Hey TinkerDifferent! It's the last day or #MARCHintosh2020, which seems like a good time to share this!
Something happened.
Something big.
This is what my garage looked like about two weeks ago.
If you want to hear the whole story, I recorded a YouTube video describing what happened, and what I plan to do with this collection! You can find it here:
YouTube: Massive Vintage Apple Haul
What Happened?!
The story began a few weeks ago (maybe six?) when someone posted "some Macs" on Facebook Marketplace. He posted 6-10 Macs, mostly laptops, but said he didn't know what they were worth. I responded to the ad, asking if I could come take a look and help assess what he had, and he replied with, "I'll sell you the whole lot for $2,500."
I had no idea what he had, and thought he had visited eBay and thought his 10 Macs were worth way more than they are, so I didn't bother responding.
A few weeks later, he sent me another message: "Still interested?"
I replied asking if he had a photo of everything, to which he replied with a video of him panning around a cargo trailer. It was pretty mind-boggling! Then, he offered me the whole thing for $1,000. I hemmed and hawed about it for awhile, noting that even getting them home would be a massive challenge.
He asked where I lived, and then said, "$1,000 and I will deliver them to you."
That was it. I drove to his location to make sure the offer was real (and it was), and then helped him rearrange the trailer for transport. We brought some moving blankets, and tried to pack things tightly for the 30+ minute drive across town. Here's what it looked like before he followed me back to my house:
We have a third bay in our garage that my wife uses for upholstery, so we cleared that out as fast as possible and helped him unload the trailer. The photos at the beginning of the thread are a few minutes after that happened - we just piled everything in there as fast as possible. He wrote up a bill of sale, and it was done!
I now have 60+ Macs in my garage.
What am I going to do with them?
The whole point of this project is to get these machines into the hands of retro Macintosh enthusiasts. I'm going to hang on to a few (like the LCIII, LC475, external CD-ROM drive, and 12" PowerBook G4), but the rest I intend to sell off at nominal prices.
Local pickup is a bit of a problem, as I am in Boise, Idaho. Salt Lake City is 6 hours East, and Portland is 6 hours West. If anyone wants to come and grab a bunch to haul to a major city, I'd welcome that! We might also need to consider some creative alternatives, like palletizing a bunch and shipping them to VCF.
Or maybe nobody wants these machines at all, and now I have a billion Macs on my hands that nobody wants! I'm interested in hearing what people think, and if there are any creative ideas for getting these into people's hands.
As for the money... obviously, I want to make my money back, but I'm going to try to keep these as affordable as possible, especially if we need to ship stuff. The only "Beige Whale" I have left is a Color Classic... so maybe there's a big trade in here somewhere? I don't know.
Several friends, on seeing the photos, immediately send me money to help fund the whole thing! They've claimed a handful of machines already, but the majority will be made available soon. I would ask that you refrain from asking for machines for a bit - I need to set up a good system for that.
The Project So Far
I've tested some of them, and I've been pulling batteries at every opportunity! I'll post an update video about where things are at soon.
What I (Probably) Have
I'll post a complete list when I'm ready to start moving them out, but it looks something like this:
That's it for now! I'm looking forward to hearing what you think!
Something happened.
Something big.
This is what my garage looked like about two weeks ago.
If you want to hear the whole story, I recorded a YouTube video describing what happened, and what I plan to do with this collection! You can find it here:
YouTube: Massive Vintage Apple Haul
What Happened?!
The story began a few weeks ago (maybe six?) when someone posted "some Macs" on Facebook Marketplace. He posted 6-10 Macs, mostly laptops, but said he didn't know what they were worth. I responded to the ad, asking if I could come take a look and help assess what he had, and he replied with, "I'll sell you the whole lot for $2,500."
I had no idea what he had, and thought he had visited eBay and thought his 10 Macs were worth way more than they are, so I didn't bother responding.
A few weeks later, he sent me another message: "Still interested?"
I replied asking if he had a photo of everything, to which he replied with a video of him panning around a cargo trailer. It was pretty mind-boggling! Then, he offered me the whole thing for $1,000. I hemmed and hawed about it for awhile, noting that even getting them home would be a massive challenge.
He asked where I lived, and then said, "$1,000 and I will deliver them to you."
That was it. I drove to his location to make sure the offer was real (and it was), and then helped him rearrange the trailer for transport. We brought some moving blankets, and tried to pack things tightly for the 30+ minute drive across town. Here's what it looked like before he followed me back to my house:
We have a third bay in our garage that my wife uses for upholstery, so we cleared that out as fast as possible and helped him unload the trailer. The photos at the beginning of the thread are a few minutes after that happened - we just piled everything in there as fast as possible. He wrote up a bill of sale, and it was done!
I now have 60+ Macs in my garage.
What am I going to do with them?
The whole point of this project is to get these machines into the hands of retro Macintosh enthusiasts. I'm going to hang on to a few (like the LCIII, LC475, external CD-ROM drive, and 12" PowerBook G4), but the rest I intend to sell off at nominal prices.
Local pickup is a bit of a problem, as I am in Boise, Idaho. Salt Lake City is 6 hours East, and Portland is 6 hours West. If anyone wants to come and grab a bunch to haul to a major city, I'd welcome that! We might also need to consider some creative alternatives, like palletizing a bunch and shipping them to VCF.
Or maybe nobody wants these machines at all, and now I have a billion Macs on my hands that nobody wants! I'm interested in hearing what people think, and if there are any creative ideas for getting these into people's hands.
As for the money... obviously, I want to make my money back, but I'm going to try to keep these as affordable as possible, especially if we need to ship stuff. The only "Beige Whale" I have left is a Color Classic... so maybe there's a big trade in here somewhere? I don't know.
Several friends, on seeing the photos, immediately send me money to help fund the whole thing! They've claimed a handful of machines already, but the majority will be made available soon. I would ask that you refrain from asking for machines for a bit - I need to set up a good system for that.
The Project So Far
I've tested some of them, and I've been pulling batteries at every opportunity! I'll post an update video about where things are at soon.
What I (Probably) Have
I'll post a complete list when I'm ready to start moving them out, but it looks something like this:
- 6 Blue and White G4's
- 8 Power Mac G4's
- 5 Power Macintosh 6000's and 7000's
- 1 Power Macintosh G3
- 1 Performa 5215CD
- 1 Power Macintosh G3
- 1 Power Macintosh 52160/100
- 4 iMac G3's
- 1 iMac G4
- 6 Power Macintosh 8000's
- 1 LCIII (actually not part of this haul but procured same day)
- 1 LC475
- 6 Macintosh IIsi's
- 2 iBooks
- 2 PowerBook G4 12"
- 4 Multiple Scan 15 Displays
- 1 Oddball display
- About 6 laser printers
- A couple of other printers
- 2 milk crates of hard drives, brackets, and sleds
- 1 SE/30
- 1 PowerBook G3
- 40-50 keyboards
- About 3 AirPort Base Stations
- 2 or 3 third party hard drive enclosures
- Gobs of SCSI cables
- Gobs of ADB cables
- Gobs of power cables
- A few manuals
- Several accessory boxes
- Toner cartridges
That's it for now! I'm looking forward to hearing what you think!
