27 May
2013
27 May
'13
12:59 a.m.
On 2013 May 26, at 11:59 PM, Tothwolf wrote:
On Sun, 26 May 2013, Brent Hilpert wrote:
Here's another article:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/05/26/186710754/
apple-1-computer-fetches-671-000-at-auction
".. And a few years ago, a friend of Hatfield's started an online
registry of vintage Apple computer owners,
to find out how many Apple-1s were left. Hatfield says he
registered on that site two or three years ago.
He posted a photo of his old Apple-1, with the letter Steve Jobs
sent him.
A buyer contacted him soon after. Hatfield sold the Apple-1, with
the letter, for $40,000.
It sounded like a good deal to me," Hatfield says. "I figured
that was a pretty reasonable offer."
That was about two months ago. The buyer repaired the machine and
made it run again, then made a lot
of money selling it at an auction in Germany this weekend."
There's a contradiction there about the time of the 40K$ transaction,
so it is still not clear when it took place and hence what valuation
to compare it to. It is not clear that the buyer knew it would sell
for 374K$. According to that writeup, Hatfield was astute enough to
know about the registry. If he didn't know about the 'current' value
*whenever that current value was*, it would seem he could have found
out with a little research.
Sometimes people are happy to take the bird in the hand for less,
rather than the unknown one in the bush, and save themselves the
trouble and the gamble.
On the topic of speculative market valuation (nothing to do with
computers though), here's an entertaining story of someone who took
the converse approach:
"Who the #$%^& is Jackson PollacK?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmFjAAA3AT8
Woman buys painting at garage sale as a joke.
Told later it might be a jackson pollack.
Finds out who jackson pollack is.
If it is a pollack, it's worth 50M$.
If not, it's worth 5$.
Turns down 9M$ offer.
What I haven't seen addressed in this
discussion is just what was
the known market value(s) of an Apple I at the time of the 40K$
transaction? News articles seem to present contradictory info,
that the 40K$ purchase from Hatfield was a few months ago, to it
being a couple of years ago.
While a collaborative approach to the sale - splitting proceeds -
might have been more profitable to him, Hatfield sounds like he
has his wits about him, he could have checked, or known, 'what it
was worth'. Without more info it seems difficult to suggest he was
'taken advantage of'.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/25/vintage-apple-1-sells-for-
record-671400/
"That surpassed the $640,000 record for an Apple-1, set last
November at a sale at the same auction house in Cologne, Germany,
Auction Team Breker. The fall 2012 sale was a sharp rise from the
previous record price for an Apple-1 of $374,500, set in June 2012
at Sotheby?s in New York."
"Told the of sale price, Mr. Hatfield said, ?My God.? Then, he
added, ?Best to him. He?s the one who fixed it up and figured the
best way to sell it for all that money. Evidently, he?s very good
at this.?"
The middleman certainly knew it had a very, very high likelihood of
reselling at auction for at least $374,500, even if it didn't go as
high as the last one that had sold for $640,000. Mr. Hatfield was
probably thinking about what he had spent on it back when it was
new and in working condition ($666.66) when that middleman popped
up offering to buy it for $40,000, and was likely unaware of what
those other two Apple I boards had sold for last year.