(also posted on AtariAge)
I went to another estate sale today and got neat Apple II and /// items. Please look it over and tell me I didn't get shafted. Let's get the scoop from some folks in the know about pricing. This was from some engineer or technician that worked and lived in the area. For $600 smackerz I scored:
Wildcard 2 (I still have my original from the warez days, now I have two!)
A small box of no-name interface boards like parallel and serial stuff. Maybe IEEE and SuperSerial stuff.
Some school A/D and D/A card. Bankstreet something or other, I have to look at it.
Hayes external 300 baud smartmodem NIB MIB shrinkwrapped. The big metal kind.
Another Videx LowerCase chip and shift-wire mod. (I have 3 of them already, this is #4)
Another Apple ///+ (YES!!) ..with Monitor ///
Something like a daughtercard that says "32k cache" on it.
A plastic Tecmar housing.
A USR external 9600 and v.dot everything modem, with 100' cable!
An UltraTerm display board.
5 huge cartons of that useless educational crap from libraries (with the signout cards too) Crap from Spinnaker and MECC and Sesame Street. You know.. This will probably get tossed once I look through it.
An apple modem 300 with AC adapter and what seems to be another +100' cable!???!! wtf?
Some PC cards (and not 2 series related at all - so I won't go into detail)
A small box of no-name disk interface boards. I'm guessing Rana knockoffs or something.
An Apple /// metal carcass (what will I do with it??)
Some kind of OS2 warp 9 board and pile of disks folded(!) against it with a rubberband!
Your standard IIgs computers, 2 of them. Ready for the dump.
4 3.5 drives with varying interfaces, each one is different.
Apple II joystick (loose and crappy)
Apple II paddles
RocketChip (5MHz) and 2 ZipChips, lock stock dox and box. I assume so because they're still original wrapped and then wrapped again in target baggies.
A PC plus copycard from sensible software?? What is this? It's for the PC??
Another card that seems to be a Trackstar board??
A profile interface for the /// (no profile though)
Serial and parallel for the /// (Absolutely pristine)
Something about a II card for the /// ?? What is this?
3 Apple II Workstation cards. NIB and MIB (they look impressive AND expensive)
A Saturn Systems 128k ramboard.
2 of the standard obligatory //e 64k/80col cards
Ramworks and RamKeeper stuff with docs and fully populated daughtercard.
Fingerprint interface card.
A no-name lightpen board. (proably koala or gibson compatible is my guess)
A broken SpaceTablet 3D digitizer (sadly..)
A Zoom Telefonics modem.
2 soundboards, that Ufonic crap and an AE Phasor music board.
7 Disk II interfaces, 4 Disk II drives.
A number of cables for seemingly everything.. Looks like a lot of parallel stuff. Lots of D-connectors and RCA and cassette-style plugs. But curiously no printers and no AC power cords were anywhere to be found!?!
A couple of II and II+ and //e consoles each. Mostly suitable for landfill purposes I believe. I'm not bothering to work on these. The smell is just ungodly and seemingly comes from the depths of hell itself. The lady won't even let them in the garage even. (but everything else was "approved" and deemed safe to keep).
This was like one of those hoarder things or a grade B storage wars episode. Where they call the dumpster and the folks use shovels to clean out the place. Good god!! The big items needed cleaning. And the smaller stuff just fell to the bottom of the heaps and mounds and seemed to be "protected" by layers of dirt. All the chips are gonna come out, and the boards will get washed and the chips too. Because, it's all just layers upon layers of newspaper dust! Dammn!
Some books, the typical manuals. All this stuff is in perfect shape. Seemingly. Computer Station 3-ring binder manual. In depth catalogs. Manuals for various cards. A Bluebook - phonebook sized. Boxes of Nibble and inCider rags. Unfilled-out warranty papers, I'd say 30 sheets of various kinds from Apple inc. 5 Software bank binders. B-sider manual. A carton of that Special Delivery Software crap.
I left the monitors (I have enough already) and all the PC 286 and 386 crap there. There must have been 15 '386 computers from Zenith and Gateway or Horizons or something. There were no MAC's or anything above 386-25.
At the end of the day I had the trunk full and more stuff to pack in. So the nicer items went in the back seat. And there you have it! Was it worth a day and $600?
Probably you might have made a bargain in that way - that it may turn out all together to be some 1500 to 1600 bucks worth... - but that depends to the stuff itself of course.... you´ll probably need to invest several days in testing that all and sorting out the stuff that is damaged or not working anymore and and get the rest cleaned and repaired... if the stuff is turned back to functional operation and the stuff is cleaned you might get the above mentioned price or even a little bit more.....
at least at the moment there is one member here that is looking for a AE Soundcard in fashionable condition and working status .... contact redustair and send hin some good photo from the front and backside of the AE Phasor...
if the Card is working he´ll probably offer a good price...
Any of the Apple II/II Plus machines have keyboards? Maybe you could scrape off the rat droppings, we can always use II and II plus keyboards and switches around here....
pm sent
Keatah,
Well...first off your description of some of the items as "Sh*tty" and "Sh*t" are uncalled for up here. Thats just my opinion, but I'm sure that I am not the only person who thinks that. Other terms could probably be used for these items.
Do you actually know how many folks are in fact searching for the "Useless Educational" programs you are talking about? I doubt it, or you would not be saying that.
Ever hear of soaking the cases in a pan of Lysol?
Ever hear of checking out the Power Supplies to see if they still function?
Do you know how many folks are actually trying to find original PC 286 and 386 parts for thier computers online?
With all the items that you managed to aquire for $600.00 I have no doubt that you made out like a Raped Ape. My problem with this acquisition is your attitude towards these items. If you are buying all this stuff strickly for reselling purposes, you should go up online and search yourself instead of asking us up here what we think it may be worth.
That is not what this forum is about.
Of course... this is just my opinion and you know the old saying: "Opinions are like a**holes. Everyone has one and they all stink."
We take a pretty hard line on foul language here. I've cleaned up the original post (and your quote from it).
Though I must point out, to be fair:
While a common colloquialism, this is also not welcome.
Doc,
Thats cool. I was not sure. It won't happen again.
Steven
The Rocket Chip and the Zip Chips are probably worth $50 each (speed/functionality dependent). Please at least look in the Apple ][/][+/][e cases for more Zip Chips, No Slot Clocks, Hi Speed SCSII cards and other goodies. If you actually have some vanilla A]['s and are going to toss them, I'll gladly take them for the price of shipping/pickup.
Mutant Pie
I'm going through all this stuff methodically and carefully. There's more to the haul than I originally expected. This first set of pics is from one or two boxes. And it only begins to show the depth of this find. There's a ton more to work through.
I still find it hard to believe that 286 and 386 parts are worth anything.. Because, this stuff on ebay never moves. As a matter of fact, a lot of classic hardware on ePay isn't moving. I'm not sure exactly why. It seems to be an extraordinary effort to sell that kind of hardware.
One easy part of this collection, to which I have little interest, is a box of about 20-30 soundblaster style cards. Generally up to the AWE-32.
Well here's some pics of some of the stuff now that these items are dusted off buffed-up.
https://picasaweb.google.com/114688480094930960522/MegaHaul1Of9
To all: I'll answer PMs this upcoming week.
Thanks for the pic's!
There'll be a few more batches of pics as I plod through all this stuff. There's more than I originally expected because It's packed pretty dense. Carefully but dense. Lots of dusting to be done. I could probably gather enough of it to sell on epay. EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT!! EXTRA EXTRA GET YOUR GENUINE APPLE COMPUTER DUST! EXTRA EXTRA
Well here's a few more pics from the second cleaning session. I've got another one "scheduled" for next week.
https://picasaweb.google.com/114688480094930960522/December272011
There'll be a few more batches of pics as I plod through all this stuff. There's more than I originally expected because It's packed pretty dense. Carefully but dense. Lots of dusting to be done. I could probably gather enough of it to sell on epay. EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT!! EXTRA EXTRA GET YOUR GENUINE APPLE COMPUTER DUST! EXTRA EXTRA
Well here's a few more pics from the second cleaning session. I've got another one "scheduled" for next week. Then I can decide what to keep and what to pawn off.
https://picasaweb.google.com/114688480094930960522/December272011
Nice Haul!!!
Remember, even if you don't need it, someone else might.. At least offer it up to the rest of us or e-bay.. If it doesn't sell in a reasonable time, recycle it!
Well sure yeh. I wouldn't go the ebay route for the small odds and ends. It's not worth the time and trouble. But the big ticket items like accelerators and one-offs like the fiber optic card. Yeh. Absolutely yes.
Items from my personal collection I've had since day one.
https://picasaweb.google.com/114688480094930960522/MyStuff34Of247
More new items from recent haul
https://picasaweb.google.com/114688480094930960522/MegaHaul3Of9
I spent the last couple of days going over one of the Platinum //e consoles.
This one had a faulty space-bar and <- key. It was a simple fix. As part of apple's cost cutting measures, they elected not to put the 6 support screws into the keyboard. Thus when overenthusiastic school kids jammed on the keyboard, solder joints would crack.
The key switches needed resoldering. A simple fix. I also tested out various slots and functions and other miscellaneous stuff on it.
I removed everything, washed the motherboard and rinsed it with distilled water. And air-compressor dried it. Then I put an impossibly thin coat of oil on all the metal parts and what not. Then buffed it off mostly. Cleaned the case slightly. Removed and reseated all the chips, and used contact cleaner. All that good stuff.
Great! A good nice cleaning like new. And not a speck of dirt anywhere. Pristine babycakes! A good retro-freshen..
I also booted up my personal Sider drive. It hadn't been powered on since 1985. It worked perfectly. Made the same noises I remember. It loaded "apps" from the beginning, middle, and end of the drive. WOW! How cool is that? We're talking 27 years of sitting! No stiction or anything. I remember I did park the heads back then, too.
The other Sider drive that came as part of the mega-haul tests just fine too. Makes the same noises and is just as loud! Some of the CP/M cards and ram boards test good too.