I've always enjoyed the Apple 1 auctions. I probably should have bought the one at the Vintage Computer Festival in 2000 for $5,000 but I couldn't see its value :-). Somewhere out there is my home built Digital Group machine (also with bodged together keyboard and converted tv for a monitor) but Dr. Suding didn't go on to create an influential computer company. But he did have the coolest dual cassette tape system that tried to be a DECTape equivalent.
Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
41–48 of 48 posts
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#42Hmmm.
I have a set of original IBM 5150 (PC/XT I think) technical and operator manuals. Wonder if they're worth anything. Doubt I'd sell them, there's something about opening a computer manual and seeing actual schematics!
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#43Earlier 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.
And mine has been $89 for the used computer I bought on eBay for my kids two years ago. What's your point? Am I somehow now better than you?
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#44Did anyone notice this link on that site? http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21652/lot/188/ How cool, I wish they had put it into production.
It looks a lot like a Macintosh color classic.
But the most distinctive feature is the monitor in portrait orientation. Apple never shipped an all-in-one like that.
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#45Did anyone notice this link on that site? http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21652/lot/188/ How cool, I wish they had put it into production.
The LC with the portrait black and white display was quite common among text-writers in the 90s.
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Thanks for the 90's flashback.
It sounds so much better as a verb than Mission Impossibling.
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#47Earlier 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.
Burned cash no longer exists. (Which, by imputation, slightly raises the value of existing cash.)
This Apple 1 continues to exist (as does the money paid for it), and may be sold again - likely for much more than it cost the current owner. It didn't devalue, being a unique historical artifact (ok, 1 of about a dozen functioning Apple 1s), instead it likely increased value precisely because he won't sell until someone is willing to pay more for it - and with the increasing influence of Apple, and increased prices paid for artifacts, there likely will.
Your grasp of basic economics is...fractured.
Re: Apple 1 Motherboard Sold for $905,000
#48Two months ago I ordered an original ZX Spectrum 48K, on board series 3B for about $200. It is the same I had as my first computer when I was a kid. I knew I could have it all on the emulator, and, I didn't expect how much excitement and inspiration I had after loading several games from a cassette recorder and playing on a pixel-crawly TV. In fact, had to take sleeping pills after the first time. Now I am thinking to buy myself a C64, a separate small TV, and an Apple ][ with a monitor... will have to buy a separate table for that.