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Woman recycles Apple I as e-waste

The only unbelievable part is that the recycling company is willing to share the proceeds.
 
Wow, this story gives you the jitters, at least it was saved. It's a good reminder to mention to your family where and what the valuable stuff is.
 
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It is also pleasantly surprising to see that a "recycler" had both someone that was able to recognize it, and had policies in place that permitted them to sell it.

Although I can't help but wonder what else might have been with it.
 
SomeGuy said:
It is also pleasantly surprising to see that a "recycler" had both someone that was able to recognize it, and had policies in place that permitted them to sell it.
Click to expand...

Indeed... I can't help but wonder how many valuable, historically significant pieces of hardware have been destroyed because nobody recognized it for what it was.
 
MikeModified,
So no one is confused with your picture. It was from a few years ago at the San Jose collection where there were 5 Apple-1, three of which were operational by the end of the day thanks to the great work of Dr. Wendell Sander, one of the earliest Apple employees. The San Jose collection is not publicly viewable, but now their Apple-1 is operational.

Cheers,
Corey
 
Strange really - the Apple 1 has been worth 5 figures for at least a couple of decades, I'm surprised her husband never found this out or at least mentioned it to her!
 
It seems that people are making many assumptions about this womans relationship. It is quite likely that she was an estranged wife, and had little knowledge her husbands collection. Or it could be she really didn't like him and felt it was worth more to destroy any reminders of him.

Many die alone and friendless, and the strangers that clean up the mess will care nothing for what remains.

Some people also mistake "recyclers", especially places like GoodWill, as someplace that might re-purpose or re-sell older electronics when that is rarely the case.
 
SomeGuy said:
It seems that people are making many assumptions about this womans relationship. It is quite likely that she was an estranged wife, and had little knowledge her husbands collection. Or it could be she really didn't like him and felt it was worth more to destroy any reminders of him.
Click to expand...

What if she simply didn't know?
The machine is from the 1970s. Perhaps she was not his first wife, and they got married years later. He may have never taken out the Apple I when she was around, the machine may just have been forgotten in a box somewhere.
 
Based on my experience with electronics recycling companies, I'm more surprised that someone knew what it was. Most e-waste companies toss anonymous looking old circuit boards directly into the scrap pile. It probably would have been overlooked in most other parts of the country.
 
How many of us on this forum have life-partners who know the value of anything in our collection? A lucky few, I would guess. The naive posthumous chuck-out is probably more the norm than the exception. This story is just at the extreme end of our common interest. Stories like this happen all the time in collectables of all kinds, from pre-historic antiquities to pop-star ephemera.

Rick
 
It's one thing if he had the board in a glass case mounted on the wall and another if it was just a dirty old motherboard in a dusty box with other junk on top. Recyclers tend to look at the chips on the board to know which stack to put it in and if there is anything worth ripping out of it (gold chips for instance) for ebay. Word about $1M Apple I boards gets around fast so I am not shocked somebody knew what it was.
 
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