1994: AU$1167, 2006: AU$28

Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 at 08:15pm

Last week I was the winning bidder for an Apple TechStep, the diagnostic tool for early Apple Macintosh’s and SCSI hard drives. On Sunday night I noticed that the seller was no longer a registered user of eBay and as I had already paid the grand sum of AU$28 (including postage) I became a bit concerned but everything became well when I found it waiting on the doorstep when I got home tonight.

So what did I get for AU$28 that seems to go for a few hundred US$?

  • Apple TechStep unit
  • CPU Tests, Vol. 1, v. 1.1.1 ROM
  • SCSI HD Tests, v. 1.0 ROM
  • Apple TechStep AC Adapter
  • Apple SCSI Cable
  • Apple TechStep case

Based on the above site, some photos on flickr, and some other sites I believe that it is missing the following items to be totally complete:

  • ROM packs for CPU tests Vol. 2, 3 and 4 (could also list the older version of Vol. 1)
  • Serial, ADB and audio cables (I may have enough of these already)
  • Manuals
  • Floppy disks (I am not sure what these are as it seems the techstep can drive the Macintosh over SCSI or ADB…)

One other interesting thing about the TechStep (and would normally remove) is a price tag on the bottom dated 25 November 1994 with an ex tax price of $1167.00. The power supply has a similar sticker except the price of that is $178. This thing cost a fortune and that isn’t even adjusting for the 22% sales tax that was present back in 1994 (these days we have a 10% GST).

If I get my act together I may get some photos up this weekend…

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