Old Macs and the original 128K

I received the following email yesterday, and thought I would share it (with his permission) and my reply here as a blog.

Dear Mr. Robertson,
My name is Ramon Matheu and I am a fellow Macintosh enthusiast.

I recently came across an older 1998 article you wrote at http:// www.mymac.com/archives/jun_98/my_turn.shtml and was inspired by your unbelievable find.

We share a similar interest in the older vintage Macs and I can really appreciate your luck at finding a well-kept MAC 128k. I have been looking for one of those gems myself, and have since only been able to collect 3 very well kept MAC SE. One is in its original box with all of the original floppies, keyboard and cables. I wish it was a MAC 128K, but am still happy with my find.

There is something to say about the preservation of these historical machines, and I only hope that there are more 128K machines out there and not at the bottom of a landfill somewhere.

Thank you, and have a great day.

Sincerely,
Ramon

I did not realize that was still up, the "new" archive is at http:// www.mymac.com/showarticle.php?id=873

Funny thing is, I found another one four years ago. I was driving to the store when my wife saw a garage sale. (Or yard sale, as some know them by) I hate garage sales, but my wife loves them. What are you gonna do, eh? So we stopped. And sitting there, all alone, is a complete 128K Macintosh, just like the one I already owned. It was in great shape, save for the black marker marks all over the front and top. I asked how much they wanted for it, and was told "it don’t do nothin’ when it’s turned on. A dollar too much?" Well, no… There was no disk in the machine, so of course nothing would happen. I took the machine home, with a printer, keyboard, carrying case, mouse, and other assorted stuff that went with it. I plugged it in, inserted one of the other disks from my other original Mac, and it started right up, no problem. A little Fantastic cleaning solution and paper towel took all the marker mess off it, and it looks almost brand new.

If you want to read another tale of my finding cool older Macs, check out this Blog I posted this past June: https://www.mymac.com/ showarticle.php?do=something&id=1163

I do see original 128K’s on eBay often, as well as Craigs lists. I almost purchased one for $5.00, but my wife reminded me that I already have two of them. :-/

Tim