Man... tangentially, is there a coffee table book about Fry's yet? I remember in the dot com days they had a lounge pianist there as well as a cafeteria? And also, oddly, adult magazines by the check out lines.
I feel sad every time I think about Fry's and the death of big box electronic retail. I still long for those trips where I'd simply spend hours looking for what's new. Amazon can't deliver the same high and neither can Microcenter, the not-so-bad modern version.
Gotta be honest, if I saw this sitting next to a dumpster I'd probably think "what is this worthless circuitboard doing here." and then I'd take it to properly e-waste it only to later find out:
Sadly, this registry might be out of date again: entry #43 indicates it is from the now-dismantled Living Computer Museum + Labs.
https://www.apple1registry.com/en/43.html
It is from the museum but later sold at auction. The "History" section has more detail:
> From April 15, 2017, until 2019, on display at Living Computers: Museum + Labs.
> Sold at Christie's auction in September 2024 for US\$352,800
Of the 92 “verified and almost verified” Apple I computers in this registry, 67 are confirmed to be in working condition.
What an amazing labor of love to catalog all these machines. Some of the stories behind each individual machine are amazing.
I remember when Fry's Electronics (was it Palo Alto or Sunnyvale?) had one on display.
Man... tangentially, is there a coffee table book about Fry's yet? I remember in the dot com days they had a lounge pianist there as well as a cafeteria? And also, oddly, adult magazines by the check out lines.
I feel sad every time I think about Fry's and the death of big box electronic retail. I still long for those trips where I'd simply spend hours looking for what's new. Amazon can't deliver the same high and neither can Microcenter, the not-so-bad modern version.
There was a cafeteria as recently as 2018
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Gotta be honest, if I saw this sitting next to a dumpster I'd probably think "what is this worthless circuitboard doing here." and then I'd take it to properly e-waste it only to later find out:
"That was worth how much!?"
How much is it worth? I couldn't find any prices on the page.
If you click on one that says '$ [date]' instead of '$ no auction' then it will say. E.g. August 2022 for $677k: https://www.apple1registry.com/en/2.html
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Hundreds of thousands of dollars.
One of them is owned ("almost verified") by Jean-Louis Gassée, former Apple exec, who went on to found Be Inc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Louis_Gass%C3%A9e
I don't see prices of previous auctions. What do these go for roughly?
One went for $440K in 2022 [1], and one that was an Apple owned unit that came from the "office of Steve Jobs" went for $945K last year [2].
1. https://www.macrumors.com/2022/12/16/apple-1-sells-for-440k/
2. https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6495022
Crazy that Apple sold this.
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