> No one collects cloud servers, the things that do > the real work and storage. Will they?
Google's first server is in the Computer History Museum... On Sat, Aug 5, 2023 at 8:54 AM Bill Degnan via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > Something has to be the most sought-after thing in every collectors' > hobby. The Apple I is not historically significant enough alone to justify > the prices they get, there is a cultural/memorabilia component too. Just > rare enough to form an elite "market". It's an indicator that computer age > collecting is healthy and robust. The Apple I prices help support all > vintage computer prices, if you're into all that. > > I have noticed, from running an indie computer museum for 4 years, that > young people dont know much about 8-bit computers. They're much more > interested in SGIs and NeXT and DOS gamers with a mouse GUI. > > Fast forward 50 years. Impossible to know how society will rememeber the > computer age, roughly 1950-2000. A lot of kids today dont lust after a > computer like prior 4 generations, their smartphone and school-issued > chromebooks are just fine. Most people today own computers that are > nothing more than a network interfaces. We in this group are atypical, > archaic by definition. No one collects cloud servers, the things that do > the real work and storage. Will they? Not sure what you call it but we're > not in the "computer age" anymore. My point, the memorabilia factor that > supports Apple I prices will drop off, leaving only the historic value. > Will the historic value support current prices? A market requires demand. > What will be the demand in 2073? > > Historians will always value the Apple I and a few others from the computer > age, but the price escalation phase of probably over. > > One would still have to pay the future value equivalent of $250,000+ for an > Apple I for as long time. Few if any other computers from our era will > earn anything close to those prices. > > Bill > > On Fri, Aug 4, 2023, 2:03 PM Peter Corlett via cctalk < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> > wrote: > > > On Fri, Aug 04, 2023 at 08:51:31AM -0500, John Herron via cctalk wrote: > > [...] > > > That price is interesting. Does that imply the value has gone down > after > > > some skyrocketed close to 1 million? One still has to make the decision > > of > > > a owning a house or an apple 1. > > > > Well, both of them are treated as speculative investments, putting them > out > > of reach of people who just want the pleasure of using them rather than > > looking for the next bagholder. The main difference is that I can just > buy > > the parts to build my own Apple 1 and nobody's going to stop me, whereas > if > > I try that with a house the local authority gets quite upset. > > > > > -- Michael Thompson