You think Macs are expensive? Get a load of this $260,000+ Apple A hoary old Apple I computer signed by Steve Wozniak is set to fetch at least $260,000 at auction. The computer comes from the stone age of computing and dates back to 1976, when Steve Jobs had just gotten over his first few acid trips and was beginning to flog computers from his parents' garage. The Apple godhead sold his …
Personally I'd prefer the campervan. Much more fun.
The campervan would also have been the better investment. You can now expect to pay around $25K for a good example of a 76er. You'd be lucky to get $400 for the calculator.
Apple gear is ridiculously expensive.
I recently found a Mac Plus clearing out my mothers attic, fixed up the analogue board and sold it for a cool 200 quid to a collector.
A lot to do with the current trendiness of Apple gear. Similarly prices of urQuattro/100 Coupe Audis have been rising. When both of these companies inevitably fall out of fashion again, prices should stabilise.
Indeed, I took an LC-II to an Apple shop to see if they could get it to boot (no, but they tried, and it was a celebrity for a while in there) and in the box with it were some colour Apple stickers from 198X when the thing was bought. The fanboi next to me at the genius bar offered me £50 for them. Seeing as they belonged to my mother-in-law I elected to say "no", but still £50 for some old stickers. Bizarro world.
I have one of the original model blueberry flavoured iBooks in my office as a funny little piece of history. It still works fine for all the things you miss from 2000AD like Flash-free internet, Escape Velocity, and 800x600. Like a hipster I use the built in carry handle to take it to local coffee shops that you've probably never heard of.
Logically I know that items such as this will, one day, be the priceless antiques of tomorrow. But I just can't get over the mental block of associating plastic cased electronics with throwaway junk and landfills.
Obviously my forebears shared the same lack of vision, which is why none of the bastards had the decency to pass down intact through the generations, some everyday objects from the 1700s, and solve my present day financial woes.
[madra]
But they aren't too difficult to find on eBay, for about 0.1% of the value suggested for this Apple.
One day I'll add one to my HP41CX and HP85. One day I might even find the time to play with those.
(OK, I'll admit it, I'm a sad git, but I owe the life I've lived to the HP85)
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