IT repairman seeks home for Apple collection, possibly world's largest | Hacker News Reader

IT repairman seeks home for Apple collection, possibly world's largest

ca.reuters.com

29 pointsrazer610 comments

Strange that this guy's business was bankrupted by the anti-competitive practices of the company he loves so much yet he doesn't seem to be that upset about it.

Sadly this happens frequently in the world of vintage computing. Hoarders collect stuff for years, get deep in the red, and then must get rid of everything RIGHT NOW or else everything's destroyed.

The mentality of hoarding doesn't allow for slowly parting out collections and maximizing preservation, which is what we should be trying to achieve.

Paul Allen's Living Computer Museum + Lab in Seattle may want them. Anyone have a contact there to put them in touch?

I'd watch a Youtube series talking about Apple hardware releases. Talking about the changes since the last version, maybe some stories if they're well known, as well as demonstrating actual machines in use.

Something along the lines of what 8-bit guy does.

Why the hell are the options always “someone support me” or “shred/bulldoze it?” Does he not realize he could probably pay the rent and retire by parting his collection out?

I read it as, he owes money on a warehouse, and if he can't pay that debt the contents will be seized and likely destroyed.

Why not donate the stuff if he can’t afford to keep them?

If the warehouse has been foreclosed on, there may well be a demand of back-due rent before he can get his property. This is not an uncommon situation. It depends on the contract signed, but the owner of the warehouse may very well now have possession of the complete contents until back-due rent is paid. This is very common in rental storage units in the US, as well.

I sold my Apple IIGS around the year 2000 for $600 on eBay. Buyer spent an additional $600 for shipping from Canada to California. The buyer was getting it as a gift for a friend who was retiring from Apple and worked on the Apple IIGS.

A quick scan of eBay today is showing $1,200 to $1,800 for an complete functioning Apple IIGS. If he has 1,100 computers, I can see him getting to $23,000-35,000 pretty easily.

Very interesting. I have three complete ][gs "Woz" editions sitting in storage somewhere, that I rescued from a school computer lab where they were being thrown out in ~2004. I also snagged the Macintosh that was used as the server for the network, and all the backup media that I could find. There's a copy of Oregon Trail in there somewhere, that I played in school :)

Maybe I should find them...

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