was: National Semi... is Apple ][ collectability (if any)

[Brad H]

-------- Original message --------
From: "drlegendre ." <drlegendre at gmail.com> 
Date: 2017-01-03  8:03 PM  (GMT-08:00) 
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> 
Subject: Re: was: National Semi... is Apple ][ collectability (if any) 

"Vent-less case" - LoL!!

Add some RAM, maybe a DISC-II card and those things overheated even +with+
the vents.. that's why the Cider fan became popular, among other things.

When I was in high school, we'd pop the case tops open, and run them that
way. Otherwise, they'd overheat and start screwing up after the first or
second class period.

On Tue, Jan 3, 2017 at 10:36 AM, Brad H <vintagecomputer at bettercomputing.net
> wrote:

> >On 1/2/2017 11:26 PM, Brad H wrote:
> > I brought the RFI thing up with him.  No response.  There is a legit Rev
> 1 there too asking $3500.  I don't find Apple IIs below Rev 0 that
> interesting anymore, personally.  I think even the legit guy would struggle
> to get much above $1500.
> >The vintagecomputer museum guy on epay is selling mounted and framed
> motherboards now for $1500 (might not >work noted).
>
> >I guess someone would care about low ref Apple 2's but I'm not sure why
> there would be any interest.  I've got one >I bought with the original
> packing box, which I have picked and moved twice, which is rare for my
> collecting, but I >don't know what makes any Apple 2 like that
> collectible.  As in why are they collectible with low serials / part
> >numbers.
>
> >is there any documentation as to when they were made with those numbers
> that would make them significant?  >The numbers made as Raymond said would
> make most of us with Apple 2's millionaires I'd think unless they have
> >some other significance.
>
> >just curious.
> >thanks
> >Jim
>
> When I got into collecting an original Apple II was as rare as hen's teeth
> on ebay, etc.  Those got huge bucks, regardless of rev.  Then sellers
> caught on and stuff started coming out of closets, basements, estate
> sales.  I actually track Apple II sales and prices have massively declined
> since 15 years ago.  I mean, there's 60000+ out there theoretically, and
> II+ shared the same components and production lines for a time.  Only diff
> was the ROMs.  Now Rev 0 is where it's at, especially a rare ventless
> case.  Oh, and late SNs in the 70000 range for some reason still get
> $700-800.  I don't know why.
>
> The one thing I can tell you is, if an 'expert' tells you something about
> original II production, there's a good chance they are wrong.  Some
> authoritative sources claimed no Rev 02 boards went into public hands, for
> example, but I have one in my SN 16000s machine.  Some would claim that
> can't be original, but it is.. the date code on it is the same as the
> keyboard and case, all right in the range of other 16000 series machines,
> which on either side of mine have Rev 03.  Apple didn't use the same rev
> consistently.. sometimes they just grabbed from the pile.  It's kind of a
> dogs breakfast after Rev 0.
>
> My Rev 02 operates no differently, other than Integer BASIC, than my RFI
> II+.  More and more I'm not finding IIs to be all that amazing or worth
> fighting over.  A Rev 0, just owing to the few truly unique design
> features, is the only one I might want now.
>
>
>
>

Yeah.  We were on to IIes when I was in grade school and then Commodores and PCs after that.. original IIs and II+ were long gone.  I have four units and never have any issue but come to think of it I do tend to run them case top off.  I imagine other users might have run them with the monitor (another massive heat source) sitting right on top.
I think the ventless cases also were made of a weaker plastic that melted and warped just from the heat of the innards.  The few examples I've seen are almost invariably somewhat concave.