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-   -   Woman Drops Off Old Apple Computer Worth $200,000 at Silicon Valley Recycling Center (http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=264389)

Dude111 06-01-2015 06:37 PM

Quote:

A recycling centre in the Silicon Valley is looking for a woman who dropped off an old Apple computer that turned out to be a collectible item worth $200,000.

The San Jose Mercury News reports it was one of only about 200 first-generation Apple computers made in 1976.
I would LOVE that computer!! (First used them in skewl)

Its sad how ppl have been so conditioned to NOT CARE ABOUT ANYTHING!! (Take something that works fine and get rid of it.... VERY SAD)

Woman drops off Apple computer worth $200,000 at Silicon Valley recycling centre

Username1 06-01-2015 07:45 PM

I saw that story on the tv news.... I'm pretty sure she had no idea what she had....
It was made of wood, kinda looked like a high school project....

.

Dude111 06-01-2015 10:29 PM

Ya those Apples are quite special :)

Jon A. 06-01-2015 11:04 PM

I used the Apple IIe in elementary school. I would love to have a "platinum" model with a matching pair of 5.25" drives, the Color Monitor IIe and ImageWriter II dot matrix printer. Hard to find any of this stuff that hasn't yellowed.

The Monochrome Monitor IIe is pretty neat too with its tilting CRT/bezel assembly. The cabinet itself is fixed-position.

TheShanMan 06-01-2015 11:29 PM

The Apple IIe was my first computer and led to my career choice (degree in EE but I've been doing strictly software engineering for the last 18 years). I still have it and my kids and I play games on it every so often. Though my drives still work, I got a CFFA 3000 card which emulates the drives and uses compact flash/flash drives as the source of disk images.

Eric H 06-02-2015 01:06 AM

I'm really surprised the recycling center knew it was something special and saved it, maybe some of them do keep an eye out for the vintage stuff.

Maybe the Silicon Valley location made them more aware of what to look for?

CoogarXR 06-02-2015 08:32 AM

We had a couple Apple computers in school, but we mostly had TRS-80 Model IIIs and Atari 800XL/1200XL computers. We would always fight over the ONE computer with the color monitor, LOL!

Electronic M 06-02-2015 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon A. (Post 3135093)
I used the Apple IIe in elementary school. I would love to have a "platinum" model with a matching pair of 5.25" drives, the Color Monitor IIe and ImageWriter II dot matrix printer. Hard to find any of this stuff that hasn't yellowed.

There is a way of fixing that yellowing....Google 'retrobrite' for more info.

Jon A. 06-02-2015 07:06 PM

I used to have platinum IIes in nice shape but there was a heavy smoker living with us then and I didn't realize that would ruin the finish.

CFFA cards are great, but I never used a IIe with mass storage of any kind, so getting one would kind of ruin the nostalgia trip for me. One time I had a program called Locksmith; others were quite impressed by its high-speed disk copying feature.

I've checked out retrobright before. I think I could only be bothered with it if I found a IIe locally.

TheShanMan 06-02-2015 07:29 PM

My IIe is somewhat yellowed and there were no smokers in my family. I've heard of using retrobright before but haven't cared enough to try it yet. If I do, I'm going to try it on an inconspicuous spot first just to play it safe.

Yeah, the CFFA is a convenience, but there's something special about the sound of an Apple IIe booting up. I was on the fence for a long time on getting one and finally decided to because eventually the floppy disks I have will fail and they are becoming harder to get, so it was a future-proofing decision. But now that you mention it, I think I'll plug my drives back in for a while for the fun of it. :)

Oh, and it also provides an easy way to transfer disk images to floppies too.

Jon A. 06-02-2015 09:40 PM

I can transfer disk images on the cheap with ADTPro. :thmbsp:

I'm pretty hardcore about the nostalgia thing (including that unique 5.25" drive startup sound), so I'll just keep making backups. Floppies are hard to find in the wild for sure, but I figure there are plenty on eBay. I did score a large lot of 3.5" double-density floppies locally for free fairly recently; many contain Atari programs.

MIPS 06-02-2015 11:48 PM

Quote:

I'm really surprised the recycling center knew it was something special and saved it, maybe some of them do keep an eye out for the vintage stuff.
They do. A lot of the smaller centers dismantle the machines in-house so that is where a lot of the real gems are found and they typically have at least one person who knows their machines. The larger operations generally don't inspect their intake as material separation generally occurs after it is shredded.

This bloody story is EVERYWHERE. Every forum I frequent is talking about it. Almost every news outlet has talked about it and I have even talked to about it several times at work. If that lady still does not come forward to claim her money at this point she's the biggest disconnect I've ever heard of.

TheShanMan 06-03-2015 01:16 AM

Yeah, of course I used adtpro prior to getting the CFFA and it works just fine, but just not as convenient IMO. I hear you on the nostalgia thing. I'm usually like that too. Generally I like things as original as possible (be it my arcade games or my vintage TV or radio) but if there's a non-invasive mod that makes it more practical, I'm more likely to consider it. Since I've had some hit-and-miss luck with some of the floppies I've bought (either right out of the box or after a short amount of use), practicality as well as long term considerations made it worthwhile to me. Also, it's nice to financially support those who contribute to the hobby in such a significant way.

Along similar lines, I've got an Atari 2600 but because I have neither the time nor inclination to become a cart collector, I opted to buy a Harmony cart.

And finally, there's the kid acceptance factor. I had to ask myself what would make the Apple and Atari more appealing to the kids, and fortunately they enjoy playing both fairly regularly. My son in particular seems to be developing a real appreciation and love for retro technology which certainly puts a smile on my face. I don't know if he's necessarily going to want dozens of arcade games in his home when he grows up like I have, but I know the appreciation will continue on into the next generation. :)

Dude111 06-04-2015 12:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric H
Maybe the Silicon Valley location made them more aware of what to look for?

Ya or it could be they are computer people like we are :)

Jon A. 06-05-2015 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheShanMan (Post 3135168)
Yeah, of course I used adtpro prior to getting the CFFA and it works just fine, but just not as convenient IMO. I hear you on the nostalgia thing. I'm usually like that too. Generally I like things as original as possible (be it my arcade games or my vintage TV or radio) but if there's a non-invasive mod that makes it more practical, I'm more likely to consider it. Since I've had some hit-and-miss luck with some of the floppies I've bought (either right out of the box or after a short amount of use), practicality as well as long term considerations made it worthwhile to me. Also, it's nice to financially support those who contribute to the hobby in such a significant way.

Along similar lines, I've got an Atari 2600 but because I have neither the time nor inclination to become a cart collector, I opted to buy a Harmony cart.

And finally, there's the kid acceptance factor. I had to ask myself what would make the Apple and Atari more appealing to the kids, and fortunately they enjoy playing both fairly regularly. My son in particular seems to be developing a real appreciation and love for retro technology which certainly puts a smile on my face. I don't know if he's necessarily going to want dozens of arcade games in his home when he grows up like I have, but I know the appreciation will continue on into the next generation. :)

Oh yes, it's good to support the little guys who are putting a lot of time and effort into helping us. On the other hand, I'm a major cheapskate when it comes to almost anything electronic (not to mention furniture and appliances) currently offered by corporate giants. A CFFA card might be in the cards for me one day... no pun intended. They're especially handy for the IIgs; good luck using them without a hard disk and Apple SCSI controllers cost a mint these days.

As for Atari carts, I'd probably wait until a bulk lot came along for cheap like I did with all those Zenith parts. Getting them individually would be time consuming and prohibitively expensive, especially after shipping charges.

Wow, kids enjoying a computer that can't do Facebook. I guess there is hope for the world.


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