41 replies to this topic

[Keatah]

(Cross-Posted to Applefritter)

I went to another estate sale today and got neat Apple II and /// items. Please look it over and tell me I didn't get shafted. Let's get the scoop from some folks in the know about pricing. This was from some engineer or technician that worked and lived in the area. For $600 smackerz I scored:

Wildcard 2 (I still have my original from the warez days, now I have two!)

A small box of no-name interface boards like parallel and serial stuff. Maybe IEEE and SuperSerial stuff.

Some school A/D and D/A card. Bankstreet something or other, I have to look at it.

Hayes external 300 baud smartmodem NIB MIB shrinkwrapped. The big metal kind.

Another Videx LowerCase chip and shift-wire mod. (I have 3 of them already, this is #4)

Another Apple ///+ (YES!!) ..with Monitor ///

Something like a daughtercard that says "32k cache" on it.

A plastic Tecmar housing.

A USR external 9600 and v.dot everything modem, with 100' cable!

An UltraTerm display board.

5 huge cartons of that useless educational shit from libraries (with the signout cards too) Shit from Spinnaker and MECC and Sesame Street. You know.. This will probably get tossed once I look through it.

An apple modem 300 with AC adapter and what seems to be another +100' cable!???!! wtf?

Some PC cards (and not 2 series related at all - so I won't go into detail)

A small box of no-name disk interface boards. I'm guessing Rana knockoffs or something.

An Apple /// metal carcass (what will I do with it??)

Some kind of OS2 warp 9 board and pile of disks folded(!) against it with a rubberband!

Your standard IIgs computers, 2 of them. Ready for the dump.

4 3.5 drives with varying interfaces, each one is different.

Apple II joystick (loose and shitty)

Apple II paddles

RocketChip (5MHz) and 2 ZipChips, lock stock dox and box. I assume so because they're still original wrapped and then wrapped again in target baggies.

A PC plus copycard from sensible software?? What is this? It's for the PC??

Another card that seems to be a Trackstar board??

A profile interface for the /// (no profile though)

Serial and parallel for the /// (Absolutely pristine)

Something about a II card for the /// ?? What is this?

3 Apple II Workstation cards. NIB and MIB (they look impressive AND expensive)

A Saturn Systems 128k ramboard.

2 of the standard obligatory //e 64k/80col cards

Ramworks and RamKeeper stuff with docs and fully populated daughtercard.

Fingerprint interface card.

A no-name lightpen board. (proably koala or gibson compatible is my guess)

A broken SpaceTablet 3D digitizer (sadly..)

A Zoom Telefonics modem.

2 soundboards, that Ufonic shit and an AE Phasor music board.

7 Disk II interfaces, 4 Disk II drives.

A number of cables for seemingly everything.. Looks like a lot of parallel stuff. Lots of D-connectors and RCA and cassette-style plugs. But curiously no printers and no AC power cords were anywhere to be found!?!

A couple of II and II+ and //e consoles each. Mostly suitable for landfill purposes I believe. I'm not bothering to work on these. The smell is just ungodly and seemingly comes from the depths of hell itself. The lady won't even let them in the garage even. (but everything else was "approved" and deemed safe to keep).

This was like one of those hoarder things or a grade B storage wars episode. Where they call the dumpster and the folks use shovels to clean out the place. Good god!! The big items needed cleaning. And the smaller stuff just fell to the bottom of the heaps and mounds and seemed to be "protected" by layers of dirt. All the chips are gonna come out, and the boards will get washed and the chips too. Because, it's all just layers upon layers of newspaper dust! Dammn!

Some books, the typical manuals. All this stuff is in perfect shape. Seemingly. Computer Station 3-ring binder manual. In depth catalogs. Manuals for various cards. A Bluebook - phonebook sized. Boxes of Nibble and inCider rags. Unfilled-out warranty papers, I'd say 30 sheets of various kinds from Apple inc. 5 Software bank binders. B-sider manual. A carton of that Special Delivery Software shit.

I left the monitors (I have enough already) and all the PC 286 and 386 shit there. There must have been 15 '386 computers from Zenith and Gateway or Horizons or something. There were no MAC's or anything above 386-25.

At the end of the day I had the trunk full and more stuff to pack in. So the nicer items went in the back seat. And there you have it! Was it worth a day and $600?

[The Usotsuki]

Titan ///+][?

It improves the ///'s ability to emulate the ][+ (and a later model the //e).

[Keatah]

YES! That is it, a Titan ///+II board. Cool. I just checked it now.

And in continuing to go through all this shit, I also came across a couple of CP/M cards. And a clock card. 6 more boxes to go! I will finish this another time.

[Tempest]

Keatah, on Tue Dec 20, 2011 6:43 AM, said:

YES! That is it, a Titan ///+II board. Cool. I just checked it now.

I've always wanted an Apple III with a Titan /// card that could do the Apple IIe modes. It seems like a very expensive way to make a mostly functional IIe, but there's just something so cool looking about the Apple III.

[The Usotsuki]

If I had a ///, I could test out my software on metal to make sure I'm doing it right...

I wrote a program that, theoretically (and it works on some versions of MESS), allows some 48K Apple ][+ software to run in *native* Apple /// mode (i.e., it doesn't lock the system down). Gotta figure a way around needing to boot SOS for it though...

[madmax2069]

Keatah, on Tue Dec 20, 2011 3:12 AM, said:

Your standard IIgs computers, 2 of them. Ready for the dump.

Why, whats wrong with them ?

Keatah, on Tue Dec 20, 2011 3:12 AM, said:

Something like a daughtercard that says "32k cache" on it.

Those just wouldent hapen to be for a applied engineering Transwarp GS now would they ?

Edited by madmax2069, Wed Dec 21, 2011 7:14 AM.

[Tempest]

madmax2069, on Wed Dec 21, 2011 7:06 AM, said:

Keatah, on Tue Dec 20, 2011 3:12 AM, said:

Your standard IIgs computers, 2 of them. Ready for the dump.

Why, whats wrong with them ?

Keatah, on Tue Dec 20, 2011 3:12 AM, said:

Something like a daughtercard that says "32k cache" on it.

Those just wouldent hapen to be for a applied engineering Transwarp GS now would they ?

If they are you've got some serious money coming your way. Transwarp GS's aren't cheap, I should know.

[Blackbag]

Assuming 8mhz Zip chips, you could nearly make all your money back selling those and the rocket chip. In fact, because of rarity, the 5mhz rocket might even go for more than an 8mhz zip to the right collector. I haven't seen a rocket chip on ebay in a long time, but zips pop up somewhat frequently. If you score a transwarp gs, you're looking at another couple hundred on ebay.

I picked up a wildcard 2 two years ago on ebay for around $130, and a boxed Wildcard 1 for a little less than $100 last year. So you're in the $100+ price range there.

I might consider keeping the apple II and II+ units if you can get the smell out. Might be worth something to someone who is trying to do a rebuild. Also, keep the //gs units, someone will be willing to buy them from you...

The Phasor card is a nice find-- pretty rare sound card for the Apple II, I think twice the voices as a mockingboard. That could potentially be in the $200 range.

If you're going to dump that software, I might have a guy in Michigan who would probably be willing to take it off your hands for the price of shipping if you are willing to ship...

Post pictures of that CopyCard, please. There was some PC based card that supposedly was able to copy an Apple II disk and make a true 1:1 copy, but I never believed it. Maybe that's it?

Nice haul!

[Tempest]

Blackbag, on Wed Dec 21, 2011 7:22 PM, said:

I might have a guy in Michigan who would probably be willing to take it off your hands for the price of shipping if you are willing to ship...

Another Apple II fan in Michigan? Maybe we should start a club or something.

And if that falls through I might be interested as well (also in Michigan).

[Blackbag]

Hah, there are quite a few of you. The guy I am referring to is named George, and he's got one of the biggest Apple II collections I've seen. For years, he bought lots and pallets from school auctions, and he's stored them all over his house, stacked floor to ceiling in the garage, and in the attic. He's also got a huge software collection including educational titles, so I'm thinking he would like to have this lot just in case there's something in there that he doesn't have already.

Rich

Tempest, on Thu Dec 22, 2011 9:02 AM, said:

Blackbag, on Wed Dec 21, 2011 7:22 PM, said:

I might have a guy in Michigan who would probably be willing to take it off your hands for the price of shipping if you are willing to ship...

Another Apple II fan in Michigan? Maybe we should start a club or something.

And if that falls through I might be interested as well (also in Michigan).

[The Usotsuki]

Ooh, eduware.

[Keatah]

I found a lot of that StickyBear shit. Between the manuals, the disks, printed manuals, and binder/book and packaging insert, this has got to have been the most inefficient way of shipping 143K bytes. But whatever.

There's probably nothing wrong with IIgs's except for the amount of cleanup required. I suppose I could hose them down, let them soak for an hour, then run the electronics through the dishwasher, blowdry them, grease with contact cleaner solution, retrobright them, sand down the casings and engravings, fill in the cracks or epoxy them. I don't know, it seems like a lot of effort for what is apparently a common item. It might be best to part them out. Some things are just not made to be saved. These are worst of the lot. All the other stuff is mostly dust that brushing with a paintbrush seems to clean up nicely.

In continuing to dig through this stuff I'm finding some more cool items.
I came across a box full of silentype parts, this seems to be like a dealer service kit of a sort, washers, bearings, heads, string, pulleys, nuts/screws, that sort of thing.

The Rocketchips and ZipChips are mostly 5MHz, there is 1 8MHz in there.

In researching the 32k cache board it does indeed seem to go with the Transwarp GS.

The Copycard is for the PC, it seems to connect to internal PC floppy then a jumper cable goes from that card to the PC interface, according to diagram. But it definitely has a PC/ISA edge connector.

2 video overlay cards, one is clearly broken in that the hybrid inductors are weak at the pins and seemingly the substrate is cracked or loose or something. Needs more inspection. And the other one seems to be all in order and ready to go.

In the box of interface cards we're going through there's some important cool-looking Corvus network or omni-net boards 3 of them. A card labled passport systems. a number of 16k ramboards from Legend. about 20-30 unidentified EEPROMS, I have no idea what would be on them as they have no lablels.

There seems to be enough telephone wiring here to build your own phone company. What's the shit? This guy like to connect his computers to neighboring houses or something?!?!

Well folks, that's it for this unpacking session. I have 3 more boxes to unpack and go through. It's good to see that some of this stuff is worth something.

[Tempest]

Blackbag, on Thu Dec 22, 2011 12:48 PM, said:

Hah, there are quite a few of you. The guy I am referring to is named George, and he's got one of the biggest Apple II collections I've seen. For years, he bought lots and pallets from school auctions, and he's stored them all over his house, stacked floor to ceiling in the garage, and in the attic. He's also got a huge software collection including educational titles, so I'm thinking he would like to have this lot just in case there's something in there that he doesn't have already.

Interesting. I know a guy who lives down by me (downriver) who did the same thing but with Macintosh stuff instead. He said he and another guy split the stuff up and he took the Macs and the other guy took the Apple II's. I wonder if they know each other?

[Blackbag]

Tempest, on Thu Dec 22, 2011 7:52 PM, said:

Interesting. I know a guy who lives down by me (downriver) who did the same thing but with Macintosh stuff instead. He said he and another guy split the stuff up and he took the Macs and the other guy took the Apple II's. I wonder if they know each other?

Quite likely the same guy. George told me that he would go in to many of those lots with friends and split them. He definitely didn't want the Mac stuff, so it seems plausible.

Keatah, if you're not interested in fiddling with that PC copy card, I might be interested in picking it up from you. Not sure what it is, and without software/manuals it's probably useless, but I'm willing to do the legwork to try to figure it out and find a source for the software if you want to sell it/trade for it/give it away. :-) Drop me a pm and maybe we can work something out.

Rich

[Keatah]

I have posted some pics of the first batch of crap, after cleaning and dust-off operations. I'm working on this in spurts and sessions of about 4-5 hours a week. This is all from one box. Except for the AtariSoft shit. That got dumped from hefty sack. No kidding. The stuff was packed wall to wall to ceiling with incredible care so that nothing got smashed and broken. And now that I think about it, the heavy crap was on the bottom and the lighter stuff on top! I've never seen a hoarder so neat. Filthy and dirty, but really neat.

The one thing, of the 10 Apple Network cards, one looks like it was eaten or torn apart somehow. The card was warped and twisted and the box ripped.

I'm amazed at how good a condition this is in once its had a good cleanup.
AND I scored a duplicate Magic Windows package, AND a Computer Station Programmer's Guide! And dupes of much of my Novation documentation too. A Syntauri hookup baggie (full of more shit). And 2 boxes of software for it. (I already have a Syntauri).

I also discovered a Mountain Music System *WITHOUT* a light-pen attached?? Wtf? I did not know they did that?? I don't think it was torn off either because there is no attachment point or damage or whatever..?? Is there a history page on the MMS? Because a lot of my searches return mountain climbing and hiking gear..

There's complete SSI games and TSR and Avalon Hill games. Many seem to be NIB.

This is what I have pictures of so far - And it only begins to show what's in here. More to come! A veritable treasure chest of unwanted hardware!
https://picasaweb.go...2/MegaHaul1Of9#

Edited by Keatah, Sat Dec 24, 2011 5:07 AM.

[Tempest]

I'm REALLY interested in those SSI and TSR games. I collect those!

[madmax2069]

OMG apple SCSI card

Keatah, on Sat Dec 24, 2011 4:44 AM, said:

I also discovered a Mountain Music System *WITHOUT* a light-pen attached?? Wtf? I did not know they did that?? I don't think it was torn off either because there is no attachment point or damage or whatever..?? Is there a history page on the MMS? Because a lot of my searches return mountain climbing and hiking gear..

so far i have found these links, you probably already have ran into them

http://eightbitsound...e.html#mountain (software download)
http://www.purplenot...auri/parts.html (with a picture of the setup)
http://www.atarimaga...MUSICSYSTEM.php (a bit o history)
http://www.applefritter.com/node/138 (with a picture of the setup)

Edited by madmax2069, Sat Dec 24, 2011 6:50 PM.

[Keatah]

Certainly the SCSI cards aren't that rare. Or are you being sarcastic? I know they're desirable and practical..

I did not know of the 3rd link, that'll be nice to read.

[Rockin' Kat]

The three most desirable SCSI cards on the Apple II seem to me to be the Apple II scsi card w/ rev C roms, the Apple High speed SCSI card, and the RAMfast SCSI card as they generally have the best compatiblity. It's been a while since I looked, but back when I was in the market for one they tended to go for around $70 to $150 on eBay... I was watching a Rev C when an Apple High speed card showed up with a BIN of about $69 which I took in about two seconds of finding it while the Rev C wound up going for almost $100. That was like 10 years ago.

By the way, with the Apple IIgs systems... Bah. I love my IIgs.... but I know it can be a pain in the ass to find someone to buy one... personally If it came down to it, I'd pop the logic boards and PSunits out of 'em and just toss the cases if the cases aren't so nice. The bare logic boards aren't as big of a pita to store untill they sell.

[Keatah]

I've done exactly that. I saved all but case. This also includes the hardware mounts and shields and clips and clamps and shit like that. Next in this batch I'm trying to scrub-up a Saturn Systems Accelerator. It's corrosion free, but the dust is unbelievable! That and a super-score of a transporter NIB MIB CIB is next. I don't know if I should open it or not.

I found a bunch more of Legend and Microsoft and Apple Language cards, they are really shitty. The chips are scratched from being all rubber-banded together.

There's 5 firmware cards, 4 are populated, one is not. These are the ones with the red switch.

This find is getting better and better by the box!

Edited by Keatah, Sun Dec 25, 2011 5:38 AM.

[phaxda]

Nothing to contribute except to say: holy cow, what an incredible haul.

[madmax2069]

Keatah, on Sun Dec 25, 2011 2:20 AM, said:

Certainly the SCSI cards aren't that rare. Or are you being sarcastic? I know they're desirable and practical..

I did not know of the 3rd link, that'll be nice to read.

No, I'm not being sarcastic. they seem to fetch quite the price on ebay now days (depending on what model or brand), that is when they do apear.

5 things i am looking for
Zipgs or Transwarpgs
Ram card (going to get a 4mb card or that high priced 8mb card).
CFFA3000 (if there is another run),
Uthernet card (hopefully they do another run),
Drew ][ TDX Apple IIgs stereo card (which is cheap).

Edited by madmax2069, Mon Dec 26, 2011 2:36 PM.

[Keatah]

This is getting better and better by the day! Today I've cataloged and "inventoried" 1 more box, separate from the consoles. https://picasaweb.go...480094930960522

2 platinum //e consoles. The markings and tape glue seems almost too easy to clean up.
2 ][+ consoles - again I anticipate easy cleanups, they will need retrobright, as much of this stuff from this era needs anyways. But the casings are scratch free and could clean with soap and water.
Some books all in very good shape.
A firmware card, the one with the red switch, and the numbers seem about right for integer roms.
A Liron interface (not shown yet)
2 Kensington System Savers.. Shit I could sell these for 9.95 on ePay I have so many now.
A few tiny 64k/80col cards (shrimpo series)
A couple of Super Serials
3 mouse boards
2 *more* Disk ][ interfaces. Crap I could sell them on epay for $9.95 each and drop the market asking prices!
A wico command control joystick adapter (new old stock) This was in a plastic baggie in a pile of rotted wood and what was looking like mud.
An Apple ///+, just dusty and otherwise pretty nice. It powers on and does something.
Viewmaster AE 80col card
EDD card with C rosenberg printed on it. Matching serial number for the disk/manual/card
1 AC power cord nib (new in baggie)
A disk doubler puncher
Warp Factor game with charts and manual.
A discs of tron advertisement
A taken-apart power supply.
Super serial NIB - barely visible behind the sider drive.
A koala pad
TG paddles
A satchel full of 5.25 disk drive cables for the original disk II
A stack of Micromodem II boards.
1 MicroCoupler and blue ribbon cable
2 Micro-Sci 80col/64k board ( the best in all the fucking town! )
Blank Prototyping card
Mockingboard with honey syrup on it
Apple computer partialy populated memory board (IIgs I believe)
A ramfactor something or other
stack of Sider interfaces
Another Disk ][ interface (yay!!)
OUTPUT inc Joystick (analog digital switchable adapter)
Super mockingboard II
Standard microsoft ramcard and z80 card
3 sider interfaces
Timemaster II H.O.
1 Apple /// (not pictured and really trashed, usable for select parts only)
Apple II plus puzzle
1 sider drive with a crushed SCSI connector. But otherwise looks good and powers up nicely. I wonder how the hell this happened? How do you smash a scsi-terminator dongle?
A grappler+ board!
TG joystick and some more RCA cables.
Gibson LSP II lightpen with rotting foam inside. Has preliminary (beta) manuals
Micromodem //e connector
Microbuffer. It powers on and the lights do things.
Videx function strip
2 USR modems nib (PC garbage though, not really Apple II stuff)
Transwarp GS standard (not shown yet)
Transwarp GS modded with faster crystals and wc816 or something or other (not shown yet)
IIe -to- IIgs upgrade kit in box sw (not shown yet)
Hayes Micromodem Manuals 3 different editions and bindings (not shown yet)
I'm waiting to get that ramcharger apart and see what can be done to make it work.
There's still 3 big boxes of seemingly cards only. a small palette with that big-ass plastic wrap. Some monitor ///'s. More books. 2 boxes of mixed shit. Some bags os smaller hardware, clamps, screws, clips and odds and ends. And more of that PHONE CABLE.
Also not shown is a trashed 212 card and an ok Apple-Cat (But I already have that stuff anyways)

Edited by Keatah, Tue Dec 27, 2011 2:35 AM.

[madmax2069]

Keatah, on Tue Dec 27, 2011 2:34 AM, said:

Transwarp GS standard (not shown yet)
Transwarp GS modded with faster crystals and wc816 or something or other (not shown yet)

Now thats what i'm talking about. now if only i had the money to make you a offer, i hate this time of the month after xmas, I'm beyond broke.

Edited by madmax2069, Tue Dec 27, 2011 2:58 AM.

[magnusfalkirk]

Keatah, on Tue Dec 27, 2011 2:34 AM, said:

This is getting better and better by the day! Today I've cataloged and "inventoried" 1 more box, separate from the consoles. https://picasaweb.go...480094930960522


Transwarp GS standard (not shown yet)
Transwarp GS modded with faster crystals and wc816 or something or other (not shown yet)

pm sent