Mac 512k w/internal Hyperdrive... Rare? Valuable?

[68Kollector]

Yep, someone gave me a fully functioning 512k with an internal HyperDrive. And, I was wondering what these puppies are worth. I'm not likely to sell it anytime soon, but it'd be good to know how big my AlBook nest egg is ATM.

If any of you have any ballpark figures or something to say on the matter, please reply! Thanks!

 

[Charlieman]

It is collectable but don't expect any accurate predictions on value. A sale price will depend on when you sell it (time of year) and whether you are prepared to ship it internationally.

 

[JDW]

Here are my Hyperdrive photos.

Post some of your photos either at Flickr or Picasa. Shoot some of the machine on the outside too, as that will better determine the value of the system overall.

I got mine on EBAY over a year ago. I personally consider the purchase price "a steal" because Hyperdrives are almost impossible to find anywhere. Believe me, I've been on EBAY a long time, and I search the web for all things classic Mac, but that was the first Hyperdrive I'd seen for sale. And the machine was in very good condition, inside and out too. I had several people bidding against me, but I still walked away with it for $75 plus shipping. At the time, shipping to Japan cost me another $75 (surface). The timing was perfect because USPS stopped offering ocean shipping in May 2007. I've largely stopped bidding on EBAY since then too. Indeed, I doubt I'll ever buy another big machine. Air shipping is outrageous (what once would cost $75 by ocean now costs over $300 by freaking air).

So while this is my personal feeling, I honestly think Hyperdrives have value IF THEY WORK and if the host Mac is in good condition. I mean really. Who other than myself has announced (until today) they own a Hyperdrive? No one! I now have a fellow Hyperdrive owner on this site. Welcome to the Hyperdrive club! :b&w:

I would think around $500 to be about right for a Hyperdrive 20 Mac in good condition. That means the Mac can boot just fine off the Hyperdrive and there are no analog board problems and the external plastics are in good shape. That also assumes its a complete Mac with keyboard and mouse, also in good shape. And for that kind of money it would probably be good to include the original picaso white plastic disk case too, as well as a carrying case or yellow floppy disk insert -- a complete set. If you don't have a complete set, the valuation drops. Just look at prices on EBAY. Macs that don't include that white picaso box sell for less money. But for a Hyperdrive setup, those things are not the main selling point. So if you lack everything but the Mac, I still think a Hyperdrive Mac has value. It's just hard to put a dollar amount on it because these drives are so rare we don't have any online sales (except mine) to compare with!

 

[Unknown_K]

I think compact prices (and add-ons) are prized much more in Japan then they are in the US. I can't see any US buyer paying $500 for that.

 

[68Kollector]

Well, it works, but no SSW for it, the owner said he booted it off a floppy which he didn't have.

Pics in a sec. Mine has no keyboard but maybe a mouse. I obviously have to clean it a little. xD

EDIT: OK, I need to get some Goo-Gone! NOW!!!

http://img.skitch.com/20080127-j2k2395i53dt3t9453h2csj1s5.jpg

 

[JDW]

no SSW for it

What is SSW?

(Sorry, I'm not into acronyms.)

Anyway, here is an EBAY Auction that is an example of the type of pricing I was talking about above. Mac128's fetch more than other compacts in that era simply because they were the first Mac made. And this particular auction is selling for a high price because of the great conditon -- which is somewhat rare. Most old compacts were left in front of a window for years or otherwise in an environment that caused rapid yellowing and deterioration of the plastics. The better the Mac looks on the outside, the more it will sell for, regardless of whether it was an ultra rare Hyperdrive in it. That's not to say the Hyperdrive has no value, but it's best to sell that value inside a pristine case!

You can also find other high dollar compact Mac sales on EBAY from time to time. Dan the Apple Mac Man is one seller who offers only premium grade machines, often in complete sets. His sets are so complete and plastics so clean that he often starts out pricing at $700. I've not see to many that are selling for that price lately, but I did a few years ago. Pricing does fluctuate though. It depends how many classic Mac lovers are trying to big on the same item at the same time.

Money aside, I love my Hyperdrive Mac because its so rare and its still useful. It's fun having a Mac do something it really wasn't designed for (unlike the SE series which accommodated an internal HD).

 

[~tl]

no SSW for it

What is SSW?

(Sorry, I'm not into acronyms.)

"System software" maybe?

 

[nowendoc]

:beige:

Hi,

FYI my experience with original Hyperdrive:

I had an original 10MB Hyperdrive when they first came out. Friend was on holidays in the States (I'm Australian) and he phoned me and said "do you want one of these new Hyperdrives? It'll cost about $AU3500." At that time I hadn't heard of them, they weren't available in Australia.

Now my Mac itself cost less than that, so it was an expensive upgrade. But at the time the only other hard disks available were serial-connected 5MB drives, which ran like sick dogs - getting back to the Desktop from an application took minutes - it was awful.

The Hyperdrive on the other hand ran like a greased pig. (In fact years later when I got a Mac SE with internal 20MB SCSI drive, I benchmarked it at line-ball with the old Hyperdrive)

If you weren't around at the time, I can tell you the original Hyperdrive was like from another galaxy - suddenly the Mac flew - the product name was accurate, and space was not an issue, very exciting. Like jumping out of the steam age. I was literally "the envy of my friends", e.g. my brother-in-law ordered one from the US the day he saw mine.

The speed and particularly the capacity made things possible/feasible, e.g. software development. I mean imagine having to run only off one floppy drive.

The 10MB ones were intermittently unreliable (errors), we managed to get a 20MB swap which was much better, although the cost of the calls to the US from Australia and the freight added up.

Re. the cost, a 500GB bare drive today is under $100 here. That makes my first Hyperdrive about 2,000,000 times more expensive, without even calculating the present value of about $AU4000 total spent in circa 1985(?).

FYI the first Mac SCSI HD I bought (upgrading SE20) was Quantum 106MB, which cost (best price) $1600. So only 75,000 times more expensive than hard-disks today...

Eventually the 20MB crapped out and by this stage the manufacturer GCC had a local presence, and they graciously swapped me an external 20MB SCSI drive.

Hope you found that interesting, and enjoy your Hyperdrives.

Nowendoc

 

[JDW]

I had an original 10MB Hyperdrive when they first came out.

Your use of the word "had" implies you do not have the drive now. But if you do, I would love to seem some photos. I'm still trying to determine the true origins of my 20MB HyperDrive mechanism, so I would love to see the manufacturer specs presented on the label affixed to the 10MB version.

 

[Aoresteen]

The only issue with the Hyperdrive is it works with MFS not HFS. It has all those drawers on the DeskTop. When they first came out I was tempted but the cost was beyond my means at the time.

When the Plus came out SCSI was the rage and Hyperdrive fell away. I don't know if they ever produced software that worked with HFS (for a 512K that got the 128K ROM & 800K drive upgrade eg 512e).

It's a nice addition to a collection. I'd give $250 for a nice working one.

Keep it clean and working. Good luck!

 

[nowendoc]

I had an original 10MB Hyperdrive when they first came out.

Your use of the word "had" implies you do not have the drive now. But if you do, I would love to seem some photos. I'm still trying to determine the true origins of my 20MB HyperDrive mechanism, so I would love to see the manufacturer specs presented on the label affixed to the 10MB version.

Yes "had", sorry. Frankly so too many old computers and not enough space. The Hyperdrives were in a 128K->512K which was sold to finance the SE, which I do have but it's very yellow (even though has been under a black cover) That one had a processor upgrade, to 16MHz I think. Hard disk won't boot though

 

[shred]

I wouldn't have thought they were that rare or valuable, although I guess there aren't many left in working order.

If I recall correctly, the Hyperdrive was rather unusual for a third party product, in that it:

a) required internal modifications to the Mac

B) didn't void warranty!

The manufacturer had come to some arrangement with Apple and had their product blessed with special holy water from Cupertino or something, because Apple's service manuals actually mentioned it as an upgrade that was "ok". This was really unusual, because with the "closed box" arrangement of the Mac and Apple's exchange program for repairing boards, they were much less tolerant of any modifications to the machine than other manufacturers at the time.

I'm pretty sure I have an old Hyperdrive board kicking around under my house somewhere that I ripped out of a Mac after the original ST-506 interface hard drive failed. It connected with the Mac logic board via a piggyback plug that went over the 68000 CPU.

 

[JDW]

Would love to see some large, crisp photos of what you have, shred.

 

[Charlieman]

General Computers used Hyperdrive as the name for several products. The first Hyperdrive required the Mac to be sent away for specialist installation. The second versions for the 512K (there were different disk sizes) were clip on affairs that were approved by Apple because they did not modify the logic board.

Hyperdrives during the Mac Plus era were also clip on devices, but contemporary adverts and press releases do not claim Apple approval for them.

 

[shred]

Would love to see some large, crisp photos of what you have, shred.

I've put the picture on photobucket, but their system has applied fairly heavy compression. If it's not clear enough, I can e-mail you a less compressed version:

Charlieman: that's interesting, I didn't know they made one for the Mac Plus - I only ever came across what I guess is the second generation of 512k HyperDrive.

 

[Charlieman]

The photo was good enough for me, Shred. Any idea what the rows of pins at P1 and P2 are for? P3 is a conventional Molex power connector but there is no corresponding output in a 128K or 512K. Power for bench testing before being shipped?

 

[shred]

P1 & P2 are the connections to the ST-506 hard drive.

I can't remember what the Molex power connector was for (haven't seen a HyperDrive in a Mac for well over 15 years now!), but since the inside of the socket isn't dusty, it must have had a plug in it when it was in the Mac. As an educated guess, I'd say that it was for power for the board itself from the hard drive power supply. The HyperDrive had its own switchmode power supply mounted up inside the back half of the Mac case, since the Mac 512 power/Sweep board wasn't up to running an internal hard drive (especially not one of that vintage).

 

[68Kollector]

So, funnily enough, I was Googling something, and I clicked on this forum. I had plumb forgot i was a member here -- it's good to be back!

Anyway, I gave it to a friend of mine... but the jerk sold it on eBay without even cleaning it up. It went for $200!