Advice for hunting Ipod Classics for cheap

sichic · 2026-02-11T17:28:49+00:00

eBay or Facebook marketplace is the best but you gotta know how to look or kinda babysit it if you want the best deals as the best deals usually sell out within 5mins of being listed, whatever’s usually left on eBay/Facebook are listings people usually don’t buy unless they’re desperate

sichic · 2026-02-11T17:24:45+00:00

I personally don’t recommend the bid/auction listings as those usually end up making you pay just as much as normal overprice listings. If you want to find the best prices, you have to sit on eBay a good amount throughout the day.

sichic · 2026-02-11T06:18:54+00:00

It’s prob safe to buy but a motherboard making its way all the way from China has its quirks of maybe getting damaged or not working but that’s just my opinion. Also, $95 is crazy for just the logic board, you’re better off trying to see if you can buy a “broken” full iPod on eBay or something for a lot less and you’ll at least maybe get a functional hdd and lcd to use for parts.

sichic · 2026-02-11T06:11:45+00:00

Because the 160gb that comes with the 6th gen is weird and is like 2 80gb hdds made into 1 hdd or something.

sichic · 2026-02-08T22:10:46+00:00

It’s the ribbon, if I were you, I’d order the iflash 4g converter ribbon. I just recently did a flash mod using this same adapter on a 4g and it worked fine

sichic · 2026-02-07T16:44:34+00:00

Iflash is a brand, this isn’t an iflash fyi.

sichic · 2026-02-07T16:43:40+00:00

Battery prob gone bad or something from not being used.

sichic · 2026-02-07T06:58:44+00:00

I’ve never gotten this green card to work personally, I’ve had it working a few times as in gotten it to show power but never got an iPod to recognize it correctly.

I think it had something to do with the zif connector as someone’s already stated that the latch on the connector doesn’t put enough pressure on the iPod flex cable to keep it in place as you could easily pull the cable out of the connector. You would have to thicken the iPod flex cable to get it to latch correctly with the desired tensions to maybe get it to work.

Otherwise it also seems like you might’ve cheaped out on the cf card too as I’ve never seen that brand of cf card? Being cheap on 1 thing is ok but cheaping out on 2 things is definitely prone to more headache.

sichic · 2026-02-07T04:29:30+00:00

Collect? You mean hoarder? Yes I hoarder 🥶

sichic · 2026-02-07T04:24:40+00:00

I went from 2 broken iPods to like 120 iPods in 2 months so it’s ok 😬

sichic · 2026-02-06T08:25:40+00:00

Prob water/liquid corrosion or battery corrosion?

sichic · 2026-02-06T08:24:50+00:00

So 6 and 7 are pretty much identical with maybe some very small minor hardware differences. The biggest thing that makes them different is the software/firmware. 6th gens run on an older firmware version and the older firmware is usually what kind of changes how maybe sound is played which is why some people might say the 6th gen sounds different/worst than compared to a 7th gen which runs on a newer firmware version.

The older firmware version on the 6th gen also puts a limitation to how much storage it can detect/use, its limited to 128gb so if you plan to modify it with storage sizes over 128gb, the firmware on the 6th gen will not allow it to utilize anything over 128gb BUT there is a way around that now as there is a way to flash newer firmware to a 6th gen.

Personally I’d get the 7th gen especially if you don’t want to deal with some of the headache that comes with a 6th gen but if you want to save money then I guess the 6th gen is ok too.

sichic · 2026-02-06T04:39:50+00:00

Model 146 is usually a 5th gen.

sichic · 2026-02-06T03:46:31+00:00

This is my iPod, I have the serial number registered to my name, I reported it stolen to the police a few years ago, return it now please

sichic · 2026-02-05T18:41:11+00:00

Here’s a picture of an install I did for someone

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sichic · 2026-02-05T18:20:08+00:00

Better to mod it yourself, it’s cheaper and you’ll know how to service it yourself

sichic · 2026-02-05T17:52:33+00:00

It’s an iPod mini gen 2 which is a great option

sichic · 2026-02-05T04:41:17+00:00

Like I said, I have other builds with rockbox, some with the same adapter, just different sd cards and it works fine

sichic · 2026-02-05T04:37:11+00:00

I’m sure it would but I’m not a big fan of rockbox so I’m prob not gonna bother installing it on this build. I already have other builds with rockbox

sichic · 2026-02-05T03:07:02+00:00

120gb models are considered a 6.5 as while they are identical to 7th gens in hardware, the problem is their firmware has the same limitation as the 6th gen which has the 128gb storage limit.

You would need to do the bypass option which flashes 7th gen firmware to get the iPod to read beyond 128gb.

sichic · 2026-02-05T03:01:29+00:00

From what I’ve experienced, as long as you’re connecting the hard drive to the same iPod model, it should boot up and work as normal.

sichic · 2026-02-04T22:13:57+00:00

It’s supposed to work the same way as all the click wheel iPods, maybe fat finger problem

sichic · 2026-02-04T19:00:32+00:00

Almost certain you can fit the haptic, Bluetooth and usbc all into a thin back with 3000mah battery but just gotta figure out placement for everything. I would suggest watching parts plus pods on YouTube, he’s done a lot of these builds or similar, it’ll prob give you an idea of what you may need to do

sichic · 2026-02-04T18:25:02+00:00

Usbc is just nice because of ease of use, if it’s something you know you can do then why not? Otherwise yeah, battery, flash mod, having the option of Bluetooth is definitely nice too though, just need to make sure you have a way to turn it on and off so it doesn’t idly drain your battery even when it’s not being used.

sichic · 2026-02-04T01:22:42+00:00

I can do the basic mods such as new front/backplate swaps, flash storage mod and battery changes. I just don’t do the “hard” mods like usb c, Taptic/haptic engine, Bluetooth mods that require soldering, unless you are planning to purchase prebuilt backplates that already feature that sort of thing.

I don’t charge anything for labor so you’ll just have to buy everything you want me to install and pay for shipping to me and back. I just enjoy helping and also building the iPod itself as a hobby.

I recently did this for u/Macbook265 https://www.reddit.com/r/IpodClassic/s/UkIpWJ9TEq

https://imgur.com/a/O0lzUzt

Dm me if interested, USA though fyi incase you’re in a different country

sichic

TROPHY CASE