Why are vintage Macs becoming...expensive?

Hrududu said:

I think its because less and less of them exist. 10 years ago I was looking for a PowerBook 520c and there were about 4 pages of them. Probably not a single one listed on eBay now. I think in the early 2000s a lot of old Macs ended up in e-waste recycling centers or dumpsters since they didn't hold any computing value, and most Macs from the Scully, Spindler, & Amelio era wern't exactly looked at as collectors items. Now, its changed quite a bit and whats left of those old working Macs has become worth money again. I'm personally kinda glad I've kept ahold of so many 90's and 80's vintage Macs. A few years ago, I couldn't give them away, but now eBay has them listed and people are actually bidding.

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I didn't notice a 520c in your signature. Here's one for a paltry $100, shipping included: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-PowerBook-520c-with-PowerPC-Upgrade-RARE-/230837089752?pt=Apple_Laptops&hash=item35bef675d8#ht_500wt_1208

Just in case you were still interested

JohnGrey said:

I didn't notice a 520c in your signature. Here's one for a paltry $100, shipping included: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-PowerBook-520c-with-PowerPC-Upgrade-RARE-/230837089752?pt=Apple_Laptops&hash=item35bef675d8#ht_500wt_1208

Just in case you were still interested

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Haha, nope I never did get one. I ended up with a PowerBook 145B instead.

Hrududu said:

Haha, nope I never did get one. I ended up with a PowerBook 145B instead.

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A Pikes Peak, huh? I've got one laying around the workshop somewhere, but I don't think it works. Is yours functioning?

SkyBell said:

Always wanted a lime iBook, but they've always been expensive, and I supose they aren't getting any better. Oh well, I do love my original Blueberry anyway.

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Oh, thanks ! I bought one to replace my AlBook (Which I gave to my sister), and it's definitely worth it. I'm now paying $30 to make the front of it shinier .

There will always be collectors for any product line, and vintage Apple collecting is a fairly popular one, so there will probably always be a small demand for relic machines and a big one for special workstations (aka MIB, early manufacture, bla bla bla)

SkyBell said:

I've been doing a lot of searching on eBay recently, mostly out of boredom, some part out of nostalgia of my computer collecting days. And I've been noticing - vintage Apple machine prices are going up.

I remember buying a Macintosh Classic in 2003 for $25 - not happening anymore. An Apple IIc with original monitor, printer and over 50 pieces of software for $45 in '04. Laughable today. I remember the pizza box LC's selling for near pennies on the dollar, and now they bottom out around $30 or $40. Mac Plus's for cheap - no longer.

Is this a growing trend for all vintage computer or hardware (I don't recall what vintage PC's used to go for), or is this something only affecting Apple machinery, perhaps related to their exploding status in the tech world? Just curious.

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If you're looking for old Macs, you're looking in the wrong place. Almost any old computer you find on eBay will be a ripoff, since people can easily look up prices other comparable machines are being offered at. One major flaw with eBay pricing is people look at prices of items for sale instead of items that have been purchased. So somebody will say their Mac Plus (one of the most common old Macs) is special and rare, and charge a hundred bucks for it, and then others will follow suit since that's the other one they see up for sale.

I buy a lot of old Macs, and from my experience, Craigslist is the way to go. Just a month ago, I got a Power Macintosh G3, a Power Macintosh 7100/66, a Mac SE/30, and loads of extra RAM, keyboards, mice, hard disks, software disks, and other hardware for $60. And then I got an SE with loads of original software floppies for $40 about a year ago. And then I got an original SE with a 20MB hard disk and an 800k floppy drive in perfect shape for free a while back too. And then, there's a Compaq Portable III I got for $10 because the guy just didn't want it anymore.

So cheap macs are out there; you just need to keep a good eye out for them!

MS Windows said:

If you're looking for old Macs, you're looking in the wrong place. Almost any old computer you find on eBay will be a ripoff, since people can easily look up prices other comparable machines are being offered at. One major flaw with eBay pricing is people look at prices of items for sale instead of items that have been purchased. So somebody will say their Mac Plus (one of the most common old Macs) is special and rare, and charge a hundred bucks for it, and then others will follow suit since that's the other one they see up for sale.

I buy a lot of old Macs, and from my experience, Craigslist is the way to go. Just a month ago, I got a Power Macintosh G3, a Power Macintosh 7100/66, a Mac SE/30, and loads of extra RAM, keyboards, mice, hard disks, software disks, and other hardware for $60. And then I got an SE with loads of original software floppies for $40 about a year ago. And then I got an original SE with a 20MB hard disk and an 800k floppy drive in perfect shape for free a while back too. And then, there's a Compaq Portable III I got for $10 because the guy just didn't want it anymore.

So cheap macs are out there; you just need to keep a good eye out for them!

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Each time that I've attempted to do business for vintage Apple products on CL, the seller always tells me that he or she is unwilling to go through the hassle of shipping it. It might be doable if one lives in southern California, where it seems there's a surplus of such merchandise, but if you live on the east coast you're usually out of luck.

I have a dead Powerbook 180c!
lol i wish i have a Mac or iPhone or Ipod Touch for college
i miss my very first computer ( Powerbook 180c )
Apple is so expensive here in Philippines

Not only vintage Macs but SJ's 1990 NeXT Cube has been soaring in value too.

Take any limited run vintage computer with great historical significance and Steve's fingerprints all over it and sooner than later you'll have a very coolectible and somewhat valuable item..

......and get a load of the 17" b&w monitor it shipped with. Damn thing weighs about 40 lbs.. lol

IAlberta said:

Not only vintage Macs but SJ's 1990 NeXT Cube has been soaring in value too.

Take any limited run vintage computer with great historical significance and Steve's fingerprints all over it and sooner than later you'll have a very coolectible and somewhat valuable item..

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Yeah, pretty sad. NeXTs have gone way way up. A few years ago, you could buy a NeXTStation Color slab for $25 on ebay. Now, they're going for $1000+, and all stamped with "Steve Jobs collectable". I should've picked up one when I had the chance, but I didn't really want another box sitting around the house.

This is my take on the Apple collecting going mad. I'm discussing iPods, but the same goes for old Macs, belt buckles or what ever with an apple on it...

This is what I think!

There are lots of people buying and selling iPods that are not "real" collectors. I call them opportunists! These are people who surely just wants to make easy money. They buy what they think a collector would buy and hope to sell it again with a profit! They sell it to another opportunists and the snowball is rolling...after a couple of times on ebay, the iPod is suddenly "worth" a fortune!

Other naive "do-not-have-a-clue" ebayers also see these insane auctions and think they could get plenty of $$$ for their banged-up, box-missing, no-good, scruffy-looking iPods. Soon enough a 5:th gen iPod is worth more money than when it was new.

Still, an iPod is worth, what someone is willing to pay...I know!
But honestly...the guy selling four sealed old iPods for 90k on ebay?? Whats wrong with that dude? 90,000$...
My fear is that some crazy bastard with loads of money and no judgement,
buys the lot and sets a whole new standard to the collecting market

This is my humble opinion, others may "think different"

I agree with the post above.
As time progresses, Apple is becoming more popular, and as such there's more collectors. I've seen the same thing with LP's (Vinyl). 10 years ago, you could walk into any Goodwill or Salvation Army, find 10 good albums, and pay $2 for the lot. Now, all they have is well picked over, and specialty record stores sell used albums for $5 and up. It's the same with these computers.

petsounds said:

Yeah, pretty sad. NeXTs have gone way way up. A few years ago, you could buy a NeXTStation Color slab for $25 on ebay. Now, they're going for $1000+, and all stamped with "Steve Jobs collectable". I should've picked up one when I had the chance, but I didn't really want another box sitting around the house.

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What?

Got my Next Cube complete on eBay for $485 shipped back in the day - and I cringed at that....

To answer the original question it's because anything made by Apple is cool. And you know if Apple came out with a brick with it's logo and maybe the iPod touch wheal that someone would buy that. LOL.....

It will be interesting to see how collectible the Intel Macs are years from now. As cool as they are, there is still something about the PPC Macs and many of the pre-PPC Macs that are more appealing to me as far as aesthetics.

Interesting opinion piece on BBC Future

"Putting a price on computer nostalgia"

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120621-computer-nostalgia

SkyBell said:

Always wanted a lime iBook, but they've always been expensive, and I supose they aren't getting any better. Oh well, I do love my original Blueberry anyway.

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As an amateur iBook collector, I can tell you that the Lime and Tangerine ones fetch a premium. Most people didn't buy these colors - they stuck to the more "Apple Traditional" colors - Blueberry, Indigo, and Graphite. They are getting extremely rare. I've only seen 2 Lime iBooks on eBay in the last month.

Personally, I think the Graphite iBook is the best looking of the 5 colors.

Just did a quick eBay search - 9 functioning Tangerine iBooks, 1 Lime.

So what's the lesson here? Never get rid of anything! I'm hanging on to my 2008 15" MBP until 2040 or so, and then I'll sell it and advertise it as "made when Steve was still alive!" (assuming I'm still alive).

dbrewer80221 said:

As an amateur iBook collector, I can tell you that the Lime and Tangerine ones fetch a premium. Most people didn't buy these colors - they stuck to the more "Apple Traditional" colors - Blueberry, Indigo, and Graphite. They are getting extremely rare. I've only seen 2 Lime iBooks on eBay in the last month.

Personally, I think the Graphite iBook is the best looking of the 5 colors.

Just did a quick eBay search - 9 functioning Tangerine iBooks, 1 Lime.

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I think the Lime's are rarer or people are holding onto them.

I wanted one CIB (Complete In Box) and had to settle for a Tangerine (no one else bid at the time - was around $80 shipped).

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Some of the higher-end "professional" Macintosh machines are becoming very collectible and in-demand, such as the Macintosh IIfx, the Quadra 840av, the Quadra 950, and the Power Macintosh 8500 and 9500, 8600, and 9600.

I was lucky to find a IIfx on eBay in perfect working condition. Mine is a Macintosh II that has been upgraded with a IIfx logic board. It was the fastest personal computer in the world in 1990, and the fastest 68030 Mac Apple made, running at 40MHz.

I see IIfx machines go for the $200 - $400 range on eBay. Quadra 840av machines are EXTREMELY rare, there was just one on eBay about a month ago that sold. There is a Quadra 950 up on eBay now for $500.

Another machine I collect is the Macintosh Portable. Working Portables are hard to find, since pretty much all of them suffer from dead batteries, which are necessary to start the machine. I have developed a hobby of buying and restoring them...I find the backlit M5126 model especially interesting, and it is the less-common rarer model. The Macintosh Portable was the large, beige precursor to the PowerBook. It runs on a Motorola 68000 processor at 16MHz. The machine is unique in the fact that it is fully serviceable, it can be completely disassembled, logic board removed, and re-assembled without removing one screw -- everything snaps into place!!

Right now I have a working M5126 Portable, and my only issue is an audio problem due to faulty capacitors. I currently have two units on the way, which may deliver me with a working board I need. My goal is to have one or two good working backlit Portable units when I am done with this. It is all a matter of finding working parts from other units and putting together the best machine possible...I've learned, it takes alot of time, and alot of patience.

WardC said:

Another machine I collect is the Macintosh Portable. Working Portables are hard to find, since pretty much all of them suffer from dead batteries

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Are there any places that sell Portable batteries to start it anymore? I have a PowerBook power supply for mine but the battery is dead, I suppose. No luck starting it (I tried pushing both buttons on the side and then hitting spacebar, am I doing it wrong? I can't find much material on this online...)

Back to the OP's topic, a while ago I got a whole collection for free. 14 classic Macs (that's where the Portable came from). I guess it's in your connections...

I'd say the clue was in the word "vintage" ...

There is a company in Riverside California called The NiCd Lady which will recondition your Macintosh Portable battery, install new cells, and ship it back to you. You have to pay the shipping costs, and the cost for the service is $57 per battery. It's worth it. I've had them do a few for me. They can take awhile to get to your order, but it's worth it in the end, they are like the only place I have seen that is offering this service for Macintosh Portable batteries.

The battery uses Lead Acid cells which dry up over time and the battery does not work. Without a working battery you cannot boot the Portable.

Look them up on Google: The NiCd Lady Company

Good luck!