Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard prices. What gives????

[Compman55]

I am dumbfounded. Tiger and Leopard sell on ebay for like $100 - $150 and maybe a little more on certain auctions. Why are these OS's going for so much? I can buy a brand new single license snow leopard disc for only $29, and a 5 license for $59 at best buy?

This is like paying $249 for windows XP, and $49 for windows 7.

 

[TheStu]

Snow Leopard is sold as an upgrade only. The $29 is for users currently using Leopard that want to upgrade to Snow Leopard.

That being said, the secret is that the $29 Snow Leopard upgrade disk can be used just fine to clean install Snow Leopard on any system, and I think Archive and Install Tiger systems.

Tiger is being sold for so much because people will pay it, and Apple has this problem with not always dropping the price of old stock. So, Tiger, which cost $129 new, is still going for that amount, because... the world is crazy.

Leopard is the highest level OS that PPC Macs can use, so it (at least to me) makes a little sense that its price stays a little high, but it also should have dropped quite a bit by now.

If you have an intel Mac, spend the $30 on Snow Leopard (or $60 on the 5 pack) and be happy.

 

[zacharace]

Snow Leopard is, in Apple's terms, an incremental upgrade from Leopard. Consequently, you're supposed to upgrade from Leopard, not do a full install. Of course, no one does this, but a limiting factor is Snow Leopard only runs on Intel Macs--so not everyone can buy it.
But yeah, on paper, it makes no sense.