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Wait a minute: A computer from 1976 is worth $200,000?
The thing was made a mere 39 years ago. I have shirts older than that.
In case you haven’t heard the story: A California woman cleaning out the garage after the death of her husband sent several boxes of old equipment to an electronics-recycling company. Inside one of them was an Apple I computer, one of the original 200 built in 1976 by Steve Jobs and buddies.
The recycling company sold it to a private buyer for $200,000 and is offering to give $100,000 of it to the woman, if she can be found.
The story made me wonder what I have in my house that could be worth big money.
When you reach a certain age, you begin seeing things you received for wedding presents in antiques shops. Surely our 1975 electric coffee maker — a chrome beauty from the era of vigorous percolation — is worth something as a historical relic.
Unlike the Apple I, it still meets contemporary performance standards, provided you aren’t one of those exacting people who think making coffee demands the scientific precision of particle physics. I’ll let it go for $100,000.
If you pay cash, I’ll throw in a blender of the same vintage. It is avocado green — the hot color of the era — and has a rhythmic whine evocative of the disco era.
Look, I get why collectors would find sentimental value in an original Apple I, but that device won’t be much good when the time comes to play “Call of Duty.”
My 1980 bicycle, on the other hand, can travel the Olentangy Trail as effectively now as it did during President Jimmy Carter’s administration.
I have fallen off it only a few times, so it isn’t even bent significantly. Let’s start the bidding at $150,000.
Possibly the oldest thing I have is a battery-powered toy car that mimics the crude “tin lizzies” of the early 20th century by stopping every foot or so to shake violently before reversing direction.
My parents gave it to me when I was a child, probably to prepare me for when I would drive real cars of about the same reliability.
(The seat back of a used Dodge Dart that I drove for a while had a habit of falling backward into a reclining position. I learned to keep a firm grip on the steering wheel.)
The toy car is yours for $75,000, and I’ll throw in another prize: the manual typewriter on which I learned keyboarding skills back before they were called keyboarding skills.
I never composed a beloved work of literature on it — probably because I was too busy painting over my errors with Wite-Out (look it up, kids).
But, if you’re seeking something too retro even for “Mad Men,” I can make you a deal: $50,000, ink ribbon not included.
