I experienced 30 minutes of intense pain this evening. I took a quick glimpse at eBay’s “Vintage Computing” listings this evening and what I saw was amazing.
That’s right. A new-in-box Apple //c system: main unit, monitor, monitor stand and AppleWorks integrated software package. Straight out of 1984 and never opened. Never. Opened.
- I bought this system from a collector who said he bought this from the original owner who had just stored it and never got around to opening or using it. I have stored this system for years in a smoke free and safe place since. It does show some wear from shipping and storage, which was mostly from the original owner, who didn’t understand what a rare item he was dealing with. To find a complete system unopened and never seeing human eyes before is unbelievable.
I have never seen another unopened Apple II C system in my life, and this belongs in a museum as this is the only way to correctly portray how a new Apple system from the early years of computing would arrive.
This is the prize of Apple and Vintage Computer collecting
When I encountered the auction there were 31 minutes left and the bid was at $920. Too rich for my blood these days, sadly. But I was racked with pain in being unable to bid. I felt a little better when I saw the final auction ending price…. $2,553.00. To lend some perspective, back in 1984 the retail price of the Apple //c main unit was $1299. A rare find that went for a rather exorbitant amount.
Still, it would be lovely to have…despite the fact that I’ve already got an Apple //c put to good use on my office desk.
It was a hard nut to swallow, spending that much on a vintage computer. I could have saved some money and picked up a MacBook Air. But my first computer was an Apple //c, and I’ve let three other similar auctions slip through my fingers. I wasn’t going to let it happen again.
I’m sure there are those who will cringe when they hear this, but I opened it up last night. I thought about letting it accrue collector’s value, but I didn’t buy it as an investment.
http://flickr.com/photos/dansays/sets/72157603835099525/
Interestingly enough, this particular Apple IIc is not even a vintage (original) model. “Straight out of 1984…”; not quite, let’s try straight out of late 1987.
That’s right, the serial number printed on the box (E7362LFA2S4100) indicates it was manufactured September 1987, produced just one year before the Apple IIc Plus that superseded it. That makes it the memory expandable Apple IIc with ROM version ‘3’ of the firmware.
Also worth pointing out, the video display included here isn’t the cute and familiar 9″ green photographed and pictured on the IIc box. It’s the boxy 12″ black and white one from the late 80’s. And the packaging style of the boxed stand, that puts about, oh, 1989-90. Even AppleWorks isn’t all that vintage here, it appears to be the later version 2.x.
Certainly a nice collectible being new-in-the-box, but (gasp!) $2,500? As it happens I picked up the very same model Apple IIc, in like-new condition, from a thrift shop a few years back for exactly $2.50. No boxes, no monitor, no Appleworks, but with one less zero in the price.
-Mitch
3 less zeros actually… but yes, I agree
Dan,
Glad to see you won the IIc and are enjoying it. I was one of the other bidders for that-in fact, I was one of the people who one of those other IIc set-ups “slipped through your fingers” to (the one offered by LoranInc-and yes, the one he had up for sale a week earlier got away from me too-wasn’t aware there was even one other before that, though). I was actually going to try to go for that one (i.e. the one you got) too, since that one *was* actually “NIB”, but I decided against it-figured I already had the one, it had everything but the original boxes and promotional materials/bills of lading, so that was good enough, and I figured “ah, what the heck-let him (i.e. you) be happy and have it!” (Besides, my wife and I still live in an apartment, and I think she’d kill me if I brought one more computer into it! lol Do have to admit though, that I absolutely *love* my “new IIc-I use it now almost as much as this iMac G4 I’m writing this on.)
Just FYI though, had I won it, I would’ve done exactly what you did. Even if I were ever in a position to buy something like, say, a ’53 Vette, well, lets just say that while it wouldn’t become my “daily driver”, it wouldn’t sit for the rest of my life in a climate controlled room like some religious relic or something, either. I’m not one for that.
Lastly,you should contact the guys who do the RetroMacCast-they’d probably *love* to interview you!
Yea, when I saw the style of the monitor and of the //c box I knew it was not 1984, but that’s when the original //c was release so I went with it borrowing a little poetic license. :-)
I got my original //c back in the summer of 1984…
http://pix.blakespot.com/view/computers/apple2c/appleIIc.jpg.html
and I also owned a IIc Plus at one point. As I mentioned in the main article here, I get daily use out of my current //c in the office where it serves as an IRC chat terminal tied to my MacBook Pro.
The //c. Frog Design goodness at its best. “Sexy” is the word.
While I love the way the original 9″ monitor looks in photographs, I’ve seen it in person many times and it always looked oddly proportioned when sitting on its stand. Just my perception, but I’m happy with the 12″ monitor.
Whether it’s a “vintage” 1984-era computer doesn’t concern me. I know a lot of people will balk at the price I paid, but I’m thrilled with my purchase. I got to re-live Christmas morning, 1985, when twelve-year-old Dan opened his very first computer and carefully set it up in his bedroom. How many people get to do that?
Had to add I got some enjoyment looking at those photographs of the (brand new) Apple IIc being opened, I missed them earlier. Funny, it’s a small and almost irrelevant detail, but I had completely forgotten about the pink plastic bags Apple used to wrap computers in. Gave me some flash backs of opening my (then new) Apple IIgs exactly 20 years ago last month, and yes, it had those same bags, same type of packing lists and similar promotional materials.
Got me nostalgic. I just dug up an a price list from an Apple dealer in Vermont called “Applied Graphics”. It’s dated, coincidentally, October 1987.
Found this bundle they had on the Apple IIc at that time (re-typed just as they had it):
//C COLOR SYSTEM
—————-
//c CPU
Color Monitor
ImageWriter // Printer
Free: //c Mouse or Computer Supplies or Software valued at: 100.00
TOTAL VALUE $1903.00
With Your Apple Rebate -100.00
With Value of Free Merchandise -100.00
YOUR FINAL COST $1,703.00
More fun stuff, when I was at the Apple dealership in 1987, I grabbed all the glossy promotional material they had, which included a booklet on the same Apple IIc bought in this auction. Been meaning to scan it along with the others.
Why in the world do all of the Apple II emulators require an actual system rom that no one includes? If people had an actual Apple II, they wouldn’t be looking for emulators! Are people worried that Apple is going to sue them over distributing an Apple II rom?
@Jason’s: “Are people worried that Apple is going to sue them over distributing an Apple II rom?”
Quite. Apple legal can and very possibly would take protective action against anyone who worked such a bundle. It’s the same with Mac ROMs or the ROMs of many other systems being emulated. The Atari ST emulator I use, NoSTalgia, comes with an Atari TOS ROM-like ROM that can be legally bundled and provides some level of ST functionality. But indeed most people run out and download a true ROM image from a site somewhere or maybe even actually dump a ROMfile from a machine they legitimately own. (It’s been known to happen!)
Wow. I mean look at the photos
he took, the unaged snow white design just pops out
from these photos. Simply Amazing.
Oh yeah, the Apple //c. It was my first machine too. I got it back in 1986 when I was 11. I loved that machine. Programs like Appleworks, Dazzle Draw, FantaVision and Multiscribe had an appeal that has never been matched since.
Saw me through until 1990, when I got a 286 system. I hated that 286. It was a good machine, but it had none of the charm of my little //c.
Le sigh.
MtD
As a working IT professional, I have gone back to school to finish my bachelor’s degree in CompSci.
Here’s a question for you folks: Would an Apple //c be a good choice for using to learn assembly language on?
Jason
We did get to interview Dan about his new //c. Look for that interview in episode 57 of the RetroMacCast.
Hi Jason,
An Apple //c (or any Apple ][) is wonderful to learn assembly language from. It’s where I learnt it on and even though I haven’t done any assembly programming since 1993 (when I interned at Geoworks), I find it helpful to understand how the computer actually executes your code.
On an Apple //, you can simply enter “call -151” and start disassembling the OS and ROM and enter your own assembled machine code for experimenting. Very fun.
Hi gents, ive just been clearing out my fathers old stuff an have found a boxed apple c2, the monitor stand, monitor and disc unit is boxed (but used) and the main keyboard unit is in a carry case. Is there a decent market out there for this still? I can take some pics an post em up later if anyone is interested?
Thanks
Marc
This reminds me when I passed a complete in box Commodore 128 setup that had the computer, the monitor, the printer and I think they were unopened and the boxes were in perfect condition. That was 2 years ago and I still regret it, they were asking for a hundred bucks for the lot.