Apple Adds to Vintage Software Collection With eBay Purchase

[MacRumors]

An Apple collector who was selling his vintage Apple software collection on eBay received a surprise earlier this month when Apple itself bought out much of his software inventory for its software archives (via MacGeneration).

According to seller "Marcoguy," he made several listings of various Apple CDs and received a message from someone asking to buy a dozen discs. When he went to ship the package, he noticed it was going to 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California, Apple's corporate address. Upon asking the buyer about the purchase, he was told that Apple maintains a lab at its headquarters containing archived materials. "We were missing some of the disks that you placed on eBay," wrote the buyer.

So yeah, Apple bought some of their own software back from me. Feel free to post if you've had a similar experience, as I would love to hear about it. I knew Microsoft has a pretty robust archive of their history, but I wasn't aware Apple does too until this happened.

Just goes to show how necessary this community is. If is wasn't for collectors like us, so much software would just be lost, out of the grasp of even the companies that produced it.

It's not clear how much Apple paid to fill out its archives, but the seller lists his software at prices ranging from $9.95 to $19.95. It's also not known exactly what Apple purchased, but the seller is offering many rare CDs from the early 90s, including a beta version of Apple's System 7 operating system and a disc from WWDC in 1994.

Article Link: Apple Adds to Vintage Software Collection With eBay Purchase

 

[jsalda]

Ahhh, I remember those days. 7.0 was the first MacOS I worked with. Freehand, Pagemaker, Quark; good times.

 

[farewelwilliams]

Oh, 1 Inifinite Loop? *cancels eBay auction and jacks up the price*.

 

[Asarien]

People should check out the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, if they're living in or visiting the Bay Area.

 

[Porco]

Turns out physical media has its uses sometimes eh?
Nice story.

 

[keysofanxiety]

I guess the archives were incomplete.

 

[gramirez2012]

Steve is rolling in his grave.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

I misread the headline and thought Apple purchased EBay. I may have actually joined the anti-Tim Cook crowd had that been the case

edit: purchasing EBay being considered a "Vintage Software Purchase" didn't strike me as odd.

 

[Mac 128]

Steve is rolling in his grave.

Yup. Steve threw all of that stuff in a landfill, or gave it to Stanford for a reason -- don't ever look back!

 

[msephton]

The guy has only sold 4 items recently, two for >$200 and two for ~$20

bundle

$210 Best Offer
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=252501715447
Apple Developer CDs

single discs

$224.50 Bidding Frenzy
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=252499947177
Apple Rhapsody Developer Release 1 OS X Early Prototype Sept 97 For Power Mac

$19.95 Buy it Now
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=252499907474
Apple Macintosh System Software 7.0 Golden Master May 1991

$17.95 Buy it Now
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=252499452514
Apple Developer Group Vol II: Phil and Dave's Excellent CD Release Version

 

[IJ Reilly]

Companies maintain archives in large part to protect their copyrights and patents. Hope the seller got a good price. Makes me wonder what some of my old media collection is worth. MacOS 9.2 installer anybody?

Also have a complete set of "Inside Macintosh" from 1988.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Wow at some of the artwork on these "Apple Developer Group" CDs.

 

[usarioclave]

I wish I still had my old copies of the developer CDs. I still have a sealed copy of Through the Looking glass, so there's that.

 

[tennisproha]

pretty cool. thanks for posting.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I threw all mine out. I do have a complete set of the Mac programming manuals, and an original Mac advert from France.

Oh, and an Apple ][ euro nameplate. I didn't realize they had a different name badge for the non-US units. And a custom made Apple banner that was made for a trade show that, according to the story, Apple never picked up, or paid for. It's very well made by an area kite manufacturer.

Good for him though. That's cool... I've got a copy of Windows Millenium Edition, and two NT workstation packs. I really doubt Microsoft would want them. No one else did...

 

[Mr. Dee]

Yup. Steve threw all of that stuff in a landfill, or gave it to Stanford for a reason -- don't ever look back!

I was gonna mention this myself. Steve never cared much for keeping anything like this when he returned to Apple. Personally, I think it was bias, since he still brought up the original Macintosh or the Apple I in previous presentations. I honestly don't know why Apple would want to do this now considering its co-founder wasn't too fond of it.

Then again, it is part of Apple history and you want to maintain some link to your past by understanding where you are coming from. The Ebay seller is right about the Microsoft Archives; I have been there and without going into much detail, it is indeed robust. I'm talking like Assembly Code in binders going back to the 70's.

 

[Cineplex]

Maybe they are trying to see what a good OS looks like. The current OS is a bit....well.

 

[WarHeadz]

Maybe they are trying to see what a good OS looks like. The current OS is a bit....well.

I'm pretty happy with the current OS. What issues do you have with it?

 

[Waxhead138]

I misread the headline and thought Apple purchased EBay. I may have actually joined the anti-Tim Cook crowd had that been the case

edit: purchasing EBay being considered a "Vintage Software Purchase" didn't strike me as odd.

Dont feel bad I read it the same way lol.

 

[Cineplex]

I'm pretty happy with the current OS. What issues do you have with it?

It has gotten clunky and unstable. It also has way too many notifications that you can't disable. It also forces you to update things like flash. I am all for security...but I don't need to be forced to update.

 

[irevolt]

Guess I should have kept the Y2K software just in case.

 

[JosephAW]

Long live Mac OS 8.1 Steve was right for releasing it for free.

 

[macs4nw]

I'm pretty happy with the current OS. What issues do you have with it?

How much time do you have?

Seriously, all things considered, it's not too bad. I think the poster meant he misses the days when OSs were simple and straightforward, and worked as expected with few glitches or conflicts, which is not always the case with today's (much more complicated) software.

I attribute a lot, if not most of the problems on semi-convergence with iOS and Cloud features.

 

[Kajje]

I misread the headline and thought Apple purchased EBay. I may have actually joined the anti-Tim Cook crowd had that been the case

edit: purchasing EBay being considered a "Vintage Software Purchase" didn't strike me as odd.

In a sense eBay is quite vintage software. As is Amazon.

 

[bunnspecial]

I'd have been bidding on the System 7 beta if I'd seen it.

The guy had rare stuff...I'm just surprised that Apple didn't buy them.

BTW, in the watch world, Patek Phillippe has been buying rare pieces like crazy for their own archives/museum. About two years ago, one of their most historic pieces-the Henry Graves Super Complication-came up for sale and many market watches thought that any prospective buyer would have to beat Patek themselves to get it. The hammer price was $24 million, and surprisingly enough not to Patek. I think they certainly did their part to run it up, though.