Massive Vintage Apple Haul in Idaho
- Thread starter PotatoFi
- Start date
Time for another update! First, let's talk about how the CRTs fared in shipping! The first Multiple Scan 15 arrived in great shape with no breakage received during shipping. The second Multiple Scan 15 was unfortunately a different story.
The recipient did appreciate the handle enough to snap a photo:
But sadly found damage:
Fortunately, the damage was only to the plastic, and the monitor seems to work great!
So we're at 1.5/2... how about the Power Macintosh 5260, did it survive?
I am thrilled to report that it made it completely unscathed!
So what was different between the packing job for the Power Macintosh 5260 and the Multiple Scan 15? On the Power Macintosh, I put "Please do not drop! Thanks!" stickers everywhere. On the Multiple Scan 15, I put, "Please do not drop more than 8"! Thanks!" This was in an effort to give a realistic and achievable ask to whoever was handling the boxes. Either that gave them license to handle the boxes a bit more roughly, or it was simply bad luck, and the Multiple Scan 15 suffered a big drop off of a conveyor belt or something. It's hard to say.
Next, I started packaging others, like the Power Macintosh 8500s. Like the CRTs, these got the double-box treatment, but I was still pretty nervous about them arriving undamaged. With UPS, they were costing 35-50 dollars to ship, depending on how far they needed to go.
Reports of their safe arrival started to trickle in, which gave me more confidence! I started shipping machines in high volume, and also shipping out smaller machines like this IIsi:
Here is the IIsi, all packed up with some leftover Christmas wrapping paper as filler!
For a while, the UPS guy was picking up boxes twice a week! The stack on the left are IIsi and Performa 6000 machines.
The recipient did appreciate the handle enough to snap a photo:
But sadly found damage:
Fortunately, the damage was only to the plastic, and the monitor seems to work great!
So we're at 1.5/2... how about the Power Macintosh 5260, did it survive?
I am thrilled to report that it made it completely unscathed!
So what was different between the packing job for the Power Macintosh 5260 and the Multiple Scan 15? On the Power Macintosh, I put "Please do not drop! Thanks!" stickers everywhere. On the Multiple Scan 15, I put, "Please do not drop more than 8"! Thanks!" This was in an effort to give a realistic and achievable ask to whoever was handling the boxes. Either that gave them license to handle the boxes a bit more roughly, or it was simply bad luck, and the Multiple Scan 15 suffered a big drop off of a conveyor belt or something. It's hard to say.
Next, I started packaging others, like the Power Macintosh 8500s. Like the CRTs, these got the double-box treatment, but I was still pretty nervous about them arriving undamaged. With UPS, they were costing 35-50 dollars to ship, depending on how far they needed to go.
Reports of their safe arrival started to trickle in, which gave me more confidence! I started shipping machines in high volume, and also shipping out smaller machines like this IIsi:
Here is the IIsi, all packed up with some leftover Christmas wrapping paper as filler!
For a while, the UPS guy was picking up boxes twice a week! The stack on the left are IIsi and Performa 6000 machines.
I'm happy to report that so far, all of the IIsi and Performa 6000 machines have arrived safely. In fact, one of them has been featured in a @This Does Not Compute episode!
YouTube: Restoring One of Apple's Weirdest Vintage Macs! - This Does Not Compute
After getting a bunch of the 8500s, all of the Performa 6000s, and nearly all of the IIsi machine shipped out, I could turn my attention to some of the smaller items. For example, I tested (and shipped out) a bunch of CD-ROM drives:
One buyer was interested in the Performa 6400, but shipping to their country turned out to be pretty outrageous. We mutually decided to not ship it, and I took some time to clean it up and reinstall macOS. Keep in mind that up until this point, I've only been testing machines for power on, and have been doing zero cleaning or restoration work. With a bit of elbow grease (and baking soda), this machine cleaned up very nicely. After reinstalling Mac OS 8 from my external BlueSCSI, I sold it to a local vintage Mac enthusiast who was thrilled to get it. I think he and I are going to be good friends.
At this point, the pile was looking much smaller.
Next, I dug out all of my HDI-15 to DB-15 video adapter cables, and checked their price on eBay. I was shocked to see them going for $50 or more, so I decided to post them for $20/ea + shipping, and let everyone on the TinkerDifferent Discord know. I'm thrilled to report that they were gone in about an hour, and funded the next round of boxes and packing peanuts!
YouTube: Restoring One of Apple's Weirdest Vintage Macs! - This Does Not Compute
After getting a bunch of the 8500s, all of the Performa 6000s, and nearly all of the IIsi machine shipped out, I could turn my attention to some of the smaller items. For example, I tested (and shipped out) a bunch of CD-ROM drives:
One buyer was interested in the Performa 6400, but shipping to their country turned out to be pretty outrageous. We mutually decided to not ship it, and I took some time to clean it up and reinstall macOS. Keep in mind that up until this point, I've only been testing machines for power on, and have been doing zero cleaning or restoration work. With a bit of elbow grease (and baking soda), this machine cleaned up very nicely. After reinstalling Mac OS 8 from my external BlueSCSI, I sold it to a local vintage Mac enthusiast who was thrilled to get it. I think he and I are going to be good friends.
At this point, the pile was looking much smaller.
Next, I dug out all of my HDI-15 to DB-15 video adapter cables, and checked their price on eBay. I was shocked to see them going for $50 or more, so I decided to post them for $20/ea + shipping, and let everyone on the TinkerDifferent Discord know. I'm thrilled to report that they were gone in about an hour, and funded the next round of boxes and packing peanuts!
At this point, we're getting caught up to present day! Since nobody on TinkerDifferent has been asking for AppleDesign Keyboards, I cleaned them all up, tested them, and posted them to Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for $5 each. Selling things locally is MUCH easier than packing and shipping them, and this strategy has been helping me get things moved out!
Curiously, the best-looking AppleDesign Keyboard turned out to be the only one with faults; several keys don't work. The rest of them worked flawlessly.
I'm down to just a few of these left, which is a great feeling.
My wife and I organized the pile. It's come a long, long way:
From another angle. Note that the IBM XT isn't part of "the pile"... that one, I'm keeping. Overall, there are only FIVE MACHINES LEFT TO SHIP. Which is crazy - we started with over 65!
Over the weekend, I decided to tackle the huge pile of hard drives. With Mac OS 9 running off a SATA SSD and a shiny new PCI SATA card that @eric flashed for me, I used my PCI SCSI card to test and initialize hard drives, one at a time.
I went through three full milk crates packed with hard drives! I plugged them in, tested them, looked to see if they had any interesting apps, and then initialized them. If they didn't work, straight to the "recycling box"!
Here's the floor of my garage, covered in tested and working hard drives!
Curiously, the best-looking AppleDesign Keyboard turned out to be the only one with faults; several keys don't work. The rest of them worked flawlessly.
I'm down to just a few of these left, which is a great feeling.
My wife and I organized the pile. It's come a long, long way:
From another angle. Note that the IBM XT isn't part of "the pile"... that one, I'm keeping. Overall, there are only FIVE MACHINES LEFT TO SHIP. Which is crazy - we started with over 65!
Over the weekend, I decided to tackle the huge pile of hard drives. With Mac OS 9 running off a SATA SSD and a shiny new PCI SATA card that @eric flashed for me, I used my PCI SCSI card to test and initialize hard drives, one at a time.
I went through three full milk crates packed with hard drives! I plugged them in, tested them, looked to see if they had any interesting apps, and then initialized them. If they didn't work, straight to the "recycling box"!
Here's the floor of my garage, covered in tested and working hard drives!
Are you telling me that every single one of those Quantum hard drives worked??!! Wow.
Also, you’ve got to be the first person in years that’s successfully shipped a 5200 series Power Mac without damage. Good work!
Also, you’ve got to be the first person in years that’s successfully shipped a 5200 series Power Mac without damage. Good work!
Thanks! It's one of those DIY epoxy kits from Home Depot. Sadly, it's pretty scratch-prone, so I have to be careful to not slide things across it. It does mop very well though, which basically turns the garage into another clean living space. If we did it again, we would go 3x heavier on the paint chips.
There were lots of failed ones too... but the success rate was pretty high! As for the 5200, thanks!
I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised about the Quantum drives working - those Macs appeared to have been stored exceptionally well over the years. That IIsi that TDNC fixed up was the cleanest one I had ever seen. The logic board caps looked the cleanest I’d ever seen, and the ELNA caps in the PSU hadn’t spilled yet either. You pretty much never see that. I’ll bet it would have booted right up with a loud chime before having even been recapped. Good storage conditions really can help to keep rubber bumpers in those drives and seals on caps from degrading.
Back with another quick update! Today, I sorted through a few more milk crates, and got some stuff added to the list. Primarily, I added DB-15 video cables, hard drive sleds, CD-ROM sleds, LC speakers, LC fans, and a few other bits and bobs. These items are available for reservation, but don't forget to read the instructions:
Requesting Items
Here's how to claim an item! Please follow this process exactly to keep things running smoothly.
1. In the list spreadsheet, leave a comment in the ID Number cell, indicating that you're interested.
2. On the TinkerDifferent forum, send me a DM with your real name as the title (not your screen name). Note: Forum DM's only please! Replies to this thread or messages on other platforms will be ignored.
3. In the message, send me your address, and the ID Number(s) that you're interested in.
3. I will calculate a total price (item + shipping + shipping supplies), and send it to you. Note: You'll have 24 hours to decide before I release the hold on the items that you are interested in.
4. If you accept the price and pay via PayPal, I'll put you in the queue for shipping.
5. I'll let you know when your item has shipped with a tracking number.
The List!
Note that some items are free, and some are a few bucks. If you think my prices are anything higher than "an excellent deal", let me know. I'll calculate total cost including shipping before you commit to buying.
You can find the complete list here!
New Items
Here are some of the items that I added today. First, here are some hard drive slides, which include screws!
Next, some other odds and ends, such as these 820-0618-A boards. I'm not 100 percent sure what they are, but it has been suggested that they are part of a DOS compatibility kit, perhaps for a MIDI/game port.
Finally, a bunch of video cables:
NOT individually listed is this crate of Macintosh LC hard drive brackets. They include screws, a short SCSI cable, and power cable. I'm asking $4 each, and you can either request them through TinkerDifferent (using the process above), or buy them on eBay, or buy them on my Etsy shop. Tons of options!
Also not listed: hard drives! And they're FREE! Please take my hard drives!
In addition to adding items to the list, I've also posted a couple things on eBay in an attempt to help bring eBay prices down. They're mostly duplicates of the stuff on the list, and at the same prices.
Macintosh LC Hard Drive Brackets
3 foot DB-15 Video Cables
6 foot DB-15 Video Cables (will go live at 6:30 Mountain Time)
Requesting Items
Here's how to claim an item! Please follow this process exactly to keep things running smoothly.
1. In the list spreadsheet, leave a comment in the ID Number cell, indicating that you're interested.
2. On the TinkerDifferent forum, send me a DM with your real name as the title (not your screen name). Note: Forum DM's only please! Replies to this thread or messages on other platforms will be ignored.
3. In the message, send me your address, and the ID Number(s) that you're interested in.
3. I will calculate a total price (item + shipping + shipping supplies), and send it to you. Note: You'll have 24 hours to decide before I release the hold on the items that you are interested in.
4. If you accept the price and pay via PayPal, I'll put you in the queue for shipping.
5. I'll let you know when your item has shipped with a tracking number.
The List!
Note that some items are free, and some are a few bucks. If you think my prices are anything higher than "an excellent deal", let me know. I'll calculate total cost including shipping before you commit to buying.
You can find the complete list here!
New Items
Here are some of the items that I added today. First, here are some hard drive slides, which include screws!
Next, some other odds and ends, such as these 820-0618-A boards. I'm not 100 percent sure what they are, but it has been suggested that they are part of a DOS compatibility kit, perhaps for a MIDI/game port.
Finally, a bunch of video cables:
NOT individually listed is this crate of Macintosh LC hard drive brackets. They include screws, a short SCSI cable, and power cable. I'm asking $4 each, and you can either request them through TinkerDifferent (using the process above), or buy them on eBay, or buy them on my Etsy shop. Tons of options!
Also not listed: hard drives! And they're FREE! Please take my hard drives!
In addition to adding items to the list, I've also posted a couple things on eBay in an attempt to help bring eBay prices down. They're mostly duplicates of the stuff on the list, and at the same prices.
Macintosh LC Hard Drive Brackets
3 foot DB-15 Video Cables
6 foot DB-15 Video Cables (will go live at 6:30 Mountain Time)
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Requests for items have slowed down significantly, so I have decided to wind things down and send the rest to VCF for the free table! As of today, requests are now closed.
Here's what will be available on the free table at VCF. Be sure to thank Ron (Ron's Computer Videos) and Steve (mac84) for getting the box to the free table for me.
Note that there are GOBS of LC/LCII/LCIII/Performa 475/Quadra 605 hard drive brackets. I'd love to see those flood the market and drive the eBay cost down to zero.
Among the last few items to go out was this Power Macintosh G3. I opened it up really quick to make sure everything was secured before shipping.
Wait, what is that? A BATTERY!? Not sure how I missed this one!
A few people grabbed hard drives, but only 2 or 3 at a time. After things quieted down, someone asked for all of the remaining SCSI drives - I was very happy to oblige! This box had THIRTY EIGHT POUNDS of drives in it! That's a little over 17 kilograms!
Here's a big pile of boxes, waiting for the UPS guy. This included a Power Macintosh 8100, 8500, an iMac G4, a Power Macintosh G3, and a box of cables and accessories.
At this point, there's a tiny little pile of stuff left, but it isn't much. I'm going to build a new shelf in the garage for my IBM XT, clean things up a bit, and post a final photo.
Here's what will be available on the free table at VCF. Be sure to thank Ron (Ron's Computer Videos) and Steve (mac84) for getting the box to the free table for me.
Note that there are GOBS of LC/LCII/LCIII/Performa 475/Quadra 605 hard drive brackets. I'd love to see those flood the market and drive the eBay cost down to zero.
Among the last few items to go out was this Power Macintosh G3. I opened it up really quick to make sure everything was secured before shipping.
Wait, what is that? A BATTERY!? Not sure how I missed this one!
A few people grabbed hard drives, but only 2 or 3 at a time. After things quieted down, someone asked for all of the remaining SCSI drives - I was very happy to oblige! This box had THIRTY EIGHT POUNDS of drives in it! That's a little over 17 kilograms!
Here's a big pile of boxes, waiting for the UPS guy. This included a Power Macintosh 8100, 8500, an iMac G4, a Power Macintosh G3, and a box of cables and accessories.
At this point, there's a tiny little pile of stuff left, but it isn't much. I'm going to build a new shelf in the garage for my IBM XT, clean things up a bit, and post a final photo.
Thanks, @Fizzbinn!
One of the random things in "the pile" was my IBM XT. Today, we built a heavy shelf that could hold it:
Then, we cleaned out the garage, focusing on the third bay where all of the computers were. Some of my own vintage Apple stuff snuck into the pile over time, so I stacked it all up next to my workbench to deal with it later. Only 2/3 of those crates have anything in them.
With that, the third bay is completely cleared out. My wife is thrilled to have her workspace for upholstery back again:
The project is DONE. That's all, folks!
One of the random things in "the pile" was my IBM XT. Today, we built a heavy shelf that could hold it:
Then, we cleaned out the garage, focusing on the third bay where all of the computers were. Some of my own vintage Apple stuff snuck into the pile over time, so I stacked it all up next to my workbench to deal with it later. Only 2/3 of those crates have anything in them.
With that, the third bay is completely cleared out. My wife is thrilled to have her workspace for upholstery back again:
The project is DONE. That's all, folks!
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*Immediately finds another vintage computer haul*
OK, but what's under the car cover?
Nothing super special, just my 1997 BMW 328i. Dove grey interior, manual transmission, M3 limited-slip differential.
I drive it rarely enough that I keep a cover on it, as the dark blue shows dust super well.