no denying that computer treasures have been dumped ... the wife is lucky though that the company is willing to give her 50%

This is one of the reasons why I'm still single. I don't need a spouse or significant other to decide for me what to keep or throw away, much less tell me what should be done with my belongings once I'm gone (and I have already made arrangements as to what to do with them when my time is up 😈 ).

Having said that, I agree with one of the article's comments that she probably did this out of grief. After my mother passed away in 2005, my father and I just gave away her jewelry box to my brother's wife without even looking inside. A few days later she called and said that she found two men's rings (my high school graduation ring and my father's wedding ring) and offered to bring them back; we both humbly accepted (and I'm pretty sure my mother was screaming at us from her grave as well). Since then we make sure to check any of her belongings before disposing them, and keep anything important or of value (just in case).

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

This is one of the reasons why I'm still single. I don't need a spouse or significant other to decide for me what to keep or throw away, much less tell me what should be done with my belongings once I'm gone (and I have already made arrangements as to what to do with them when my time is up 😈 ).

Having said that, I agree with one of the article's comments that she probably did this out of grief. After my mother passed away in 2005, my father and I just gave away her jewelry box to my brother's wife without even looking inside. A few days later she called and said that she found two men's rings (my high school graduation ring and my father's wedding ring) and offered to bring them back; we both humbly accepted (and I'm pretty sure my mother was screaming at us from her grave as well). Since then we make sure to check any of her belongings before disposing them, and keep anything important or of value (just in case).

Even in a time of grief, it would be wise to see what something is before tossing it. Hide it away in a closet if necessary for a while.

Most computers and related items are not worth much in 99.9999% of cases. As for other stuff: usually there is no significant $ value: just emotional value.

Further more I believe the people in our lives and good health are really important: things are definitely not in comparison.

PeterLI wrote:

Most computers and related items are not worth much in 99.9999% of cases. As for other stuff: usually there is no significant $ value: just emotional value.

Further more I believe the people in our lives and good health are really important: things are definitely not in comparison.

It only takes a few minutes of searching to get some idea

And on top of everything else, this machine has been thoroughly documented. The Ricketts machine is the last surviving machine sold personally by Steve Jobs out of his parent's garage. The surviving machines with higher serial numbers were all sold after Apple had moved into their first corporate offices, so this one has even greater historical significance than the rest. It's appalling that the woman who dropped it off didn't know the value. I'm sure if it was stolen, there'd be an APB all over the internet by now telling everyone to be on the lookout for it, so it had to come into the possession of her husband legally so she must have known how much he paid for it. (Unless he kept it a secret from her knowing she would flip out if she knew).

Here's a video of a tech testing it for functionality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckt0A_sLKeU

Oh, and here's a news article about this machine selling in December 2014 for $365,000. If it sold that recently, the woman had to know how much her husband spent on it.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2473547,00.asp

And the press release from Christie's auction house in New York.

http://www.christies.com/about/press-center/r … sreleaseid=7561

sliderider wrote:

It's appalling that the woman who dropped it off didn't know the value.

What the fuck dude.

You all realise that to a non-nerd, it just looks like a circuit board right?

It sounds like there was box-loads of crap in their attic/basement. How the hell would she have known an Apple I from a torn-down VCR?

smeezekitty wrote:

It only takes a few minutes of searching to get some idea

Assuming she sat down and catalogued everything. It sounds like she just boxed the lot and dropped it off.

I can imagine a non tech person to just take the junk (perhaps something she always resented and mybe never understood) and throw it away.
Perhaps she's a bit older and in that generation are a lit of people that have no clue about tech stuff and even refuse to get involved with it.

sliderider wrote:

And on top of everything else, this machine has been thoroughly documented. The Ricketts machine is the last surviving machine s […]
Show full quote

And on top of everything else, this machine has been thoroughly documented. The Ricketts machine is the last surviving machine sold personally by Steve Jobs out of his parent's garage. The surviving machines with higher serial numbers were all sold after Apple had moved into their first corporate offices, so this one has even greater historical significance than the rest. It's appalling that the woman who dropped it off didn't know the value. I'm sure if it was stolen, there'd be an APB all over the internet by now telling everyone to be on the lookout for it, so it had to come into the possession of her husband legally so she must have known how much he paid for it. (Unless he kept it a secret from her knowing she would flip out if she knew).

Here's a video of a tech testing it for functionality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckt0A_sLKeU

Oh, and here's a news article about this machine selling in December 2014 for $365,000. If it sold that recently, the woman had to know how much her husband spent on it.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2473547,00.asp

And the press release from Christie's auction house in New York.

http://www.christies.com/about/press-center/r … sreleaseid=7561

If I read the article right, the woman here did not dump off the Ricketts machine, but another Apple I that may have been in her/her family's possession since it was brand new, and the Ricketts machine was just shown to provide an illustration and example of the value. The Mercury Article that the original link quotes does not mention the Ricketts machine, for example (http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_282216 … y-apple-i-donor).

Neat story, nonetheless. Hope everything works out well for the lady, and it's nice to see the shopowner being so stand-up about it. 😀

Saw this article in the free morning paper today as well.
What got me was how the recycling center was looking for the lady to give her 1/2 the cash, thought that was a nice gesture, as she could of just chucked it in the bin and no one would have known.
It's also impressive the recycling guys knew its value, for what is just a few circuit boards really. When a few of here have picked up 386's and earlier from scrap which while not in the same league still fetch a good price and have big labels telling you what's in the box

It's nice of that recycling center to want to give the other half ($100,000) to the woman. Hopefully she eventually shows back up their to claim it.

No more off topic debates folks.

Even for tech people an Apple 1 wasn't as valuable 25 years ago as it is now. Seriously, only a niche of people in the world now cares about the first Pentium processors. But who knows how much will original Pentiums be worth for collectors 30 years from now?

The more units produced, the longer it will take to have any value. For example, P4 stuff won't have value for quite some time.
486s and to a lesser extent, P1s are just starting to get the "collectable" status.

carlostex wrote:

Even for tech people an Apple 1 wasn't as valuable 25 years ago as it is now. Seriously, only a niche of people in the world now cares about the first Pentium processors. But who knows how much will original Pentiums be worth for collectors 30 years from now?

25 years ago nobody knew Steve Jobs had cancer and that the value of everything he ever touched would skyrocket after he died.

I sincerely hope that when the time comes for the Woz, he gets the same respect and admiration. But i won't be surprised if he doesn't, Jobs had the charisma but Wozniak was the real genius.

That and brilliant marketing. Apple always had a bit of a cult following, but from the ipod? and definitely the iphone made Apple and therefore Jobs a "cool" brand name / fashion statement with true die hard fanboy following.

Personally I wouldn't like all the attention fame brings, Techie people know who Wozniak is and what he did but doesn't have to bother with the media. Best of both worlds I rekon.

Otoh at times it seems that Wozniak is a so called media whore offering his opinion all kinds of things. When I read this I often think, who cares...

Well, my dearest would also throw out everything I have and never looked back 😉