Super-rare Prototype Apple Macintosh on sale for $100,000
Apple enthusiasts like ourselves dream of owning some of the original and rare products designed and made in Cupertino. Machines like the Apple II, Lisa and perhaps even one of Steve Jobs’ NeXT cubes are all on the long list of collectible Apple machines. What has got to be one of the rarest finds of them all has made its way on to Ebay.
An original Apple Macintosh is being sold on Ebay, and with a few hours to go, the bidding stands at a little under the $100,000 mark. It’s not one of Apple’s released Macintosh’s though, it’s a prototype. The prototype Mac 128k was only compatible with the 5.25″ Twiggy disk format, until Apple switched to the more reliable Sony version for the actual launched product.
The seller, Adam, claims to have gone on search for the very rare boot up disks but hasn’t been able to get the computer to start up. He states that the computer probably hasn’t been able to boot up since it left Apple’s offices, do to a planned malfunction.
“It might be a specific pre-release version of the Mac OS that will only boot this machine,” says Adam. “If anyone [has it], it would be one of the original Macintosh team back from 1983. Since this machine left Apple, it’s never booted up.”
This machine is what put Apple on the map and will be remembered – more than anything – for having that Big Brother inspired TV commercial during Superbowl. Incidentally, that ad – directed by Ridley Scott – is still revered as being the best ad of all time.
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