Comment by grahamlee

Nonetheless old capacitors degrade, despite predating the plague. It’s SOP among retro computer folks to recap 80s/90s micros to avoid electrolyte damaging the boards, and I’ve had 80s-era Unix workstations go pop when powered on.

For most things I’d expect there to be no difference between the value of a computer with original caps _and no damage_ and one with recaps _and no damage_, because the buyer is going to recap anyway. For this Apple I, which is a museum piece rather than a hobby piece, I really don’t know if that holds.