Hello folks, I joined to see if anyone could help me figure out what I have. My grandfather wanted me to sell some of the stuff he had sitting in his basement and I found an Apple II plus with a custom case and 2 drives, also seems to have some extra card in it. Also it has some neat "GE R&D" Badges. I also have a centris 650 with the monitor and a powerbook 170. Just trying to get an idea what fair prices are for them.
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I can't speak for other members here but the Apple ][ you show in the picture is simply a good example of an Apple ][ Plus.
The cards inside appear to be a 16K memory card, printer card and an 80 colummn card. I don't see the Disk Drive card there but I assume you have one somewhere since you show the 2 drives.
There's nothing really remarkable about the computer other than it appears to be a good example of an Apple ][ Plus. Looks like the Rdv D, or late version of the Plus where they spray coated the inside case rather than include an aluminum shield.
Again, just my opinion, but if you get $250 for it with the 2 drives, I would consider that a pretty fair deal. Others will likely chime in, maybe give you offers.
Good luck in selling the computer. I'm sure your Grandfather got a lot of pleasure out of owning it.
Appreciate the response, thank you. The disk drive card is there by the way, has it's own spot next to where the disks are stored.
I'm kinda new here but have recently become more aware of the leaky capacitor problem. As you intend to sell this, you could ignore it, but especially if you turn it on and its not working quite right: the display (whether original or through an adapter) isn't showing a healthy "Apple II" at the top and a blinking cursor, leaking capacitors might be eating away at the board and surrounding components. Inspect the boards for this, clean as much as possible with isopropyl alcohol. There are shops that will replace them, and I've been hearing of people who do this only this as a part time/post-retirement income. Obviously you can just replace the leaking or bulging ones, but they're a few cents each at most, so esp if you DIY you might as well replace all of them. This is a problem with old stereo equip and speakers, TVs and monitors, and there was a rash of bad caps in many electronics of the early 2000s. That may not pertain to you, but I want to point out its a common problem and many systems get thrown out, when a simple procedure could fix them like new. And, if you want to sell, and this turned out to be a problem, this repair could pay for itself several times over.
There is actually something unusual here: The history of the machine. Note those GE R&D tags on the system, and the drives. That wouldn't likely have any impact on its value, but it does make it slightly more interesting.
If you want to sell it, then just sell it as it is - don't even bother with any repairs. And as Timelord said, certainly don't remove any of the GE stickers. Anyone buying a 40 year old machine is aware he isn't getting any warranty anyway. I've were looking for machine to buy, a machine like this would certainly be what I wanted: something that wasn't touched for a long time, but obviously well preserved. The fact that it was stored in its own foam-covered case is certainly a plus: issues of other "barn finds" with mechanical damage to the keyboard or disk drives are just less likely. And don't bother with capacitors: yes, there are some of those in the power-supply. If they were leaky, that's an easy fix. But there's different tastes of "if" and "how" those would need to be fixed - a good idea to leave this to the new owner.
With the exception of not remo ving the GE badges, I respectfully disagree. I will not sell systems or components in an unknown working status. I either sell them as working, or known non-working, and I always do whatever I can to make the client happy. One of the reasons that I avoid eBay is the frankly ugly hoard of people who sell known defecting things 'as is' without declaring them known to be defective.
It does not take much work to verify that a ][+ is a working system, or is non-working. There is absolutely no need to re-cap it. Test it.
Connect it to an NTSC RCA video receiver of any kind, see f it displays a prompt. Leave it on for 24h and see if it is still working. Test the KB. If any of the keys are non-responsive, say so. Run a few programmes in the drives.
If I bought this, for US$250 plus freight, and the keyboard was defective or the mainboard was defective, or the drives were defective, I'd leave a negative strike. These are tests that a four year old child can perform.
IIn fact, if you test and verify that everything works, and sel it as a known working system, you can increase its price by 50% to 100% and it will sell with a buy-it-now. People tend to pass over 'untested' and 'as-is' tech, and impulse buy 'tested, working'. Also, when packaging, always package it with at least 5cm/3in of surrounding padding, or more. Use a fresh box and tape it as if it needs to survive WW3. Charge for the materials, and when the unit arrives safely you will get glowing feedback.
I have left many a neg strike for people who poorly package hardware that arrives broken in some way, usually due to not having enough packing material. One genius packaged a //gs, Monitor, KB, and DD all int he same box and put a few MM of bubble plastic er each part. Needless to say it was a broken mess on arrival.
I also see a lot of EXP cards sent out w/o static bags. Most recently, I received a mainboard packaged in aluminium foil!!!
Always INSIST that the seller of any bare board posts it in a proper static bag. If they fail, submit a claim and leave a strike. I have received far too many 'good', 'working' and similarly advertised products that arrive DOA because people package 70s and early 80s PCBs w/o static protection. Components of that era cannot survive the transit, and even the cheapest products from China and Taiwan come in static bags. You can order them for 20p to 80p a bag, depending on the size.
This isn't needed for systems where the cards are (securely) installed, but it is absolutely needed for naked cards and boards. If I were to sell that computer, I would un-socket the cards, put each in a static bag, mark them all with their intended slot, and a burn in test date. I absolutely detest the lottery method of selling and buying goods that seems to prevail in the VC community at present.
I don't think we're disagreeing here on much. I was just advising the young man, selling his grandfather's machine, from taking a soldering iron and trying some repairs on his own, because "someone on the internet" suggested something (like swapping capacitors, ripping out the whole power supply or whatever). I would leave such tasks to the new owner (likely someone who is more into vintage computers, and maybe prefers an original system in good condition - like this looks to be one).
Of course, it's good to test the machine. And it's bad to conceal defects etc.
Concerning ebay offers: my absolute "favourites" are those asking for top dollars - and come with the little disclaimer "Machine is not working. No idea why, but I'm sure it's just a little fuse. Surely, for any hobyyist that's no problem to repair...". It's almost guaranteed that such machines are completely smashed up. And that some another "hobbyist" has already failed to fix the machine - and made things worse... ;-)
I would simply sell it as it is, especially if you don't want to mess with it or know little about it.
Re-capping a power supply can be a P.I.T.A. job. Certinly not worth the increased value you'd get, because these supplies are still readily available.
I look at it like selling a house ... If I have to fix the place up before selling, I might as well just stay there! LOL!
Do what you feel is best. I think I gave you a fair value starting point. If you can power it up with a monitor attached, NO drives attached,
and it shows "APPLE ][" on the screen, your $250 for the system is pretty-much assured, no mater what else might be wrong with it.
Good luck with your sale.
Thanks for the replies folks. I'd love to plug her into a monitor but unfortunatly I don't think I have a proper adapter (no old tv's or monitors at my place). I'll see about doing a proper test before throwing it on the market. I figured those GE badges would garner some attention, it's just neat.
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Having a photo of it working increases the value but listen to those guys in saying do nothing to it at all except wipe off some surface dirt if there is any. I have worked on dozens of apple iis and i can tell you that capacitor nonsense is just that. You dont have to worry about leaky capacitors in an apple ii. They arent the smd vatiety in late 80s and 90s macs. If they fail replace them but your not in any danger.. Those system used reliable capacitors. Sell as is and the $250 range is reasonable.