Re: Superdrive controller $59

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article Shawn Beattie <sbeattie@sparc5.augustana.edu> writes...

>On 26 Dec 1997 17:09 -0500, spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)
>wrote:
> 
>>    I only have one Apple II 3.5 Disk Controller Card, and 
>> considering how incredibly rare they've become (and valuable 
>> as a "bridge" between my Apple II and PC) I rather keep it 
>> than sell it for the US$100 plus they can be auctioned off 
>> for. In a way, it is a piece of the "Mark Twain" in my 
>> ROM 3. ;-)
> 
>They aren't quite going for $100 yet...

    They were selling used, at one point, for between US$150 and 
$200; at least when there was no source elsewhere to buy them.
With the information below, the value of a used SuperDrive card
is no where near that now. Until Shreves runs out of stock and
they become rare again, a used controller is worth about US$25
at the moment.

>Shreve Systems is selling them for $59.  (Although they call them the 
>"Apple II 3.5 Multi-Controller Card")  I picked one up this week and 
>they said they had plenty. 

    Interesting! Apple must have cleared its inventory it had in 
storage, or perhaps they found a school board that had purchased
dozens of the cards years ago, and just recently liquidated their 
IIe and IIgs machines.

    Whatever the case, it's nice to know there is (again) a place
to purchase them from, or at least while stock remains. The price
is reasonable too, that's $1 less than what I paid for my card
back in 1995. :-) I suppose the reason they're not sold out is
few people have an interest in them now, what with Zip drives
costing the same.

>They are also selling brand-new-in-the-box platinum //e's for $99.  Buy
>one and leave it sealed up so you can bring it out in 20 years. :)

    Sun Remarketing had that kind of offer a few years back, but
I thought they ran out of stock. I would love to have a platinum
Apple IIe, but US$100 for just the CPU box is well beyond what it 
is worth to me. I'll stick to searching for one at garage sales
or thrift shops.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca