Apple’s 1983 Lisa computer will be auctioned along with other old Apple technology next month.
More than 500 Apple computers and related accessories are being auctioned next month online and in Beverley Hills, California. The auction will feature many products from 1977 to 2008, including Macintosh systems from the ’80s, more modern machines like the 2001 iMac G3, and old-school accessories like RH Electronics’ Mac N’ Frost external fan and surge protector.
Auction house Julien’s Auctions has dabbled in Apple auctions in the past. Unfortunately, that included the auction of Steve Jobs’ Birkenstocks for a disturbing $218,750. The upcoming auction, announced last week and spotted on sites like PetaPixel, features classic Apple items amassed by Swiss collector Hanspeter Luzi.
Julien is auctioning an Apple II Plus (’78-’82) with a monitor, printer, two disk drives, two gaming paddles, and a manual.
The auction house announcement describes Luzi as a late historian with many hobbies who maintains a collection of old sewing machines that are now part of Germany’s Sewing Machine Museum.
Luzi reportedly became a volunteer IT manager for schools, where he would buy unwanted vintage computers and parts. The auction house said that Luzi died in 2015, and his family decided to auction his collection of Apple products.
Julien’s Auctions’ announcement included a sneak peek at some of the hundreds of items it will be auctioning from the collection next month.
One of the most famous items listed is the 1983 Lisa. Not surprisingly, it has the most expensive price estimate of the bunch, at $10,000 to $20,000. However, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the vintage computer sell for more. Previous auctions have seen working Lisa computers go for more than $50,000, including on eBay. (If the full Lisa is too expensive, maybe the Lisa OS source code is your budget.)
Like the other computers in the auction, the Lisa is being auctioned with extras. A deep-pocketed collector might walk away with the system, a keyboard, the box it came in, and a “Lisa CRT Magnets Spares Kit (652-4520).” For a detailed look at the computer, which was one of the first to use a mouse and GUI, check out our recent deep dive into the short life of the Apple Lisa.
For those looking to spend a little more, the auctioneer is also advertising a motherboard from Lisa, as well as other Apple motherboards dating back to 1978. The boards are expected to sell for up to $200 each.
Julien also tried to sell several Apple computers from the ’80s, including an Apple III from 1980 with a Monitor III and “various connecting cables” included (estimated price up to $500), plus the first Macintosh, from 1984. They’ re even throwing in the floppy disk seems to still be in the Macintosh 128K drive.
The Macintosh 128K is expected to sell for at least $200 to $300.
Meanwhile, the 1989 Macintosh Portable will be sold with an “Apple Portable canvas case, with adapter, connecting cables, an Apple luggage tag, and two manuals in German (one copyrighted 1988, the other 1990),” Julien’s Auctions said. . Apple fans will remember the laptop as the first Mac to run on a (heavy) battery and one of the first personal computers to use an active matrix LCD display.
The Macintosh Portable weighed a whopping 16 lbs and was discontinued in 1991.
For those who couldn’t afford the machine when it sold for a short time at $6,500, you can get it for $300 to $500 cheaper, according to auction house estimates.
Other items included in the auction are joysticks for the Apple IIe and IIC from 1983-1984 and an Apple QuickTake 100 camera from 1994.
It will be interesting to see what these products actually are, however, because expensive Apple auctions are nothing new. Most recently, an original iPhone from 2007 that was originally expected to be auctioned for $50,000 ended up selling for $63,356.
Julien’s Apple auction will run from March 27 to March 30.