On Tue, 2015-03-03 at 11:44 -0800, Keelan Lightfoot wrote:

> Not true -- try finding a Macintosh 128K for a reasonable price.


That's a perfect example.

While a certain model of kit may have been produced in the hundreds of
thousands or millions, first production, model years and production
"quirks" can create rarity.

The Mac 128k is a perfect example of this. If you look at the ebay
listings for sold Mac 128k's you quickly notice something: the ones
being sold are the first ones. Things like 12th week of production are
prominent in many of the descriptions.

The value of the Mac 128k is VERY dependant on when it was produced, and
whether it was "touched" in any way, most prominently if the memory was
upgraded.

A good example are these 2:
Macintosh 128K M0001 upgraded to 512KE - early week 12 production,
warranty
$1901
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Macintosh-128K-M0001-upgraded-to-512KE-early-week-12=
-production-warranty-/380813643995?pt=3DLH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=3Ditem58aa4=
310db

and:
$372.18
MACINTOSH 1984 ORIGINAL MODEL M0001 128K W/ KEYBOARD, MOUSE, CASE, DISK
DRIVE
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/MACINTOSH-1984-ORIGINAL-MODEL-M0001-128K-W-KEYBOARD-=
DISK-DRIVE-MOUSE-CASE-/121564700885?pt=3DLH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=3Ditem1c4d=
d220d5


This is an extreme example, but it illustrates exactly my point: old
alone doesn't imply it's worth something.

In this case, and this is an odd one, "touching" the original Mac128k
with a memory upgrade seems to increase it's value. I'd guess the reason
for this is it makes the machine actually usable. The 128k RAM frankly
wasn't enough to support a fully useful machine. It's the reason Apple
so quickly introduced a 512k model.

There are more reasons that some Mac128k's are worth more then others
(things like what ROM is installed, whether it has a label saying
Mac128k or not, other seemingly minor details), you can peruse the wiki
entry for more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_128K

In the end, not that many Mac128k's were made, most people picked up Mac
512k's since they wanted a machine they could actually use well.

TTYL
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