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Gene Roddenberry's Mac Plus Is Coming Up For Auction

Harry writes "In 1986, Apple unveiled one of the most popular Macintoshes ever, the Mac Plus. The company gave the first one (serial number #F4200NUM0001) to Star Trek's creator, Gene Roddenberry. And now this very Mac Plus will go up for auction at a Hollywood collectibles event on October 8th and 9th, complete with a letter of authenticity from Roddenberry's son. The estimated value is only $800-$1200, which seems reasonable enough, given its double historical significance." Any bets on how high the bidding will go?

25 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. Bets on how high? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    400 quatloos!!

    1. Re:Bets on how high? by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

      Damned Canadians and their odd money!

    2. Re:Bets on how high? by zonker · · Score: 3, Funny

      I hear they only deal in gold pressed latinum. Damned Ferengis.

  2. Re:Good Piece of History by bennomatic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    10k? This is Gene Roddenberry, man. His fans will pay $10k for a ripped shirt stained with Shatner's sweat. I'll bet this could clear a quarter mil.

    --
    The CB App. What's your 20?
  3. I'll bid on it... by i_liek_turtles · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...and write Spock/Kirk slash.

    1. Re:I'll bid on it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The auction should be on fanfiction.net, where the folks who would really get some use out of this machine congregate. Except that they're all living at home still. Oh, well...

      Doesn't everyone technically live at home, with home being defined as "where you live"?

  4. It depends by mysidia · · Score: 5, Funny

    At a Hollywood collectibles event, it will probably go for $200k.

    If they had listed it on eBay, and slashdotted the listing, they would probably get bids in amounts over $10 million+.

    But I guess after eBay fees, they're better off selling it at the Hollywood collectibles event :)

    1. Re:It depends by lofoforabr · · Score: 5, Funny

      eBay must be run by the Ferengi.
      In fact, they seem to be even greedier than the Ferengi.

    2. Re:It depends by Tetsujin · · Score: 3, Funny

      eBay must be run by the Ferengi.

      In fact, they seem to be even greedier than the Ferengi.

      Nah, don't be silly. eBay is nothing like the Ferengi.

      The Ferengi follow a very strict code which governs how they may profit from commerce...

      --
      Bow-ties are cool.
  5. Re:Apple Care by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Funny

    It would, if Apple cared.

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  6. Imagine by Weaselmancer · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...what you'd find on the main hard disc with a sector editor. THEN bid.

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
    1. Re:Imagine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      What are you guys talking about? Mac Pluses don't have hard disks.

    2. Re:Imagine by GrahamCox · · Score: 4, Informative

      The data might still be there

      Nope. The Mac Plus had no internal hard drive.

  7. Re:By Neruos by Robin47 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I had a Mac Plus. It didn't have a drive. Just one floppy drive.

  8. Wait a minute! You're forgetting something! by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 5, Funny

    This the the Mac Plus with the formula for Transparent Aluminum on it!

  9. Not as originally advertised by m509272 · · Score: 5, Informative

    determined to be not as advertised

    We've gotten several inquires about this by the fantastically loyal and knowledgeable Mac community. After further investigating the item, here's the information:
    Firstly, this Macintosh was, indeed, presented to Gene Roddenberry by Apple. There is no doubt about this.
    The conflict between the photo and the serial number is as follows. This computer, given by Apple to Mr. Roddenberry, is an early production Macintosh 128 (#776), which was then upgraded by Apple for Gene to a Macintosh Plus-thus the model number / serial number / panel that "belongs to" a Macintosh Plus. The 0001 led us to mistakenly believe that it was the first one off the line.
    Again, the provenance of the item is perfect and it did belong to Mr. Roddenberry. I apologize for any confusion.

    1. Re:Not as originally advertised by Shag · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The upgrade from 128K to Mac Plus spec is actually pretty significant, since the 128K was only supported until MacOS 4 while the Plus was supported until 7.5.5 (which was a pretty decent OS). I suspect this is going to go more to someone who wants it because of the provenance, though, and rarely if ever get used. I hope whoever buys it sets it up to play a slideshow of Trek photos or something.

      --
      Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
  10. Added bonus by Comatose51 · · Score: 3, Funny

    As an added bonus, you get a mouse that doubles as a microphone and understands voice input.

    --
    EvilCON - Made Famous by /.
  11. Re:$1701 by ari_j · · Score: 4, Funny

    The really problem is that every fan will bid $1701. Therefore, only a non-fan can possibly win the auction.

  12. Re:apple needs to restart Star Trek proposal and h by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    apple needs to restart Star Trek proposal and have mac os x for all x86 hardware back then dell the others did not want it (part of the M$ lock in that the killed beos, os/2 and others) now dell and others want it vista is a big bust and linux is ganging ground.

    Wow, and here I thought F. Scott Fitzgerald was dead...

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  13. Re:Good Piece of History by Nefarious+Wheel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    My guess would be Paul Allen, or a proxy thereof, will sit there bidding until he wins. And it will go for over $120,000, easily.

    --
    Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
  14. Re:Good Piece of History by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 4, Informative

    It does indeed. Did you know that the 128k Macintosh was the very first Macintosh model ever produced? The very first, I tell you!

    Plugging the serial number into the Early Macintosh Serial decoder yields:

    Your Macintosh 128 (M0001), with serial number F4200NUM0001, was the 776th manufactured during the 20th week of 1984 in Fremont, CA.

  15. Re:Yellow by Dewin · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's a few ways to restore or prevent the yellowing. I can't find the original page I saw before, but this has more information.

    --
    Of course nobody reads the FAQ! If people read the FAQ, the Questions wouldn't be so Frequently Asked.
  16. Re:By Neruos by alexandre_ganso · · Score: 5, Informative

    The serial number and the pictures are of an original mac, not a plus. However, see what the auction house said:

    We've gotten several inquires about this by the fantastically loyal and knowledgeable Mac community. After further investigating the item, here's the information:
    Firstly, this Macintosh was, indeed, presented to Gene Roddenberry by Apple. There is no doubt about this.
    The conflict between the photo and the serial number is as follows. This computer, given by Apple to Mr. Roddenberry, is an early production Macintosh 128 (#776), which was then upgraded by Apple for Gene to a Macintosh Plus-thus the model number / serial number / panel that "belongs to" a Macintosh Plus. The 0001 led us to mistakenly believe that it was the first one off the line.
    Again, the provenance of the item is perfect and it did belong to Mr. Roddenberry. I apologize for any confusion.

  17. Re:Good Piece of History by Hal_Porter · · Score: 3, Funny

    Mac fans show their people skills once again.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;