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Storage Hunters, they found a 1MB Mac.

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NathanAllan

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The show said that he'd be able to get $500 for a complete 1MB Apple Mac. Um, think not! Does anyone think it possibly could?

Other thing he found was a Sears Telegames Pong unit. I know boxed he can get a bit, but not the $380 he thought he could. That one could surprise me, though. Pongs are common, but a boxed one with all the inserts may bring more.

I'm still around guys, just not really active lately.
 
Is that some kind of TV show, like Antiques Road Show but they take whatever they can find? From what I've observed, Macintosh people don't usually care much for yesteryear's models but perhaps lately some of them have begun to collect vintage Macs to preserve history. In that case, it is possible the going selling price has increased some, but at $500 it probably needs to be complete in box and in like new condition. I understand larger personal computers rarely still have their boxes as those were bought to companies who had no room or reason to keep packing material.

As for the Sears Telegames Pong, that is ridiculous. I bought a loose unit w/ manuals and extra controllers for $8 last year. The ones in box went higher, perhaps $30-$50 but beyond that it got to be of extraordinary condition and preferrably signed by some prominent people.. Bushnell, Baer?
 
Right, it's a show about people who buy up abandoned storage units that are allowed to look inside the door but that's all.

The Mac wasn't complete or like new, it was very yellowed and there was dirt all over it, and in the little ring around the mouse ball ring on the underside.

The Sears Pong looked CIB but couldn't tell from the show. I doubt it will go higher than maybe $50, even so.

/edit I also have BEEN to the Antiques roadshow and wish I hadn't taken the dumb Victrola record, I really wish I had taken my modded Atari 2600, just to see what they said about it. Watch for me, I might be on next year, look at the listings for a show in El Paso. I did the little piece of feedback that they do, when people can get in front of the camera seperately and tell what they have. I am wearing my Nintendo belt buckle and a Pac Man shirt.
 
So you first get a sneak peak, then buy whatever is inside the storage unit. Once there, the TV team comes to film while you sort through all the rubbish you didn't anticipate on the sneak peek? Hooray! Maybe whoever expert is there overvalues things so people who spent money on a pile of knick-knacks shouldn't feel too let down of not finding the treasure they might have hoped for.

Then again anyone who is told a dirty, yellowed Mac in just below fair condition may be worth $500 but in the end finds nobody touches it even at $20, will be displeased later on even if that moment is not captured on camera. Maybe that is a pitch for the next reality based TV show, a team following various eBay sellers and filiming their feelings at the end of each auction, how much is left after various fees have been charged. On the other hand if most of the participants would be displeased, it would not be very good product placement for eBay.

Anyway, perhaps the one who mentioned $500 was mixing up this model of a Macintosh with a Lisa 2 (Mac XL) that actually seems to land in that ballpark? It is a plausable explanation for someone who is not an expert on Apple Macintosh.
 
To be honest people in here who deal with this stuff daily cannot agree on pricing of common units let alone rarities, so why do you expect some random "expert" guy on TV to know what something is worth on the spot? I think those shows like pickers that say such and such is worth $xxx are making it up so that it is fun to watch on TV. When they go to sell that stuff they get far less then they expect (most of the time). So many people watch those shows and then expect their common non working crap to be worth gold. Any collectable market where common crap is said to be worth money and starts selling as such is on the road for a major implosion.
 
Feeding the viewers with hoarding tendencies. It's interesting to watch some of those shows, especially after hoarders came on and of course gets everyone looking at each other asking themselves whether they're hoarding X but then a flurry of antique finding shows come out and re-feeds the masses on whether or not to throw away a rusty oil can or is it now worth $40. Weird scenarios. Storage wars I don't know how I feel about that one, I can't quite get past the fact that that's someone else's belongings to enjoy the premise of the show. I guess I know someone with a large computer collection who passed away and I never felt it right to ask about what they did but he did have a large storage unit filled with his gear that some friends and I helped him with when he lost his house and job for a few years (age discrimination kept him unemployed).

I haven't had cable for a while but yes I think we have multiple shows with different names on different networks all copying any show idea so there are both storage hunters and wars. Can't remember which is which other than wanting to slap a few of them who just bid crap up to waste eachothers budget... and seriously.. they can't yell something out more pleasant than a drawn out "yyyeeeeeppp"?!

..um.. think I lost my train of thought in a rant.. sorry, point was actually going to be on all those shows it's interesting when they use the term "valued at" which obviously means they think but didn't sell. "Sold for" is a much more valid point of reference for these things they find.
 
Usually, anything left (read: abandoned) in a storage unit is utter crap. I've gone to a few storage unit auctions, and determined never to make that mistake again...lots of clothes, often filled with literal trash. I guess there's a demographic who likes viewing those shows...but I hope no one takes it up as a hobby, or worse yet job, in hopes of making piles of money off what other people leave in storage units!
 
Yes, $US 500 for a 1MB Mac (Mac Plus?) seems a bit hopeful to me.

>To be honest people in here who deal with this stuff daily cannot agree on pricing of
> common units let alone rarities, so why do you expect some random "expert"
>guy on TV to know what something is worth on the spot?

You've got that right. There is an Apple IIGS (ROM 0, yellowed,some software,...non-working monitor) that's been put up on our national auction site Trademe twice. It's been passed in both times as it didn't meet reserve even though bids went over $150. ($NZ1 = 0.83 US cents or so)

On the same site a few months ago a IIGS went for over $1000!! I'm sure that sale was an abberation but it might have increased the percieved market value.

Here is New Zealand there are a very small number of collectors. Exporting or importing machines is expensive. This can mean the "going price" can fluctuate wildy depending what us few NZ collectors already have and might want.

Tez
 
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Odd, I figured with so many people losing their houses and downsizing to apartments or living with friends/reletives there would be some good stuff in those storage places that end up being lost to lack of money for monthly payments. I would imagine huge collections have been firesaled, given away, or recycled over the last 5 years because of the US housing crisis and lack of decent jobs. Maybe somebody stashed some rarities in a storage locker and finally ran out of cash to keep it. Why somebody would pay to keep grabage in a locker I don't know.

The IIgs market is so funny, years ago when the schools finally dumped them nobody wanted one. I barely paid shipping for my first unit that included the CPU, keyboard, both floppies, and the monitor. These days people are bidding them up, even stock units.

New Zealand must have had some decent imports of Mac items. My first set of Apple A/UX 3 media and manuals came from New Zealand (back when shipping was cheap and the dollar was strong if you can remember that far back). The WGS95 with A/UX was something like $10K US new, somebody spent some cash to have it initially shipped to New Zealand.
 
LOL 500 bux!!!! What a joke, im picking up one tomorrow in fact, with extra's like external hdd for 50 bucks. I can't see how its worth 10x what I'm about to pay...
 
.. or Nintendo people. Now imagine a limited edition Super Mario meets Darth Vader model train. :lol: That would equal ker-ching for many generations forward when reselling it.
 
Only special edition Mario I know of, there is only 1 of. Its a golden cart locked in Nintendo's vault. Estimated value is over 1 million USD!!!!!!
 
Nintendo World Championships? There are about 30 of them. The most rare NES game is one that was only sold for two months. There are two known factory sealed copies. One has been passed around by collectors for over a decade, getting about 5 to 10 thousand dollars each time. The other is in Japan, on display at the company that made it.

There are prototypes harder to find, though.
 
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