19 Jun
1997
19 Jun
'97
8:15 a.m.
Sam Ismail wrote:
Here's an article Doug Coward forwarded to me. You guys will get a kick
out of it, especially the price list at the end. $200-$400 for an Apple
][...yeah right. I have some property on the moon...
The Altair kit sold for $395 when it was new, but one in good
condition today can fetch as much as $1,500 because of the exalted
position it holds in computer history. Widely regarded as the first
mass-market personal computer, it launched a craze when it appeared on
the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics. Bill Gates
even dropped out of Harvard to develop an early version of the Basic
programming language for the Altair.
I'm not sure but I suspect $1500 would be a VERY good buy. Someone that
contacted me recently said that they had sold their Altair for $3000.
Another story I heard (true?, I don't know) was that someone advertised
their Altair on the net for $4000. This person was flamed for asking so
much, and his only comeback was that it had already sold. There was a
reference in TCJ by one of the editors(?) that they wouldn't be
surprised by the price reaching $10,000.
BTW and I think most of you can do this, if you really want to get a
rise out of people, just tell them you have several million dollars
worth of equipment at your home/storage area/whatever. After their "no
way" or "where do you live" response, just tell them all they have to do
is take the stuff back in time to when it was new and sell it to get the
money! Sorry, I just have a perverted sense of humor :).