On 5/27/2016 1:38 PM, Chris Fala via vcf-midatlantic wrote:

On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 1:18 PM, J. Alexander Jacocks via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

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Not sure if anyone here cares, but there is a seemingly-authentic Apple 1 on eBay, right now going for about $17k.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/282050295252

Looks non-working, but reparable, to my untrained eye.

- Alex

So Corey, look real? If so, what are your thoughts on the cut traces and jumpers? Rusty areas? Seriously degrade the value?

If it is real, it has that MTC or whatnot logo in a diamond on the board beneath the "Apple Computer 1 // Palo Alto Ca. Copyright 1976" marking, which IIRC Corey said (at VCFE) is extremely rare, only a few boards were made like that. -- Jonathan Gevaryahu jgevaryahu@gmail.com jgevaryahu@hotmail.com

Hmm. An eBayer that's been around since 2008, but hasn't sold many items. Most items that were sold are low value, and generally not computer related. I wonder how he came into a seemingly real Apple 1.... -J On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 2:42 PM, Jason Perkins <perkins.jason@gmail.com> wrote:

Already at $27k....

On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 2:35 PM, Jonathan Gevaryahu via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

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On 5/27/2016 1:38 PM, Chris Fala via vcf-midatlantic wrote:

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On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 1:18 PM, J. Alexander Jacocks via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

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Not sure if anyone here cares, but there is a seemingly-authentic Apple 1 on eBay, right now going for about $17k.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/282050295252

Looks non-working, but reparable, to my untrained eye.

- Alex

So Corey, look real? If so, what are your thoughts on the cut traces and jumpers? Rusty areas? Seriously degrade the value?

If it is real, it has that MTC or whatnot logo in a diamond on the board beneath the "Apple Computer 1 // Palo Alto Ca. Copyright 1976" marking, which IIRC Corey said (at VCFE) is extremely rare, only a few boards were made like that.

-- Jonathan Gevaryahu jgevaryahu@gmail.com jgevaryahu@hotmail.com

-- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

-- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

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I wonder how he came into a seemingly real Apple It's in Dayton, think there's a chance some lucky person found it in a bin at the Hamvention? Thanks, Jonathan

Notes on auction say it's been in the family. I wish there were Cray collectors with that much enthusiasm and bankroll.

On May 27, 2016, at 3:14 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

I texted Corey and told him to check list email....

Yep, It appears real, I got outbid at $6000 last night. It is an NTI board, which are rarer than the earlier boards. It’s not in a great condition. It has some major cut traces and appears to have some holes drilled for the nylon mounting standoffs in addition to some power traces that have been scraped so they can be tapped. I have seen worse condition boards go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The big thing is that eBay is not the way to maximize the sale of an Apple-1. Yes the owner will make $$$$ in 9 days, but at an auction house which can take 9 or even 19 months they could make maximum value. The people who can typically afford to buy an original Apple-1 don’t shop often on eBay, so the prices are artificially much lower than something like Christies or Breker auction. Cheers, Corey corey cohen uǝɥoɔ ʎǝɹoɔ

If you have a Cray-1, I can get you Apple-1 money for it….

Nope, J932SE, air cooled no "seat" I think I know someone that had a Cray 1 for a while but gave it back to Cray or something. I dunno, haven't talked to him in a good while. - Ethan

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So, anyone want to comment on why this A-1 went for $60k? Seems awfully low.

Corey observed that it's not in good condition and that the big numbers we've seen are usually on the auction house side whose buyers are not using eBay.

On Sun, Jun 5, 2016 at 7:37 PM, Corey Cohen <applecorey@optonline.net> wrote:

Nope. It was in crap condition, majorly cut traces, holes drilled for standoffs in the Proto area and a lot of replacement parts.

This is what I posted on the VCF forum and pretty much covers it.

$60,300 not too far off the last eBay sale of a damaged board a few years ago, the Huston-2 board. Funny thing is not a few weeks after the Huston-2 sale we had a record Apple-1 sale of a working system for many times that amount.

So I guess we have established a poor condition Apple-1 fetches between 60k and 75k on eBay and a working unit fetches between 300k and 910k at an art auction depending on the condition of the board and accessories.

Interesting. It's still hard to see that kind of differential, to me. But then, I never did understand why the A-1 commands the prices that it does. There are much rarer machines, and much as I do revere Woz, a non-unique home computer shouldn't command over $100k, IMO. - Alex

To put it in plain terms, the Apple-1 has become a piece of art. It is collected in the art world just like Baseball cards and Comic Books. Sure I can read a PDF or buy a reprint Action Comics #1 for a couple of grand. Heck I can even buy and original one in very poor condition for about the cost of a new Mercedes. However if I want a mint condition one, I better be ready to pay 3 million bucks. The collectors of these comics may not have even been alive when it was printed, but to them it's the history and artistic value of the piece and the better the condition or the better the provenance, the more desirable. To put it in baseball card terms. This is Apple's rookie card. Most were modified, damaged or destroyed (we all messed up some valuable baseball cards in the spokes of our bicycles as kids or they got destroyed by the laundry) so pristine examples are rare and units in poor condition are less rare but still valuable because so few have survived. Cheers, Corey corey cohen uǝɥoɔ ʎǝɹoɔ On Jun 5, 2016, at 10:04 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

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I never did understand why the A-1 commands the prices that it does. There are much rarer machines, and much as I do revere Woz, a non-unique home computer shouldn't command over $100k, IMO.

For the high-end buyers it's about the bragging rights and what the artifact represents. Most of them couldn't care less about technical aspects of the computer.

From the economy perspective. High end stuff isn't effected. Recessions barely affect the 1% who can afford this stuff since they are all virtual money. The economy has sucked since 2008 and Apple-1, in fact, the entire art collection market has still taken off. As for this specific board it's more than the jumper wires and a couple of chips. For example, the board actually was drilled to make the standoffs fit in the Proto area which could to be depopulated to put it back in good condition and it has missing pads. The traces on the back at the bottom were crudely cut for the mod which is a deep and wide cut. And that's just the beginning. I have hi red pictures of this board that were not on eBay. corey cohen uǝɥoɔ ʎǝɹoɔ On Jun 6, 2016, at 7:47 AM, Ethan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

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So, anyone want to comment on why this A-1 went for $60k? Seems awfully low. Do you think the market has dropped, now that people are forgetting about Steve Jobs? Some other reason? - Alex

Retro is in but the economy should be taking a downturn soon?

Of course the people dropping $900K on a board made of $80 in parts probably aren't the ones affected.

Someone pointed out the other day that some of the pinball mania has sloped off as well. Fairly new machines that went from $5000 to $9000 are down to $6000-6500. Not sure what is going on in collectable cars but perhaps people are moving to holding cash versus money chasing collectables/hard goods?

As far as jumper wires on Apple-1 you could you know, remove them? And swap chips back to original date code/era?

Also, on that note, which of the replica PCBs are the best? I saw the Italian one on eBay it looked similar?

On Fri, 27 May 2016, Derrik Walker v2.0 via vcf-midatlantic wrote:

On 05/27/2016 03:10 PM, Ethan via vcf-midatlantic wrote:

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I wish there were Cray collectors with that much enthusiasm and bankroll.

I've always wanted a YMP-EL ( Preferably a 94, but I suppose I'd take anyone I could get if I had the opportunity ). But they are rather impossible to come by.

Dave McGuire has one in his Large Scale Systems Museum: http://q7.neurotica.com/LSSM/IMG_4890.JPG Mike Loewen mloewen@cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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I know. I've seen a few, but they are all in museums.

Dave had two of them, he put the other in our museum. :)

-----Original Message----- From: vcf-midatlantic [mailto:vcf-midatlantic- bounces@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org] On Behalf Of Corey Cohen via vcf-midatlantic Sent: 28 May 2016 12:36 To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> Cc: Corey Cohen <applecorey@optonline.net> Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Old Super computers ( Was Re: Apparently Authentic Apple 1 on eBay )

On May 27, 2016, at 9:25 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic <vcf- midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

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I know. I've seen a few, but they are all in museums.

Dave had two of them, he put the other in our museum. :)

Dave has a great collection of Cray stuff. I think he said his first big iron was a Cray and that is what started his obsession.

I still kick myself for throwing out a smallish Cray Origin system that I was using in my basement as a webserver/firewall/Flight simulator. Granted it was a rebranded SGI with some extra bells and whistles but it still said Cray :-)

This was way before I was into the hobby.

Cheers, Corey

Many Crays were leased, and so were re-possessed by Cray when de-commissioned. Serial No.1 travelled the world. Some pics here:- http://tardis.dl.ac.uk/computing_history/cray-1s.html Dave G4UGM

There are some J90's out there, but they are usually in price ranges that make them hard to justify, which is more than likely why they probably never seem to sell, at least on the collector market.

I assume at this point it's all museum stuff. Adlib gold card for $3200, Apple 1's in the stratosphere (Steve Jobs worship.) There isn't that much practical use for any of it outside of history. But scareness and specultive mania drives demand I suppose.

I suppose if you had a company that needed one for an important piece of software they had to run, you could probably get a good price for it. I made a good deal on an 4D/80 I had like that once. Some company in Germany had code that was hand coded for the GTX GPU with a lots of R3000 assembly, it would not run on anything but a 80 or 70 with a GTX card set, and the work to move it was more expensive than keeping the older systems alive. Might be different now.

I would think any application with that much demand has been ported or re-written by now.