Shreve Systems is Dead and Going

perfessor multigeek writes "Since back in '78, Shreve Systems has been the funkiest aftermarket source of Apple stuff. Well, not anymore. They're going out of business right now and any folks looking for hundred-dollar working laptops (with bag and Works), ABD keyboards for a fiver, or Mac Plus supplies, better get over there soonest." You could start your own online store with what you could buy over there.

Too Late!

[Trusty Penfold]

Shreve Audio bought the domain name.

Re:Too Late!

[Trusty Penfold]

Here's the powerbooks though. [shrevesystems.com]

Re:Too Late!

[wzinc]

Umm, go to the Apple / Mac section...

Where is Shreve Systems?

[arb]

Every time I click the link [shrevesystems.com] in the article, I get http://www.shreveaudio.com [shreveaudio.com]...

Re:Where is Shreve Systems?

[jayrtfm]

if you go to http://www.shrevesystems.com/powerbook.html [shrevesystems.com] you'll get their old site, but no way to order online. I think there's an onsite auction next week. And Shreveaudio is /was part of the computer shreve.

Re:Where is Shreve Systems?

[rehannan]

Gooble cache [google.com] from today.

Its ADB, not ABD

[Linux_ho]

It stands for Apple Desktop Bus.

You could start your own online store with what you could buy over there.
Uh huh huh, you so funny

Re:Its ADB, not ABD

[addaon]

I could have sworn it was Apple Besktop Dus... oh, well.

--

Re:Its ADB, not ABD

[troc]

That was the Veta Bersion

Re:Its ADB, not ABD

[perfessor multigeek]

You sir, are correct. My bad. Most embarrassing.
How could I screw up one last chance to recall the best low-bandwidth bus ever made? After all, how could we ever forget a bus that performed *above* spec for almost fifteen years? *
I blame too much caffeine and not enough sleep; after all, it couldn't be the fault of my sloppiness, could it?
Rustin
*the ABD spec was actually rather loose while the chip set used by Apple was extremely consistent. When the clones came out and worked merely to spec (for example, not complying with the rock-solid Apple ADB waveform) a number of ABD devices such as the late, lamented ABD I/O failed and had to be reworked to the new, less-rigorous hardware. Ah, I'll miss ya! -R

Re:Wha?

[commodoresloat]

yeah really. I don't complain about this shit usually but what is this if not a free ad? Not only that, but an ad for a relatively local and insignificant sales event of obsolete hardware. What's next? In other slashdot news, the McDaniel family is having a yard sale. The McDaniels have owned Macs since 1984. This is a good place to find an old Mac Plus or Apple's original "Superdrive." And apparently they will have at least two complete copies of HyperCard 2.2 for sale, with manuals! yeesh.

Re:Google cached link

[vincent99]

If you're going to mislead people into your old-ass PB auction you could at least post a properly clickable link.

Re:Google cached link

[Zapper]

8-D [ebay.com]
Hmmm, 3 days and no bids...

Prices.

[Daleks]

No wonder these guys went out of business. Look at the prices [shrevesystems.com] for refurbished 6-7+ year old machines. If these are actually market prices, anyone want an 9500/180MP 128/4GB/4x CD-ROM/ATI Nexus 128 for $1200? Funny you can find nearly the same thing [ebay.com] on eBay for $45.

Re:Prices.

[mgs1000]

Yep, nobody in the Mac community is gonna miss these guys. They were always know for their outrageous prices for essentially used equipment. Why would anybody spend $249 for a Quadra 950 with no HD?

The REAL google cached link...

[n1ywb]

damn windows...

http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:Hp8-9QMAlgw C: www.shrevesystems.com/+shreve+systems&hl=en&ie=UTF -8

not worth it

[Twirlip of the Mists]

The PowerBooks they're showing most prominently on their page are 5300's. Anybody who's ever owned one can tell you that these are far and away the worst laptops Apple ever made. They're bulky, hot, and they were even slow by the standards of their day.

I wouldn't wish this laptop on my worst enemy, even for $199. They should be paying people to haul their 5300's away.

It's not entirely clear how that $199 price applies to the PowerBook shown, anyway. Their price list shows the original PowerBooks-- the 100 and 140-- for $199, but the 5300's are $450 and up. At that price, they're definitely not worth it.

And check out their prices for the 3400's-- nearly a thousand bucks for a laptop with 16 MB of RAM and a 3 GB hard drive! Considering that you can get a brand new iBook for just a few dollars over that, these prices make no sense at all.

I'll be sorry to see Shreve Systems go, but at these prices, I honestly hope they don't get any takers.

Re:5300 is not the WORST laptop

[Twirlip of the Mists]

I'd give that to the portable or perhaps the PB 140

I've owned 'em both. The PowerBook 140 was small, snazzy, and pretty fast running System 7.1 or whatever it was. The 5300 was slow, slow, slow. Who the hell cares about video out when the computer is so damn slow?

How slow was it?

[Anonymous Coward]

The 5300 was so slow.....you could risk running outdated software by the time you finished doing an install.

...so slow.....by the time you swapped out batteries, it was ready to shut down.

...so slow....I once had time to not only shave, shower and sauna during boot, I also did my 1040, made out five years worth of Christmas gift lists (by hand), and still had time to rotate the tires on my lawn tractor.

Poor Story

[goldid]

I can't see how this is a valid slashdot story. Well, yes they have some fun old mac stuff (if you really want an old PowerMac handing around), but who's ever heard of them before? Their website generally sucks and they seem to be simply drawing people into their liquidation and audio store.

Poor Poster

[analog_line]

You obviously haven't been a Mac user too long, or have been living in a cave.

Shreve Systems was selling refurbished Macs for almost as long as I've used them. I still have an old Quadra 610 pizza box that was my first computer (like, only mine, not the family computer). My dad bought almost every pre-G# Mac he ever owned or specced from Shreve. For the Mac user without the deep pockets or with a frugal streak back in the day, they were the only place to look for equipment. Even these days, you never know when you're going to need to replace parts on someone's old PowerMac or need an AppleTalk card for an ImageWriter, and Shreve were the guys to talk to. Now that source has dried up.

Re:Poor Poster

[analog_line]

When you buy something from eBay, you've got nil guarantee that it works. When we recently bought an AppleTalk card for an ImageWriter for that one of our customers NEEDED, we went to Shreve, because if it didn't work, we could at least get our money back. Never mind the blind trust factor inherent in buying anything from eBay. Don't get me wrong, I buy stuff on eBay all the time, but nothing particularly important. The cost of an escrow service generally makes it not worth the hassle.

Re:Poor Poster

[goldid]

I have to admit, I haven't been a Mac user that long: I am switcher. However, I still don't think this story merits posting :)

Re:Poor Story

[MrChuck]

Then you are no geek and should go Here for your news [usatoday.com] .

I still have a (working) floppy drive that I got from them in my (working) Apple ][.

Hmm, wonder if they have Z80 cards (for the new ][e I just got to complement the ][+) in that liquidation sale...

Until you've managed to slice off 20 bytes from your code to make it run quicker, you have no place calling yourself a software hacker.

Now, trivia question: What's the memory location (in hex) that contained the current pixel being drawn? (and a note, in 20 some years, I forget too).
(useful so you don't get snow by writing to video RAM while it's being displayed)

You kids with your gigabytes. Any application larger than 48k is a waste of space.

So, anyone got IPv6 running on the 6502 or 65802 upgrade?

Re:Poor Story

[anaesthesia]

On the Apple ][?

The best you can do is to check for it being in the VBL interval, by reading $C019. values 128 mean you're in the vertical blank, and can draw...

Now, who remembers the locations to change in Apple DOS to disable sector checksumming or sector header checksumming?

Now to go play with my WORKING Z-80 card and 4Mhz accelerator. Muahaha...

Er, let me break it to you gently

[Zhe Mappel]

I can't see how this is a valid slashdot story. Well, yes they have some fun old mac stuff (if you really want an old PowerMac handing around), but who's ever heard of them before? Their website generally sucks and they seem to be simply drawing people into their liquidation and audio store.

Ah, but don't you see? We're not talking Slashdot here. This is a Mac story. And nothing is too pathetic to be a Mac story.

Did Steve discover an ingrown toenail? That's a Mac story. Have the guys in Aqua dev decided to tune up the histogram for the scrollbars? That's a Mac story. Did some PC user watch a "Switch" commercial and make a mental note to himself to visit the Apple Store the next time he's aimlessly walking around his shopping mall? Mac story, developing.

Good for Them

[Anonymous Coward]

I was in the US Air Force stationed in Shreveport LA. (Barksdale AFB) and I was going to Louisiana St-Shreveport at the same time. I went the their warehouse/store to buy an external disk drive (floppy) to use with my PowerBook, and it didnt work with 10.0.x and when I tried to return it those asses had the nerve to say only online orders get refunds, not walk-ins. So if I ordered online, and waited 3-4 days rather than make a 10 min drive I would have recieved a refund. Good for them, we dont need asses like that in the Apple community!

These prices are terrible!

[jefflinwood]

Why would you pay $1149 for the Workgroup Server 8550/200 when you could buy a brand new Powermac dual G4 tower for 1600 dollars?

You can get nice, used Blue and White G3 systems from ebay for about 300-500 dollars, and those will run OS X and modern software, especially after a RAM upgrade.

3400c/240 Refurbished 16/3GB/CD $949

This is for a crappy old powerbook with 16 megs of ram and 3 gigs of hard drive space. You can get a brand new iBook 700 mhz G3 with OS X 10.2 for $999 from Apple!

I'm Surprised They Held Out This Long

[WatertonMan]

It is sad they disappeared. They were often a great source to find odds and ends for older systems. For folks like computer unsavy older people, older Macs worked great. Most of them never use the Internet and just need simple word processing.

Having said all that though with eBay getting bigger and bigger it is often cheaper to find legacy machines there. Any business that depended upon legacy machines and legacy parts either would go out of business or just end up marketing with eBay. But it would be hard to keep the margins if you weren't buying large stocks of those parts.

Why are you sad?

[macmurph]

They should have been shutdown ages ago! Check out this guys posing:

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=47319&threshol d=0&commentsort=3&tid=181&mode=thread&pid=4861104# 4861122

Sun Remarketing

[grouchomarxist]

Sun Remarketing [sunrem.com] is in a similar line of business as Shreve, but their prices are higher.

Re:Sun Remarketing

[PeePeeSee]

I never could understand how SunRem stayed in business with their crazy prices.

Okay, Okay . . .

[perfessor multigeek]

Hey there, the perfessor here. I sent that info in for exactly the reasons that I said and analog_line explained. They were a part of the old school legacy and I'm sad to see them go. Personally, even though I, as it happens, am the owner of a 5300 that only just flaked this year, yeah, I think that they were overprices and rude. But, then again, where else could you find Radius monitors and Apple ][ add-ons as of last year without completely gambling on reliability? Other than one of their famed 99-dollar 7200 mobos, I haven't bought from them in *years* but I truly will miss dropping by and looking at the silly goodies.
Okay, so enough sentiment. Y'all are bitchin' too much about lack of places to get goods. You want a frickin' ad? Here's a frickin' ad!
Perfessor Multigeek's Guide to Mac Stuff Sites
(incomplete 'cause otherwise you'll never drop by my site [reedandwright.com] when I put up my new Mac links next month)

Guide to Mac CPUs [apple.com]This is Apple's own site for detailed specs on all their machines ever. I'm starting you off on the page for older machines to remind you that a well-configured 1996 Mac w/ a USB/Firewire card can run OSX just fine, thank you very much.

Mac of All Trades [macofalltrades.com]Getcher used macs here! Pretty visuals, delicious prices, detailed info. Selection could be better and there's no old stuff at all but I can deal with that. Have I bought from them yet? Nope. Am I likely to in the future? Yep.

MacResq [macresq.com]The best place I've found overall to pick up gear. Even the guys in that article figured that out.

Focus of Mac Hardware [miningco.com] good workaday resource for doing mods. No cool toys. Considerable good data.

Missoula Mac User Group [missoulamac.com], Yeah, I know that you haven't heard of them; neither has anybody else outside of Montana AFAIK. Best place for overall newbie resources.

Powermax [powermax.com] Cheesy setup, improving selection, good prices.

ResExcellence [resexcellence.com] In the old days I would have suggested MacFixit, but these guys have taken their place. If you've been in the Mac world for a while you'll recognize them as the old-time source extraordinaire of ResEdit hacks.

Small Dog [smalldog.com] Shrinking selection, great quality, excellent service, annoying interface. Bottom line, these are the guys to turn to for premium service, support, and savvy. Been around quite a while and, hey, they enclose coupons for Ben and Jerry's.

applefritter [applefritter.com]. They've built Macs into everything from 1930's radios to LEGO people to ziplock bags. You can't buy anything there, but still much fun.

Think Secret [thinksecret.com] Nice little rumor site. Some cool moments.

Of course, for those of us in the New York City area, there's always TekServe [tekserve.com], an Apple and media gear mecca. You want to know what Lou Reed, Jam Master Jay, or Oliver Pratt are using? Ask them. You want toys? They got 'em. Ten cent cokes, vintage radios, serious testing gear, and a massive knowledge base. Hell, I once even applied for a job there when it would have meant giving up a far-better paying sysadmin gig. If they're good enough for Steve J., then they're worth a look.


Oh, by the way, the last time that I posted this list I included Shreve. What did I say?
Shreve [shrevesystems.com]Expensive, distracting, but the best place to get weird low-end stuff like Mac Plus manuals and Daystar cards.
There. You all feeling better now?
Rustin

Bad Reputation

[lemkebeth]

Those guys have a very bad repuation in the Mac community. You might be able to get something from them online but, that is the extent of it especially since their support and quality, not to mention prices are not good.

Word of mouth on these guys is not exactly positive.

Re:Why are you supporting these criminals with an

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm reposting the above comment because it didn't format correctly.

Everyone who has dealt with Shreve Systems has discovered that they are an organized crime ring. This is not an exageration... If you aren't patient enough to read my tirade just take a look at this link to a usenet search for Shreve Systems... 2700 unhappy customers, 'nuff said. [google.com]

Whats more, dealmac.com started their consumer complaints section [dealmac.com] because of Shreve Systems!

Here is my personal experience. I bought a mother board from them some years ago. I paid full price for a NEW motherboard and recieved a USED motherboard. The salesperson assured me it was new even though I could plainly see that someone had unproffesionally modified the board with a soldering iron. I checked the PRAM and discovered that the board had over 9000 hours of use logged on it! I sent it back the day I got it and was charged a $100 restocking fee. When I explained that I had ordered a new part and they sent me a used part they would press the infinite hold button on their end then hang up.

So I was steamed and started to do some research. I was collecting information to file to the Better Business Bureau. (I discovered that the Louisiana BBB is a faceless black hole of inaction.) Searching online, I came across former Shreve Systems employees confessing to crimes committed while on the job as some kind of revenge for getting fired/laid off. The stories ranged from changing printers page count back to zero, to selling completely broken equipment and then charging restocking fees when the customer returns the part.

Macworld and macweek magazine should never have continued to publish their ad in the back with the knowledge of these kind of business practices. Shame on them.

It's worth noting that Shreve Systems tends to seed various web pages with false positive reviews of themselves to throw off first time buyers.

rediculous prices die, who's surprised

[kraksmoka]

a friend of mine gave me a full Powerbook 1400 with case, midi, all the goodies really. why????? cuz it runs os 8.0 ok, and thinks that JPG is a "PC" format. netscrape cant open a 1 MB photo, and nubus macs have little future as linux machines, limited to a mach kernel version with 0 support for anything that could connect into or out to the world. unless you have the extreme need for an entire system in a sand box

that said, this machine, which they charge nearly 1000 dollars for on ebay, which sells for 200 bucks loaded. its a lovely box, and will be my digi photo storage machine.

1000 bucks?!?!?! can't i buy a lovely brand new ibook that does it all and is supported and current? yes, and i will soon.