If it werent a white collar crime the last thing you would want is to clue them off that you're questioning the source of the laptop.
Usually deals that are too good to be true, usually are. But in the case of used equipment, sometimes people's personal situations force them to sell things at a less than desirable price.
good luck, and be safe.
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Feb 2003
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Sorry about the garbled text. No, we'd meet in town or he'd come here. Better for me, I think I could go to his place if I wanted. I would check the serial in front of teh guy, I don't have much choice. Plus I've met him once and he's nothing to be afraid of. Plus he's selling for another party and makes his cut off that.
But point taken. Thanks for the advice.
Does Apple have such a database? ie If I buy it and it needs to be fixed down the road and they say "sorry stolen"? I'm out in the cold.
The deal is good, but not that good!
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Edmonton, AB
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maybe you could tell us the price and model?
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Senior User
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Cabin john, MD
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check to see who the computers registered to, and if the guy has the install discs, acsessories, ect. if its white collar, i cant think of a way to find out, there really isnt any way.
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Superhero Of The Computer Rage
MacBook Pro 2.16 Ghz, PowerBook G4 12" 1 Ghz (DVI) Dell 24" monitor
Porsche 944, Mercedes 240D (running on Waste Vegetable Oil)
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Memphis, Tn. USA
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Originally posted by rag on a muffin:
check to see who the computers registered to, and if the guy has the install discs, acsessories, ect. if its white collar, i cant think of a way to find out, there really isnt any way.
Ask to see "receipt for purchase"
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