Moose

I'm negotiating to buy my first Apple III and wanted to check price
ranges before laying down the cash.

Anyone know what an Apple III complete and working might be worth ?

What about non-working ?

TIA.

Gabriele72

Il 17/11/2011 9.29, Moose ha scritto:
> I'm negotiating to buy my first Apple III and wanted to check price
> ranges before laying down the cash.
>
> Anyone know what an Apple III complete and working might be worth ?
>
> What about non-working ?
>
> TIA.

Don't know worth how much but I do know what I had to pay: 300E in
Europe w/Monitor III, both working as of purchase date (spring 2011),
plus 1 manual and a few original disks. More if I wanted the original
box too.
I realize it could have been much less if purchased in the USA
(patiently awaiting for a bargain)... hadn't it been so much heavy to ship!!

*Gabriele*

D Finnigan

Gabriele72 wrote:
>>
>> What about non-working ?
>>

I think that I'd pay somewhere around $0 for non-working, obsolete
equipment.

ict@ccess

On Nov 17, 9:43*am, dog_...@macgui.com (D Finnigan) wrote:
> Gabriele72 wrote:
>
> >> What about non-working ?
>
> I think that I'd pay somewhere around $0 for non-working, obsolete
> equipment.


I wouldn't quite say that. Sometimes non-working equipment can turn
out to be a real bargain. I picked up a 32 inch tv from a garbage
dump one time (looked almost brand new), replaced a fuse and it now
sits in my gaming room hooked up to many older gaming systems. Mind
you, that was free. But even for a small bid and for the price of
shipping, it would be worth to replace the power supply, remove and re-
seat a few chips ... a non-working Apple III could still turn out to
be a real bargain. Or if the case is at least in nice shape, swap out
the Apple III motherboard, put in an Apple II+ motherboard, and pass
it off as an Apple III that only works in Apple II+ mode. -_- It
worked for that guy who got 5 grand for a II+ motherboard in an Apple
II case. (If that's not funny then neither is the Big Bang Theory)

Rob

Mike Maginnis

On 2011-11-17 01:29:22 -0700, Moose said:

> I'm negotiating to buy my first Apple III and wanted to check price
> ranges before laying down the cash.
>
> Anyone know what an Apple III complete and working might be worth ?
>
> What about non-working ?
>
> TIA.

As with most vintage computer stuff, it really depends on the condition
of the unit, the "extras" and what you want to do with it.

Assuming it's in good working order, how much memory does it have?
128K, 256K or the hard-to-find 512K add-on? Does it have a ProFile
drive? Is it a 12V or 5V machine? Does it have the clock mod and/or
the interlace mod installed? Does it have any peripheral cards? Does
it come with a monitor? If so, is it the standard Monitor /// or an
RGB monitor?

If you just want it to sit there on your desk and look cool when
friends come over, 128K is probably just fine. Most useful
applications require 256K if you want to do anything with it, though.

The UPIC and ProFile controller cards are the most commonly found these
days. Other cards are harder to locate and are worth more (Titan
emulators, Mcrosoft Softcards, etc) and third party addons from
companies such as Micro-Sci and ON THREE tend to be more rare than
add-ons directly from Apple, as most of that stuff was produced after
Apple discontinued the III and was produced in low numbers.

--
- Mike

Podcast: http://open-apple.net
Scans: http://apple2scans.net
Blog: http://6502lane.net

Mike Maginnis

On 2011-11-17 10:12:16 -0700, Mike Maginnis said:

> On 2011-11-17 01:29:22 -0700, Moose said:
>
>> I'm negotiating to buy my first Apple III and wanted to check price
>> ranges before laying down the cash.
>>
>> Anyone know what an Apple III complete and working might be worth ?
>>
>> What about non-working ?
>>
>> TIA.
>
> As with most vintage computer stuff, it really depends on the condition
> of the unit, the "extras" and what you want to do with it.
>
> Assuming it's in good working order, how much memory does it have?
> 128K, 256K or the hard-to-find 512K add-on? Does it have a ProFile
> drive? Is it a 12V or 5V machine? Does it have the clock mod and/or
> the interlace mod installed? Does it have any peripheral cards? Does
> it come with a monitor? If so, is it the standard Monitor /// or an
> RGB monitor?
>
> If you just want it to sit there on your desk and look cool when
> friends come over, 128K is probably just fine. Most useful
> applications require 256K if you want to do anything with it, though.
>
> The UPIC and ProFile controller cards are the most commonly found these
> days. Other cards are harder to locate and are worth more (Titan
> emulators, Mcrosoft Softcards, etc) and third party addons from
> companies such as Micro-Sci and ON THREE tend to be more rare than
> add-ons directly from Apple, as most of that stuff was produced after
> Apple discontinued the III and was produced in low numbers.

And a couple more things to think about.

If you're getting this from a "collector" standpoint, you're probably
going to want the earliest version that you can get your hands on, so
in that case, an unmodified 12V machine with 128K is going to be more
desirable. Those tended to be the ones with all the problems that made
the III so infamous.

A 12V machine with a serial number lower than 14000 is extremely rare,
as Apple recalled and replaced almost all of them because of those
problems. Finding a working one may be nearly impossible at this point.

For usability and reliabiltiy, a 5V 256K III is probably what you want.
The III+ is the most capable of the family obviously, but because they
were only on the market for about 4 months, they are rare and tend to
fetch more than the standard IIIs.

And I forgot to mention that having at least one external 5.25" drive
makes life much easier when dealing with the III. You can daisy-chain
up to three external drives to the main unit.

--
- Mike

Podcast: http://open-apple.net
Scans: http://apple2scans.net
Blog: http://6502lane.net

Moose

On Nov 18, 1:43*am, dog_...@macgui.com (D Finnigan) wrote:
> Gabriele72 wrote:
>
> >> What about non-working ?
>
> I think that I'd pay somewhere around $0 for non-working, obsolete
> equipment.

Even non-working Apple ]['s without monitors, disks, or cables go for
$50+ on eBay in Australia.

Moose

On Nov 18, 3:12*am, Mike Maginnis <mmagin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2011-11-17 01:29:22 -0700, Moose said:
>
> > I'm negotiating to buy my first Apple III and wanted to check price
> > ranges before laying down the cash.
>
> > Anyone know what an Apple III complete and working might be worth ?
>
> > What about non-working ?
>
> > TIA. *
>
> As with most vintage computer stuff, it really depends on the condition
> of the unit, the "extras" and what you want to do with it.
>
> Assuming it's in good working order, how much memory does it have?
> 128K, 256K or the hard-to-find 512K add-on? *Does it have a ProFile
> drive? *Is it a 12V or 5V machine? *Does it have the clock mod and/or
> the interlace mod installed? *Does it have any peripheral cards? *Does
> it come with a monitor? *If so, is it the standard Monitor /// or an
> RGB monitor?

Thanks Mike, all good questions there. Unfortunately, the seller is
non-technical and has zero interest in testing something, looking for
serial no's, opening covers, or even taking photos. It was a deceased
partner's machine, and I saw the clearing sale add in the news paper
(the III caught my eye). It's located way out in the sticks, an 8
hour drive (each way !) for me even to inspect the machine.

Still, I do love a road trip every now and then .... especially when
the mission is to save some old computer kit from the dumpster !

Mike

On Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:53:24 -0800 (PST), Moose
<kinkapalms@yahoo.com.au> wrote:

>On Nov 18, 3:12*am, Mike Maginnis <mmagin...@gmail.com> wrote:

<snip>

>
>Thanks Mike, all good questions there. Unfortunately, the seller is
>non-technical and has zero interest in testing something, looking for
>serial no's, opening covers, or even taking photos. It was a deceased
>partner's machine, and I saw the clearing sale add in the news paper
>(the III caught my eye). It's located way out in the sticks, an 8
>hour drive (each way !) for me even to inspect the machine.
>
>Still, I do love a road trip every now and then .... especially when
>the mission is to save some old computer kit from the dumpster !

That's a tough call, then. Sight unseen, no idea about it's condition
or what else comes with it... I wouldn't offer more than $100, but I'm
a fan of the III and would probably pay more than some others here.

- Mike

Blog: http://6502lane.net
Scans: http://apple2scans.net
Podcast: http://open-apple.net

Brian

On Nov 17, 12:29*am, Moose <kinkapa...@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> I'm negotiating to buy my first Apple III and wanted to check price
> ranges before laying down the cash.
>
> Anyone know what an Apple III complete and working might be worth ?
>
> What about non-working ?
>
> TIA. *

I actually sold a broken, but complete Apple III recently. Went for
$300. If I were trying to get an Apple III, the most I would pay for
a complete, broken system would be $100. For a complete and working
system, right now I'd probably pay $200, maybe, but that's because I'm
not exactly in a position to house such a beast of a system. If I had
a nice play to display and store my computers, I'd pay $300.