I wonder what kind of condition those large electrolytic capacitors are in after 38 years? They don't last forever.
Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
31–40 of 48 posts
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#32I always wondered what a fantastic resale value Apple gear has and always had.
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
You've made a common mistake in thinking economics is a zero-sum game. You can't simply transfer money from luxury goods to food and expect money to be 'worth' the same.
I'm not making that comparison. Not sure where you got that from. If you want me to make that comparison: The net effect of taking that cash out and burning it or spending it on an Apple 1 assembly is the same. It devalued the moment you bought it as you have shrunk the market. Could have thrown it at a charity.
How is purchasing a good analogous to burning money? How is donating to any charity somehow immediately more appropriate?
I'm not sure anyone knows the absolute correct way to allocate goods, services, and resources. Charities don't always prove beneficial to the cause they are supporting and investors and corporations can do a lot of good.
Who knows where this money will go eventually, but it certainly won't magically burst into flame. Perhaps preserving and apple 1 will provide a huge benefit to society one day?
People thought computing and lasers were pointless endeavors for decades as well.
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#34The Apple 1 is open source so you could create this yourself.
A modern clone of the PCB has been done:
http://www.willegal.net/appleii/apple1.htm
Sourcing all the required components is likely to be difficult.
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#35I hope that was a charity auction otherwise that outcome is quite ridiculous and quite sad. $900k could be better spent.
It was sold to a (wonderful) museum, The Henry Ford (http://www.thehenryford.org/), which every geek should visit at least once.
As an artist walks through an art museum and can see the progression of ideas from antiquity to the present. As an engineer you can walk through the history of technology at The Henry Ford, from a black smithy to a tour of a modern assembly line and most all stops in between.
You would be hard pressed to think of a better home for this machine. 900k is a lot of money, but I am glad it will be in a great museum, rather than at a private collector's home.
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everyone who spends money beyond the ascetic-level can be judged by others. Many of us buy new $650 phones every two years, which I'm sure seems incredibly wasteful to people in third-world poverty.
I agree entirely. Perhaps they should be seen as wasteful here and it certainly shouldn't be beyond judgement. For reference, I do practice such things. My entire computing and mobile outlay has been about $250 in the last 5 years.
For reference only, and I post this purely to illustrate why it's folly to pass judgement on what people and institutions spend their money on, your $250 could have fed the Chadian family of six from the below Time article, for over 200 weeks.
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#37I always wondered what a fantastic resale value Apple gear has and always had.
I've got an old MacBook kicking about somewhere. If an Apple I is worth that much I should get at least a million for a MacBook, it's way more powerful.
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#38That's a crazy amount of money. But I'll be honest... if I had a ton of money I would buy it too. IMO, this is a part of computing history that is very important. I think having a collection of the history of computers would be awesome.
The Computer History Museum in Mountain View has exactly that.
http://www.computerhistory.org It's a pretty cool place to spend an afternoon.
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#39That's a crazy amount of money. But I'll be honest... if I had a ton of money I would buy it too. IMO, this is a part of computing history that is very important. I think having a collection of the history of computers would be awesome.
The Computer History Museum in Mountain View has exactly that. http://www.computerhistory.org It's a pretty cool place to spend an afternoon.
Fry's in Santa Clara used to have one on display on their floor, bur it's gone now. My friends and I would fantasize about Hudson Hawking in at night and stealing the thing, but it was removed from display before we could ever attempt it.
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#40Don't miss the video of it in operation. http://www.bonhams.com/video/17458/
Oh man....
10 print "Hello "; 20 goto 10; run
what memories