RedWine
08-29-2007, 04:43 AM
http://images.pcworld.com/opinion/graphics/136242-01_intro-slide.jpg
First the bad news: Meaningful though it may have been to you, your trusty old ThinkPad running Windows 98 has little monetary value and no historical significance. But personal computers have been around long enough that certain models--mostly dating from the 1970s and early 1980s--have gone from newfangled gadget to prized relic. We compiled this list after consulting with tech historians and collectors, including Bryan Blackburn, Digibarn's Bruce Damer, the Vintage Computer Festival's Sellam Ismail, and Erik Klein of Vintage-Computer.com. (Klein provided most of the estimates of original production runs and current market values.) Our roster includes everything from still-plentiful bestsellers to rarities that hardly ever change hands; if perusing the list leaves you wanting to own any of them, check out eBay--or, better yet, attend a specialized event such as one of the Vintage Computer Festivals held in the United States and Europe. Click on the above images to see our picks, in alphabetical order...
http://images.pcworld.com/opinion/graphics/136242-02_Altair.jpg
Altair 8800 (MITS, 1975). Estimated units sold: tens of thousands; original price: $621 (assembled); current market value: $2000+
Cover-featured in a famous issue of Popular Electronics magazine as a do-it-yourself project, the Intel 8080-based Altair wasn't the first microcomputer, but it was the first one that truly caught on, spawning an entire industry of clones, add-on developers, and software suppliers. (You may have heard of the system's first software developer--a little company that originally spelled its name Micro-Soft.) The Altair also gave birth, in an indirect fashion, to PC World: Our founder, David Bunnell, got his start in the tech publishing world as the guy in charge of the machine's documentation. Altairs sold well enough that they're not among the top tier of valuable antique PCs--but if you happen to own one, you can certainly find someone willing to pay you handsomely to take it off your hands.
http://images.pcworld.com/opinion/graphics/136242-03_Xerox-Alto.jpg
Alto (Xerox, 1973). Estimated units manufactured: a few thousand; original price: never sold; current market value: at least $5000 to $10,000
After 34 years, the entire computer industry is still feasting on ideas that Xerox's PARC research arm came up with for the Alto. It had a sophisticated graphical-user interface, a mouse, ethernet, and a laser printer, all of which took a decade or more to go mainstream in other companies' products. Altos were never sold--they were used internally, and donated to universities--but in 1981 Xerox commercialized many of the machine's innovations into a $16,595 system called the 8010 Star Information System. The pricey device failed to catapult the company into a leadership position in small computers, but like the Alto, it's highly collectible today.
http://images.pcworld.com/opinion/graphics/136242-04_Apple-1.jpg
Apple 1 (Apple Computer, 1976). Estimated units sold: a few hundred; original price: $666.66; current market value: $15,000 to $25,000
When Steve Jobs has a computer to sell these days, the world listens. Back in 1976, almost nobody did. Jobs and Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak struggled to drum up interest in the Apple 1, which they planned to sell as a bare circuit board that hobbyists would turn into a working computer by soldering in chips themselves. Then Paul Terrell, who ran the Byte Shop in Mountain View, California--one of the first computer stores--placed an order for 50 Apple I systems, contingent on Apple's supplying them as fully assembled boards. "Steve was hungry for an order and knew he could get Woz and some of their buddies to put this order together in their garage. And I knew where they lived--so we did the deal and that got Apple Computer started," Terrell remembers. (He had to hire a local carpenter to provide the computers' wooden cases.) The 1 was only a modest success back in the day. In today's Apple-crazy world, though, it may be the most famous collectible PC. One reportedly sold for $50,000 in 1999, but you can probably get one for about half that-if you can find it at all.
http://images.pcworld.com/opinion/graphics/136242-05_AppleII-Erik-Klein.jpg
Apple II (Apple Computer, 1977). Estimated units sold: 5 million to 6 million (all versions); original price: $1298; current market value: $15 to $250
It's important. It's iconic. It's PC World's Greatest PC of All Time. But the Apple II, which was the slickest PC of its era, isn't particularly rare. Plenty of examples are still around; if you want the breakthrough version of the machine, look for the plain-vanilla II model. Later editions such as the II Plus, IIe, and IIc, simply added incremental improvements to the enduring genius of Steve Wozniak's original design.
http://images.pcworld.com/opinion/graphics/136242-06_Commodore-64.jpg
Commodore 64 (Commodore, 1982). Estimated units sold: 17 million; original price: $595; current market value: $10 to $300
There may be more Commodore 64 PCs tucked away in closets than any other single computer model--with 17 million units sold during its long lifetime, Commodore's mass-market machine has been called the best-selling single computer model of all time. And it still has legions of fans, as witness sites such as C64.com and C64.org. At any given moment, you can probably find a few up for bid on eBay at reasonable prices--in the original box, even.
First the bad news: Meaningful though it may have been to you, your trusty old ThinkPad running Windows 98 has little monetary value and no historical significance. But personal computers have been around long enough that certain models--mostly dating from the 1970s and early 1980s--have gone from newfangled gadget to prized relic. We compiled this list after consulting with tech historians and collectors, including Bryan Blackburn, Digibarn's Bruce Damer, the Vintage Computer Festival's Sellam Ismail, and Erik Klein of Vintage-Computer.com. (Klein provided most of the estimates of original production runs and current market values.) Our roster includes everything from still-plentiful bestsellers to rarities that hardly ever change hands; if perusing the list leaves you wanting to own any of them, check out eBay--or, better yet, attend a specialized event such as one of the Vintage Computer Festivals held in the United States and Europe. Click on the above images to see our picks, in alphabetical order...
http://images.pcworld.com/opinion/graphics/136242-02_Altair.jpg
Altair 8800 (MITS, 1975). Estimated units sold: tens of thousands; original price: $621 (assembled); current market value: $2000+
Cover-featured in a famous issue of Popular Electronics magazine as a do-it-yourself project, the Intel 8080-based Altair wasn't the first microcomputer, but it was the first one that truly caught on, spawning an entire industry of clones, add-on developers, and software suppliers. (You may have heard of the system's first software developer--a little company that originally spelled its name Micro-Soft.) The Altair also gave birth, in an indirect fashion, to PC World: Our founder, David Bunnell, got his start in the tech publishing world as the guy in charge of the machine's documentation. Altairs sold well enough that they're not among the top tier of valuable antique PCs--but if you happen to own one, you can certainly find someone willing to pay you handsomely to take it off your hands.
http://images.pcworld.com/opinion/graphics/136242-03_Xerox-Alto.jpg
Alto (Xerox, 1973). Estimated units manufactured: a few thousand; original price: never sold; current market value: at least $5000 to $10,000
After 34 years, the entire computer industry is still feasting on ideas that Xerox's PARC research arm came up with for the Alto. It had a sophisticated graphical-user interface, a mouse, ethernet, and a laser printer, all of which took a decade or more to go mainstream in other companies' products. Altos were never sold--they were used internally, and donated to universities--but in 1981 Xerox commercialized many of the machine's innovations into a $16,595 system called the 8010 Star Information System. The pricey device failed to catapult the company into a leadership position in small computers, but like the Alto, it's highly collectible today.
http://images.pcworld.com/opinion/graphics/136242-04_Apple-1.jpg
Apple 1 (Apple Computer, 1976). Estimated units sold: a few hundred; original price: $666.66; current market value: $15,000 to $25,000
When Steve Jobs has a computer to sell these days, the world listens. Back in 1976, almost nobody did. Jobs and Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak struggled to drum up interest in the Apple 1, which they planned to sell as a bare circuit board that hobbyists would turn into a working computer by soldering in chips themselves. Then Paul Terrell, who ran the Byte Shop in Mountain View, California--one of the first computer stores--placed an order for 50 Apple I systems, contingent on Apple's supplying them as fully assembled boards. "Steve was hungry for an order and knew he could get Woz and some of their buddies to put this order together in their garage. And I knew where they lived--so we did the deal and that got Apple Computer started," Terrell remembers. (He had to hire a local carpenter to provide the computers' wooden cases.) The 1 was only a modest success back in the day. In today's Apple-crazy world, though, it may be the most famous collectible PC. One reportedly sold for $50,000 in 1999, but you can probably get one for about half that-if you can find it at all.
http://images.pcworld.com/opinion/graphics/136242-05_AppleII-Erik-Klein.jpg
Apple II (Apple Computer, 1977). Estimated units sold: 5 million to 6 million (all versions); original price: $1298; current market value: $15 to $250
It's important. It's iconic. It's PC World's Greatest PC of All Time. But the Apple II, which was the slickest PC of its era, isn't particularly rare. Plenty of examples are still around; if you want the breakthrough version of the machine, look for the plain-vanilla II model. Later editions such as the II Plus, IIe, and IIc, simply added incremental improvements to the enduring genius of Steve Wozniak's original design.
http://images.pcworld.com/opinion/graphics/136242-06_Commodore-64.jpg
Commodore 64 (Commodore, 1982). Estimated units sold: 17 million; original price: $595; current market value: $10 to $300
There may be more Commodore 64 PCs tucked away in closets than any other single computer model--with 17 million units sold during its long lifetime, Commodore's mass-market machine has been called the best-selling single computer model of all time. And it still has legions of fans, as witness sites such as C64.com and C64.org. At any given moment, you can probably find a few up for bid on eBay at reasonable prices--in the original box, even.