On 2013-01-13 22:56:29 +0000, Howard Poe said:
On Sunday, January 13, 2013 12:38:21 PM UTC-8, Captainbob wrote:Just thought I would Post this here for discussion...http://www.ebay.com/itm/251210777240?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649A google search found one of these early 1977 models went for over $6000 in November, 2011.I find it surprising these are selling for that much. I remember back in the 90's these old apples were being thrown away by the hundreds. Wish I had a few of them now...The same seller sold four Apple ][s, for a total over $6800. The one I was interested in was the last one to go, early 1978 Apple ][ with later motherboard (but ceramic / gold cap RAM in two of three rows), and it included a Vista A800 8 inch floppy controller. It went for $1025 (I was only willing to spend about 3/4 of that), the other two (later rev3/rev4 ][s) went for $600 and $500.The one that sold for $1025 had the keyboard necessary to fix the one that sold for $4700(keycap style power light)... I wonder if it was the same buyer?
Right, this was a rev 0 board, and people spotted it. The going price for standard Apple IIs has been higher than what those recent ones went for, but putting them all on the market at once in short auctions surely dampened the demand. By my count, there were seven standard IIs sold on eBay (that I could see, on US eBay at least) in nine days.
However: It turns out there is some controversy with these. This was actually from Sellam Ismail's collection -- the owner of the warehouse it was being stored in took control of it and then passed it on to recyclers.
http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2013-January/328411.htmlIt's getting a fair amount of discussion on the cctalk list, and I don't really know what to make of it. It seems like a bad situation, there may be blame for everyone involved, but the bottom line is that the huge collection is getting passed out on eBay at pretty low prices for the most part after his extensive work to put the collection together. Not sure what that means about bidding on these, opinions on the list are mixed. It might be deemed "stolen property", but on the other hand it might also be headed for the crushers if nobody buys it. A mess -- regardless of whether Sellam gets them back, deserves to, whatever, the idea that some of this old stuff could wind up destroyed is awful. And it's got to be terrible seeing one's long-crafted collection get busted up this way.