Cheers!
Posted on 05/31/2015 12:16:34 AM PDT by Swordmaker
MILPITAS (CBS/AP) — A recycling center in the Silicon Valley is looking for a woman who dropped off an old Apple computer that turned out to be a collectible item worth $200,000.
Victor Gichun of Clean Bay Area says the woman dropped off boxes of electronics that she had cleaned out from her garage after her husband died.
She didn’t want a tax receipt or leave her contact information, and it wasn’t until a few weeks later that workers at the recycling center opened the boxes to discover an Apple I (one) computer inside.
It was one of only about 200 first-generation Apple computers made in 1976.
Gichun sold the computer to a private collection, and he wants to split the proceeds with the mystery donor.
Cheers!
1976 ay ay ay!
Thank you.
This is why I have to go through my house and write down the value of geeky items that I have. For example, I have 8008 CPU’s (one of each type, even the East German copy) in a picture frame that would probably go for pretty good money on eBay. I have a shadow box of the first CPU’s made by Intel from the 4004 to the Pentium Pro (first “edition” of each). I have copies of Byte #1 and the user manual to the original PDP-8 (not the “E”, “S”, or “I”, the straight 8). Then, there is the equipment and loose chips. All of this would probably go in the dumpster if I kick it unexpectedly.
Sounds like the man died in self-defense, just to get away from a complete dolt. Thanks Swordmaker.
The Apple I was built by Woz in his parents’ garage, and sold as a bare board to interested parties at the local user group meeting.
The Apple II went through seven revisions (firmware mostly), including the Apple II+, then the IIe came out (late 1983, I got mine in 1984); all the Apple II models had metal baseplates and plastic cases, AFAIK. I parted my IIe system out, hmm, over 20 years ago, kept the IIgs, have some components around from Apple II systems, including a IIc (bought for $10, have never fired it up) that needs a little work on its power cord (brick on a leash). The IIc came out, hmm, circa 1985, drove AppleWorks sales and vice versa. Also, as a quasi-laptop, appeared in the movie “2010” in the beach scene.
About 20 years ago i saw a Bell and Howell branded black case Apple IIe at a flea market;being married and flat broke at the time ,didn’t have the $2 the seller was asking.
Saw one sell on ebay for $1300 maybe two years later.
8<(
And then there was this craigslist ad for Amiga books ,etc. Went over and asked about the computer itself-the lady said”we took it to the recycle center weeks ago.”Based on the books and software and warranty cards ,the system was maxed out with very expensive third-party memory,video, and other cards. Probably was worth at least several thousand $$$.
A surprising number of people simply have no clue.
ran a one man business off an apple IIe
with 2 shoebox floppy discs
upgraded memory to 128k (a joke today)
and used micro soft multiplan (spreadsheet)(that was before they changed the name to microsoft)
and word...
with my proprietary voyage estimate program i could run voyage estimates 10x faster than manually and could bid more jobs... I beat out Lykes line and Farrel Line for a big contract. Major us carriers at teh time...
the computer enabled me to get rid of the telex machine i was renting from western union (no more tape and chads all over). and i could send telexes from it via western union interface
the setup cost me $2500 and the telex was rented for $125/month (savings). that computer and a sts brick cellphone enabled me to compete with companies and my first contract was moving camp housing to the middle east as part of the camp david peace accord... i still have the IIe and the phone...oh an i had an answering machine with remote access.. thus i could be out selling and still answer calls to the office.. technology
Be funny if it turned out she was the Old Man’s Old Lady! ;-)
I believe I got the IIc around Christmas time in 1985 or 86.
Manufactured in: F => Fremont, California, USA
Year of production: 1984
Week of production: 24
Production number: KNC => 22724
Model ID: M0001 => original Macintosh 1984 (128k)
128K was more than enough back then though, just because the operating systems were text-based and lean. Those floppies, were they 5.25”? Imagine booting an operating system off a 140K drive nowadays.
Even later on, as Bill “640K DOS Limit” Gates said in interview many years ago, the 128K original Mac with a 400K floppy and no hard drive was not a problem, programmers needed more discipline.
Multiplan was the first spreadsheet I used in a work setting (but on a mini- system) and I always liked it. By that time Lotus 123 was completely dominant in the MS market, and VisiCalc (the very first spreadsheet) had fallen off the face of the Earth.
Within ten years Excel was the only thing anyone seemed to be using, and Lotus, Borland, and nearly every other former software giant had either been swallowed whole or had just gone out of biz.
Beware: there are Apple I clones built in the 21’st century that are very, very close to the original board, down to credible date codes on the chips. I can get plenty of chips with date codes to the early 1970’s. And there have been people who have faked date codes on chips.
There are actually people on the Internet who will assess and sell “estate” high-tech stuff. But their problem is that they are bothered all the time by people don’t understand that rare/originally expensive does not equal valuable. For example, I have a logic analyzer that a company paid into five figures for in the late 1980’s, I like it, it’s fast enough for what I putter with, and it still works. I know how to use it and I like it. No one in their right mind, even a geek, would give me over $100 for it.
I can basically get all of it’s functionality, speed, and more in a USB-connected device that costs <$500 today.
As a GENERAL statement, I would say that not very many pieces of computing equipment built after 1980, and very, very little PC equipment made after 1980 is actually valuable. Apple stuff is an exception, but only certain items, some of them valuable for completely stupid reasons. For example, my wife has an Apple amplifier that an original iPod Mini sits on top of. It’s nothing but a white piece of plastic with speakers and an amp. But they didn’t make many.
Even the original IBM PC isn’t “rare”, except possibly:
1. Original 64K board
2. COMPLETELY, TOTALLY UNMOLESTED/UPGRADED (VERY, VERY rare). Documentation/bill of sale helps.
3. If so equipped, the original SS/DD full-height drive(s).
4. (Bonus: PC/DOS 1.1 and manuals)
Most people who think that they have an original “PC” actually have an PC/XT.
“programmers needed more discipline.”
He was, and is, right. For the same reason that nature abhors a vacuum, computing resources are always consumed up to and beyond the limit by programmers.
My dad still has his.
L
The image in your photo shows a surplus keyboard that I personally used back in the 70’s to hack with. It was a very nice one, and it got blown out cheap by surplus dealers. With no Internet back then it was very hard to find goodies, especially if you weren’t connected to the business.
That doesn’t sound like recycling to me.
Reuse is the first and most effective form of recycling.
I still have my Mac Plus, it still boots up, and I have a general plan to connect it to the Internet. It’s one of my back-burner projects.
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