Anyone else noticed the rise in value of compact Macs?

[GnatGoSplat]

Is it my imagination, or has vintage compact Macs skyrocketed in value?

Years ago, I had bought a broken Mac Classic to butcher into a Hackintosh like so many before me have done (a far more dignified fate for an old compact Mac than a Macquarium, IMO). I found it in Completed Auctions on eBay for 99-cents+$15 S&H with no bids. I offered seller something like $20 shipped, and he went for it. I don't get things done very fast, so the Mac sat, for years. Recently, I decided it sat long enough and it was time to get something done. However, I decided to see if I could get it to work first. Turns out, all it needed was the HDD reformatted and OS installed, and voila! Working Mac Classic. Seeing that happy Mac boot right up to its vintage 6.0.7 gave me pause about the extensive modifications I had in store for it. I decided to check values - if it's still worth nothing, might as well finish the project, if it's worth something, I would sell and look for a truly broken one to butcher. But I checked eBay and working examples are going for $80+ now!

http://www.ebay.com/csc/Vintage-Computing-/11189/i.html?LH_Complete=1&_trkparms=65%253A15%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1&rt=nc&_nkw=mac+classic&_catref=1&_npmv=3&_sticky=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_sop=13&_sc=1

Wow! What happened? Will the value stay this high, or is it a temporary rise in demand sparked by the death of Steve Jobs?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Interesting hypothesis! No clue as to the answer, but it's a fascinating prospect . . . :?:

 

[MapGuy42]

Very interesting. I can say for my own part that it was the death of Steve Jobs that caused me to suddenly become very, very keen on having a compact Mac to play with, to see where it (well, the Macintosh at least) all began. (And therefore I found this forum!) I am lucky enough that my dad has had a couple sitting in their bags for ages now, so I have access to one.

But barring that, I have taken a look at eBay, and $50+shipping and up is what I find. I thought that was just the going rate, so when I read on here that you should be able to get a compact for a song, I thought, where is this, then, because from where I sit, they seem to have some value!

Maybe it's temporary, or maybe retrocomputing will be the new trend for a couple years, like steampunk and lomography were before. It could be I'm self selecting, but there seems to me to be a lot of interest in collecting and understanding early computers lately.

 

[Bunsen]

It's been going up, with random fluctuations, for several years. Crazy money for working, mint systems with all accessories, manuals and boxes. Colour Classics peaked a few years ago, fell, are rising again.

Jeez, I sound like a stockbroker.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Commodities Trader!

. . . maybe retrocomputing will be the new trend for a couple years . . .

It can ONLY gain in popularity, there isn't hardly ANYTHING in current technology that someone can actually tinker around with in order to learn about electronics. Parents and offspring need to have something to bond over more than ever in this day of cell phone twiddling & gaming.

Heck, even CrapShack is getting back to its RadioShack roots, offering MORE components and kits than under the PhoneShack business model.

Definitely, there's a trend brewing here somewhere! :approve:

 

[Mac128]

I have noticed a large number of listings that prominently yet arbitrarily throw in Steve Jobs name in the listing title, e.g. "Vintage Macintosh Steve Jobs!". Especially annoying are the ones that trumpet "signed by Steve Jobs" referring to the inside case molding.

While I've not done any formal comparisons, Jobs' death seems to have sparked a surge in interest in vintage Mac prices. The fact that the new bestselling book, and Apple have liberally used that famous picture of Jobs posing with the Mac in his lap has no doubt piqued interest from the current generation of Jobs fanboys who were not previously aware of his significant contribution to the original Mac. 128K prices I can attest have skyrocketed since his death.

There may be other factors, like a new generation of Mac enthusiasts who have come of age with disposable income, inflating prices. This seems to be a cyclical trend on eBay which may be in part explained by this ...

 

[mcdermd]

I'd also like to say that the uptick in electronics "recycling" have caused a lot of the old equipment (not just Macs) to be tossed instead of circulating through a reuse pool (passed on, scrapped for parts, or sold on the used market). Dwindling supply has pushed prices higher. They seem to have been steadily going up since electronics "recycling" became more common.

 

[jonathan]

about a month ago i witnessed a crazy bidding war on eBay over a functioning Apple Hard Drive 20SC with a clean install of SSW 6.0. things ended very well for the seller with the bids topping out in the +$200 range!

 

[Byrd]

Definately the sad passing of Jobs has increased prices, perhaps only for the short term. As always, eBay is not a valid guide of vintage Mac prices - there are some very erratic prices, sales and bidding wars that go on. What's true is that working systems, parts and peripherals are getting much thinner on the ground, and apart from early Apple systems, most things are still not worth much at all.

JB

 

[Hrududu]

Now might be a good time for thinning out my herd. I've got several compact Macs that will probably have to find new homes soon anyways, so I wonder if this trend will increase over time or fall back off once the Steve Jobs news wears off.

 

[classic]

Yep. I recently sold an SE FDHD for $AU212.50.

I put in a half a gig drive and it did come with an extended keyboard, adb mouse, zip drive and a macrecorder.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/120791825980?ssPageName=STRK%3AMESOX%3AIT&_trksid=p3984.m1559.l2649

Funny thing is the Sydney Theatre Company bought it for Cate Blanchett to use in the play ""Gross und Klein" (Big and small)

The SE FDHD is going to travel the world and be famous, but tis a little sad that it will live out the rest of its days as a mere prop..

apart from early Apple systems, most things are still not worth much at all.

Compare the SE auction to the Beige G4 I sold:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Apple-Macintosh-Beige-G4-totally-maxed-out-/120771598193

In computing today I guess people are mostly more interested in form than function...

there isn't hardly ANYTHING in current technology that someone can actually tinker around with in order to learn about electronics

I had a LOT of fun tinkering with that beige beauty!!

But in the end I got frustrated with the lack of sync on the wings card.

I now have a B&W G4 with an xmicro capture card that does my digitizing just great!

 

[Unknown_K]

Prices have been going up way before Jobs passed away. I think it just has to do with Apple computers being popular these days and the massive supply of older machines being scrapped (of all kinds). Recycling has realy kicked in so much that even old 386/486 machines people used to have laying around the attic are gone (and command a few dollars these days). Working machines especially command a premium since people don't seem to be too technically minded to make even easy fixes (you cannot copy and paste somebody elses work to fix a dead capacitor like you can with software). Most hoarders seem to have stacks of broken machines missing parts.

I can see Jobs dying causing the price of Macworld issue #1 going from $40 to $200+, but not for later compacts that he had nothing to do with anyway.

Anybody who has been collecting for a while has probably noticed the common machines you could not give away 5 or 10 years ago now command money because they were all trashed when nobody wanted them. I still find it amusing how much Apple IIgs systems sell for now when a few years back people were flooded with them begging you to cover shipping just to make them go away.

Give it another decade or two and people will be collecting laptops instead of desktops because that is what their first computer was or what they had in school.

I also wonder when people here post about their Classic II for example if people who lurk on the forums decide they want to get one causing a small spike in interest on ebay? Back when people were building up their SE/30's there was also a spike in costs on ebay. The value of specific items is built on the demand by a few people. If somebody who hoarded decided to post 10 auctions of each 68K mac model made he would probably crash the ebay market.

There are some people with very deep pockets who pay a hell of alot of money for something they need, but that tends to be rare shrinkwrapped software and complete pristine systems. A few times I had some oddball item I wanted gone I was shocked what some people were willing to pay for them.

 

[Bunsen]

Not just Macs either. Don't know about where you all live, but the price of a working Commodore 64 on ebay.au is redonkulous, even though there's a half-dozen of them listed pretty much always

 

[Bunsen]

there isn't hardly ANYTHING in current technology that someone can actually tinker around with in order to learn about electronics

I ... dispute that. I dispute that a lot. It's more that the interesting stuff has moved online (you know, where the kids are all at anyway 8-P ), rather than being in the high street shops.

What with Make Zine and the makers and hackers movement, chiptunes and circuit bent music, the revival of interest in analog synths and building them, hackaday, the thousands of microcontroller hobby sites, FPGAs, configurable computers like the C-One, the Commodore DTV, Arduinos, Lego and other cheap robotics, Instructables, DIY videos on youtube, cable TV shows like Robot Wars and Junkyard Wars aka Scrapheap Challenge - not to mention all those car, home, and bike modding shows - hell, cake modding - etc etc etc, IMO there's a huge resurgence in this scene in the last decade.

I can throw some links and search tips at the screen if anyone wants, though the paragraph above should get you started ;-) Couple other places definitely worth a look- the Makerstore, Adafruit, Jeri Ellsworth's youtube channel.

 

[bigmessowires]

What with Make Zine and the makers and hackers movement, chiptunes and circuit bent music, the revival of interest in analog synths and building them, hackaday, the thousands of microcontroller hobby sites, FPGAs, configurable computers like the C-One, the Commodore DTV, Arduinos, Lego and other cheap robotics, Instructables, DIY videos on youtube, cable TV shows like Robot Wars and Junkyard Wars aka Scrapheap Challenge - not to mention all those car, home, and bike modding shows - hell, cake modding - etc etc etc, IMO there's a huge resurgence in this scene in the last decade.

I was going to say something similar, but you've summed it up nicely.

What is true is that your average consumer-oriented gizmo of today, like an iPad or LCD TV or laptop, is so highly integrated that it's not really possible to tinker with its electronics.

 

[Scott Baret]

I too have seen the "Steve Jobs" line added to the auction titles. Everything has been selling--not just compacts. (Of course, I did snag a working Pismo for $26 last week, which was pretty good--and only a fraction of the cost of some of the items I've seen lately--18+ bids on a LaserWriter?)

Anything Jobs-related is going up in price. I mentioned in a Lounge thread how black mock turtlenecks seem to be selling very well. The new biography was #1 on Amazon's list last time I checked.

As I've always said, remember the laws of supply and demand. Older Macs are nowhere near as plentiful as they were a decade ago, when schools were upgrading and private parties gave Macs away at garage sales. Since then, many have been parted out or recycled (

). They're not "rare", as many sellers would lead you to believe, but the smaller supply of working Macs has led to a rise in prices, especially as more and more people look for that great example of a compact.

 

[techknight]

just hit up ebay again for shits and giggles, its absolute insanity over there. as i figured it would be. mac SE system in the bag has excess of 40 bids.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-APPLE-MACINTOSH-SE-RARE-ORIGINAL-CARRYING-CASE-BAG-/330628316867?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cfafbbec3

Then theres an apple lisa with a BIN of $299. LOL.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Lisa-Computer-Model-A6S0300-Memory-Option-A6S0304-Vintage-1983-/190590226178?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c60100f02

Mac plus broken with checkerboard screen, 14 bids at 150 bucks already.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/APPLE-MACINTOSH-M0001A-MAC-PLUS-VINTAGE-COMPUTER-SYSTEM-PLUS-BAG-MOUSE-BOOKS-/130591513101?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e67dc5a0d

theres a macintosh classic system, no books, no manuals, etc, just keyboard and mouse, with about 40 bids.

Then theres a mac classic that doesnt work for $12.99 BIN price. LOL. its insanity.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Apple-Macintosh-Classic-Computer-Mac-M4120-parts-restore-project-/250919290157?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a6bf4852d

Of course, color classic is on the rise again:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ultimate-Apple-Macintosh-Color-Classic-Computer-Bundle-TESTED-WORKING-/250916628852?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a6bcbe974

I realize that the USD inflation has risen, but wow.... really?

 

[mcdermd]

A Lisa for $300 is pretty exceptional. A badly yellowed Lisa with corrosive battery damage, an EPROM exposed to light and no keyboard or mouse is quite a bit less exceptional.

 

[GnatGoSplat]

Then theres a mac classic that doesnt work for $12.99 BIN price. LOL. its insanity.http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Apple-Macintosh-Classic-Computer-Mac-M4120-parts-restore-project-/250919290157?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a6bf4852d

I might have been interested in that one if not for the $45 S&H!