The task has been underway now since May of 2019. That of opening boxes, vacuuming dust and other debris, sorting and cataloging the vast computer collection of mine. Stored in this garage attic since 2011, and moved around and stored in various places between then and 1998, the time has come to examine each piece and potentially unlock some treasures…. and some much needed cash.
So, I wonder what is hiding in these piles?
There is the 68K side of the collection. That is everything from Apple Macintosh onward that runs a form of MacOS. 128K’s, 512’s, Classics, drives, Portables, and a few more goodies. Some of which are in their boxes! Although, from this picture, you can see that time has taken its toll on the Macintosh box there.
The black bags… more on them further on in this post. There are some real gems hiding in those!
This is the Apple II side of the collection. Or, the pre-68K side.
This is everything from the Apple IIplus and up that runs ProDOS, Pascal, BASIC, or some variant of OS. Some rare goodies are in here too. Things like: IIe’s in their boxes!, IIc’s, an Apple III with Monitor III, a bunch of drives, manuals, and software! Oh yes, software coming out of everywhere! Oh, and even an Apple Graphics Tablet, that seems to be some sort of a development unit or something.
So, how did I end up with so much stuff? Well, it all started when I bought an Apple II plus from a local flea market, sometime in 1995, I think it was. $25 and I came home with a computer, monitor and two external floppy drives. I dug up my old floppies from Grade 7. popped them in and they worked like a charm, bringing life to this old beauty.
A couple of years later, while I was working a job on a computer help line, a colleague of mine called me from a nearby thrift store. He told me of an Apple IIc system he saw there and asked if I wanted to buy it. I absolutely did, and another $30 later I had the IIc with monitor, power supply and the whole lot. This, however, was not to be the mode by which I would acquire the rest of the collection.
In late 1998, I started my job at Apple Canada, working in the service shop as a junior technician. Long story short is that in the warehouse, scattered all over the shelves, was a hug assortment of Apple product in various configurations and states of decay. Tucked away in the tightest corner of one shelf there was an Apple LISA. Not the elusive LISA 1, mind you, but still a LISA. Through some convincing, I was able to take this unit home, as Apple deemed it “gathering dust”.
This fueled the collection, but the “motherlode” came on the day that Apple execs stated that they were going to clean house – the warehouse! I signed up for that job in a heartbeat. Well, 3 full skids later, each towering 6 feet high, were wrapped up and my name slapped on them. My trove of technological treasures all piled together. How to get them home? I figured that out quick enough. Stories for another post…
Here are some more closeup pictures. See any goodies? Stay tuned as I go through these pieces now, in great detail.
Apple II era goodies in their boxes! 
More Apple II era goodies – even an Apple III 
Just a pile of stuff. Is that a 280c I see? 
I see Macintosh Portables!
Ahhhh, the black bags… substitutes from Targus for the original Macintosh bags. Tough, durable and just the thing to hold the goodies inside them. What’s in them you ask? Let’s see……. a couple of Mac Plus’s, a couple of odd looking original Macintosh’s, a Classic with a smooth case, some SE’s and SE/30’s, and who knows what else…..
