Rare Apple computer worth thousands found in $250 auctioned storage unit
Someone won an auction for a storage space and got more than they bargained for.
Some people have all the luck! After winning an auction for a storage space, one lucky buyer found that they'd managed to pick up a boxed Apple IIgs and accessories. And some of the boxes are still sealed too.
The news means that the auction winner now has a rare vintage Apple computer, disk drives, monitor, and ImageWriter II printer that could be worth a pretty penny.
While not quite the same, a special edition version of the Apple IIgs recently sold for almost $2,000 at auction, while yet another sold for almost the same amount of cash.
A $275 bargain
The lucky person was Redditor u/Bullet_InUr_Head, who picked up the $250 auction win at an unnamed storage location, presumably without knowing what was inside.
These auctions tend to be held when a storage container or location hasn't been paid for, with the site's owner then selling the contents off at auction. But those auctions are normally blind, with multiple TV shows dedicated to people winning such auctions and then investigating what they've just won.
Oftentimes the containers don't have anything of real value inside. But sometimes things are different. This appears to have been one of those times with a boxed Apple IIgs found inside.
While far from the best Mac available today, the Apple IIgs was the most powerful computer of the Apple II family and was backward-compatible with older Apple II models. The auctioned space also included an ImageWriter II printer, an AppleColor RGB monitor, and two Apple 3.5-inch Drive units. The auction winner said that some of the items were still sealed, likely increasing their value.
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It's impossible to try and estimate how much this find is worth, but it's clearly more than the $250 paid at auction. We can safely assume that, if sold, this collection of vintage Apple hardware will give u/Bullet_InUr_Head more than enough to pick up a brand-new iPhone 15 Pro this fall.
Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.