Nice 128K Mac Upgraded To Plus

[Mac128]

I really like both the story and history behind this 128K/Mac Plus hybrid.

The eBay seller has also posted some nice high resolution images on his own website.

In particular take a look at the security slot on the back which was used for the Radius display port, clearly custom designed for the space. The original receipts are also fantastic to see.

The front bezel has a serial number of F4031ADM0001, which means it was manufactured the week before they went on the market. It also makes it very tempting for an unscrupulous eBay seller to switch the bezel onto a proper 128K back and pass it off as the original.

This is the best kind of eBay auction, in that there is full disclosure, no hype, no reserve and left to the market to determine an appropriate selling price.

 

[equill]

... This is the best kind of eBay auction, in that there is full disclosure, no hype, no reserve and left to the market to determine an appropriate selling price.

Agreed. As you wrote, a model of disclosure and unhyped description.

And, as a machine that worked for its keep, there needs to be no apology for its upgrades, nor any sense that the Mac is somehow inferior or untrue to its origins. That security slot was a prime candidate for re-education to some useful purpose, keeping 'mutilation' of the case-bucket to a minimum. The Dove SCSI card that I added to my 512Ke makes use of it for the DB-25 port, avoiding the contrived refabrication of the battery cover as planned by Dove, and I have no sense of shame in having added it.

de

 

[Charlieman]

Thanks to the recorded history and receipts, that is a very collectable piece. The upgrade history adds to its appeal rather than detracting.

I'll disagree with Mac128 partly about restoring it as a 128K, which would require a replacement first generation logic board, first generation rear case bucket, 400KB floppy drive and stubby keyboard. If the parts are from the right period, it could be restored to original specification, if you apply the rules that apply for historic cars. The restorer would need to be honest about the process and history of the Mac, so that there was no deception about provenance.

If I bought that Mac, I'd be tempted to restore it to original spec if it was the only Mac 128K that I would ever own -- but I'd keep the upgrade bits with it to maintain continuity.

It's pity about the distance and exchange rate, because I really fancy it.

 

[Rasmus]

These are exactly the kinds of issues that any attempt to give useful advice about pricing should probably address.

The key question for me is the analog board. If it has a working original 820-0082-B (with the metal shield along the top at BB1) board, that would up the amount I'd pay for it (I have no money these days, so I'm not your competition if anyone's interested in it). But that is highly unlikely for a machine that has seen such heavy use. Such a board in good working order is extremely rare.

Its main value otherwise is the receipts, the serial number, and the history. Nice! I mean, if one was really going to do a museum exhibition on the early history of the Mac, something like this would be a great addition to the show, because it illustrates what happened to a lot of these machines.

 

[Mac128]

I'll disagree with Mac128 partly about restoring it as a 128K, which would require a replacement first generation logic board, first generation rear case bucket, 400KB floppy drive and stubby keyboard. If the parts are from the right period, it could be restored to original specification, if you apply the rules that apply for historic cars. The restorer would need to be honest about the process and history of the Mac, so that there was no deception about provenance.

I agree with much of your thread. I too agree there is more value in that example as a collectable than one might assume at first glance. And of course you hit the nail on the head, that the restorer would need to be honest about the restoration process.

Unfortunately, I have become somewhat cynical of the high volume sellers. An easy way to increase profit in re-sale would be to simply swap the back of an existing 128K with a later manufacture date. In my experience, the 128K with the earliest serial numbers tend to fetch the higher prices. An easy increase in the profit one might have reaped from the same sale. Also, some of these sellers have a big problem with UPS damaging an awful lot of these 128Ks. Most of the damage tends to be around the bezels I've seen. A quick switch and the 128K is back in the black. Of course the problem with that is as Eric points out, the history of this Mac is well known, yet likely not imparted by the re-seller, not to mention the original 128K analogue board which has been overtaxed and heavily used as a 512K, also undisclosed to the buyer, who may well end up with a Mac he paid high dollar for, that dies shortly after acquiring it. Another likely scenario is that a seller has acquired a number of spare parts for the 128K, either individually or from a so-called "non-working" system. They turn up on eBay all the time, often for very little money, including the logicboards. Only the complete working systems tend to command top dollar. So constructing a 128K from scratch might not be as difficult a proposition as supposed. This is most easily illustrated by the bits and pieces of the original packaging from the disks to the box, sold routinely on eBay and eventually put together to form a complete boxed system that fetches far more than the individual parts.

Not to belabor the point, but one incident in particular left me cold. A "reputable" high-volume seller posted detailed pictures of an early Mac 128K, with a picture of the logicboard from a late run model, selling it as a stock original. A few well placed questions later I discovered the seller backpeddled from several positions he took to explain the discrepancy and ultimately said it was the wrong picture. None of the conversation was included on the auction and the photographs were not changed, though the auction specifically stated the buyer would receive exactly what was pictured.

 

[shred]

The 128k/512k to Mac Plus upgrade was quite popular at the time. Sadly, it turned the computer into a Mac Plus, so the upgrade has (to my mind) completely negated any value of the computer as a collectable. It's not even a good, clean, original Mac Plus. In fact, the only original bits are probably the front of the case, the CRT and the brightness knob.

Rasmus: at some stage in it's life, the Mac would have almost certainly had the power/sweep board "repaired" (replaced under Apple's exchange program). A Mac Plus used solidly for 8 years would be very unlikely to have escaped power supply problems.