jsarchibald
Well-known member
Back in November last year, I noticed an eBay auction for a bulk Vintage Mac Museum come up, with a starting bid of 99 cents. I expected some furious bidding, as the listing talked about a massive collection filling a 40 foot container. I was able to piece together that the collection was shown on his website, which talked about a stupid number of systems, including Mac Portable, TechStep, Compacts (Plus/SE/Classic), Mac II’s, Colour Classics, etc.
What happened next surprised even myself – I won it all for 99 cents.
I planned to go get it all over the Australia Day long weekend (26th January) with my wife, after we had gotten back from our Christmas / New Year’s trip to the US and Canada. I researched all methods to get it home, as it is a 16 hour drive away. I did all the planning I could. But nothing could anticipate being laid off the first day back at work after the holiday.
As a result, I had to call the trip off. It was heartbreaking, but I never let it go. I found a job 2 months later, and thought I would contact the seller to see if I could still go ahead. To my amazement, it was back on like Donkey Kong. Needless to say, the wife was unimpressed…
So, a 16 hour drive with a massive trailer on the back was fun…we were wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. We decided to go at Easter, as there was an unprecedented 5 days off in a row thanks to Public Holidays. After two long days of driving, and an overnight stop on the way, we finally made it.
The collection was housed in an old Army barracks, which unfortunately was partially open to the elements. The collection was placed there about 10 years ago, and a combo of drought meant that there was dust through everything, and plenty of recent rain meant items near the windows copped some abuse. Oh, and the possums in the roof ruined quite a few good systems too…
But what a find! My collection swelled from about 20 to well over 100, not to mention hard to find items that I’d never see otherwise. I grabbed a 128K, several 512Ks, a dozen Pluses, a dozen SEs, a couple of SE/30’s, a mix of Classic and Classic II, some Colour Classics, a mint Performa 275, a Macintosh Portable with carry case and manuals in great condition (but needs a recap methinks), a dozen Mac II/IIx, a IIfx, several //e’s and matching monitors, a couple of //c’s with monitors, a TechStep in case with the two ROM packs, a couple of IIGS’s (ROM 1 and 3), a couple of SC20s, a couple of HD20s, a mix of IIcx’s, IIsi’s, IIci’s, IIvx, Quadra 605, a couple of 700s (one with a DX2/66 card in it), a Workgroup Server 60, a G3 Server, a PM 6100, and a couple of 100 series PowerBooks.
Systems complete in original boxes include an SE, LC, Quadra 700, Apple CD 300, and a PM6100 DOS Compatible. They have their manuals, warranty cards, etc, and the keyboards, inserts, disks, everything. I also got an Apple 150 External CD Drive, a couple of 300s, a new Adjustable Keyboard in box, hundreds of disks (5.25, 3.5, system stuff, old games), Apple Service Technician manuals (the silver and blue covers), manuals galore back to the 128K, Picasso box with all the original software and manual, several soft carry cases, some Disk ][ drives, 3.5 and 5.25 drives, spare mobos, Ethernet cards, processor upgrades and accelerator cards (like Sonnet, and a 1988 Quesse SE upgrade), Syquest and Zip drives and disks, and shedloads of keyboards, meeces, power cords, ADB cables, connectors, everything. I have so much stuff and I’m sure I’ve missed a lot. I love that I can play with certain systems and dig into a box for spares if I need to.
Anyway, I’ve been wanting to share for a while but I’ve been flat out cleaning and sorting what I have, and decided to take a few minutes out to share the story.
It may not look like it, but there is so much stuff here. I don't think I've shown a photo with everything I got. That picture of my garage doesn't show that it was unwalkable a few days later.
What happened next surprised even myself – I won it all for 99 cents.
I planned to go get it all over the Australia Day long weekend (26th January) with my wife, after we had gotten back from our Christmas / New Year’s trip to the US and Canada. I researched all methods to get it home, as it is a 16 hour drive away. I did all the planning I could. But nothing could anticipate being laid off the first day back at work after the holiday.
As a result, I had to call the trip off. It was heartbreaking, but I never let it go. I found a job 2 months later, and thought I would contact the seller to see if I could still go ahead. To my amazement, it was back on like Donkey Kong. Needless to say, the wife was unimpressed…
So, a 16 hour drive with a massive trailer on the back was fun…we were wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. We decided to go at Easter, as there was an unprecedented 5 days off in a row thanks to Public Holidays. After two long days of driving, and an overnight stop on the way, we finally made it.
The collection was housed in an old Army barracks, which unfortunately was partially open to the elements. The collection was placed there about 10 years ago, and a combo of drought meant that there was dust through everything, and plenty of recent rain meant items near the windows copped some abuse. Oh, and the possums in the roof ruined quite a few good systems too…
But what a find! My collection swelled from about 20 to well over 100, not to mention hard to find items that I’d never see otherwise. I grabbed a 128K, several 512Ks, a dozen Pluses, a dozen SEs, a couple of SE/30’s, a mix of Classic and Classic II, some Colour Classics, a mint Performa 275, a Macintosh Portable with carry case and manuals in great condition (but needs a recap methinks), a dozen Mac II/IIx, a IIfx, several //e’s and matching monitors, a couple of //c’s with monitors, a TechStep in case with the two ROM packs, a couple of IIGS’s (ROM 1 and 3), a couple of SC20s, a couple of HD20s, a mix of IIcx’s, IIsi’s, IIci’s, IIvx, Quadra 605, a couple of 700s (one with a DX2/66 card in it), a Workgroup Server 60, a G3 Server, a PM 6100, and a couple of 100 series PowerBooks.
Systems complete in original boxes include an SE, LC, Quadra 700, Apple CD 300, and a PM6100 DOS Compatible. They have their manuals, warranty cards, etc, and the keyboards, inserts, disks, everything. I also got an Apple 150 External CD Drive, a couple of 300s, a new Adjustable Keyboard in box, hundreds of disks (5.25, 3.5, system stuff, old games), Apple Service Technician manuals (the silver and blue covers), manuals galore back to the 128K, Picasso box with all the original software and manual, several soft carry cases, some Disk ][ drives, 3.5 and 5.25 drives, spare mobos, Ethernet cards, processor upgrades and accelerator cards (like Sonnet, and a 1988 Quesse SE upgrade), Syquest and Zip drives and disks, and shedloads of keyboards, meeces, power cords, ADB cables, connectors, everything. I have so much stuff and I’m sure I’ve missed a lot. I love that I can play with certain systems and dig into a box for spares if I need to.
Anyway, I’ve been wanting to share for a while but I’ve been flat out cleaning and sorting what I have, and decided to take a few minutes out to share the story.
It may not look like it, but there is so much stuff here. I don't think I've shown a photo with everything I got. That picture of my garage doesn't show that it was unwalkable a few days later.
