I thought car parts was overpriced
I do find it a bit funny that people are complaining about a 60K example of computer history as it being a waste of money, but get all excited and have no problem at all when an Original Hemi Cuda body rolls across the auction block and sells for 200K.
Wow someone is willing to pay 200K for a car that can maybe do a 13 sec quarter mile on its BEST day. Stop from 60 to zero in a block and half and go through a slalom at 40 Mph, maybe. The sad reality is that your wife's V6 Camry would probably beat almost any stock "muscle car" on bias ply tires. Hell, the new V6 Camaro would put most muscle cars to shame, by running reliable low 14 sec quarter mile times.
Yet, we want the Hemi Cuda for the same reason that we want an Apple I. It is an automotive / technological legend. It was first or best of its breed. They both impacted the culture in innumerable ways, for both better and sometimes worse.
Would I pay 60K for an Apple I? No, but I also wouldn't pay 200K for a Hemi Cuda, inboth cases largely because I simply don't have the cash. But even if I did there are other toys, I'd rather own.
Regards,
Joe Dokes
The cool factor. For computer geeks the Apple I is pretty freakin' cool. To each his own.
As far as being able to drive my fictitious E Body, the reality is that when a car approaches that kind of value it becomes a trophy, something you rub with a diaper and ogle.
It would be like owning a vintage civil war Colt Revolver, or a vintage lever action .30 caliber rifle. You don't buy it, or the E-Body, or the Apple I to actually use it. You buy it because it is 100% cool.
Just because YOU don't find it cool doesn't mean it's not. Keep in mind, that the value of anything is simply what someone will pay for it.
Regards,
Joe Dokes
I could not agree more.
I think the computer is boss! I love the advertising poster that went with it. Makes me want to work on my pinball machines and listen to Pentagram.
Things like this remind us that even people as big a s Bill Gates were skinny, poor, hippie kids at one point. Just some people, who were innovative and loved what they did so much that they wanted to share it with the world and try their hand at doing it for a living. Human ambition is what the soul is made of.
Something else for everyone to chew on;
When you see something like this, and I don't care which vice it plays into, whether its your car/ automotive vices or otherwise, something this original has made a statement.
The value of this is not functional. The value is in the story and aesthetics (yes, some people, me included LOVE electronic kits). This is is a museum piece. The reason that any "piece of junk" hits hemi 'Cuda prices, is because of the story that is involved.
This is art. Art is overpriced. Art is dysfunctional and art as we know each respected piece (someone did spend the cash on this, yes, it is respected) is an opinion, gathered by the story that it tells.
So, before making fun of something, stop and think about how different things were, then. Two guys in a garage with a soldering iron, building something new and applying science to function. I don't see how unrelatable that is.
The pictures behind the computer really give you an idea about how different the world was and how people were.
This computer is nothing short of a relic. I'm not a fan of Apple/Mac computers, per se, but I love vintage electronics and I'm a fan of anything that pioneers human invention.
