Lisa 1 Sells for $882K

[AlexTheCat123]

This Lisa 1 on Christie's was sitting at about $30K for a while, but it shot up at the last minute and sold for almost a million dollars! I really don't understand why somebody would pay anywhere near that much, but I guess they just really, really wanted a Lisa 1 and had a whole lot of cash to spare.

[stepleton]

I can't make heads or tails of it. We don't even know if it runs --- maybe the buyer contacted the auction to find out? Anyway, these machines degrade; are people expecting them to retain value as durably as a piece of fine art?

[ried]

Truly an anomaly.

[AlexTheCat123]

Truly an anomaly.

Definitely! That same auction had an Altair 8800 selling for around $55K, a NeXTcube for $21K, a lot of 9 microcomputers (common stuff like a PET, Apple II, PC XT, and so on) for $47K, and Spacewar punched onto paper tape for $18K! It's almost like a shill bidder was intentionally driving the prices up to absurd levels. I just don't see any other scenario in which this stuff would sell for so much!

[AlexTheCat123]

I can't make heads or tails of it. We don't even know if it runs --- maybe the buyer contacted the auction to find out?

Given that there weren't any pictures of the insides, I was a bit suspicious that the Twiggies might not even be in there at all! I know we've seen a machine or two like that come up on eBay before.

The box of Twiggies that seem to contain some Apple-internal software is definitely cool. Let's hope it ends up in the hands of someone who realizes the importance of dumping them!

[ried]

I mean, for reference, the most recent RR auction with a functional Lisa 1 and both Twiggy drives (one of which works) went for $81K. Another Lisa 1 that was non-functional yet had both original Twiggy drives present sold privately for $28K recently. There's simply no rational explanation for a sudden 10x increase in value.

[anotherLISAguy]

The only thing that makes sense is 1) it was from Paul Allens hoard (although not restored) and 2) the buyer was wealthy enough to set the valuation with their purchase price. 
The old saying that 'something is worth as much as people are willing to pay for it' proves itself once again. 

This is reminiscent of the pricing we've seen in art and antiquities over the past decade, which has always been driven by rarity and heavy wallet flexes. 

One last-minute thought is it is a tribute purchase made by someone well-off enough to 'tip' Paul Allen (estate) for his philanthropy. <and in the process significantly raised the value of his L1>

In either case, it will be interesting to know how many L1 owners will be contacting auction houses over the next few months.

[ried]

Now there's one on eBay with a buy-it-now option for $52K.

Images archived here for posterity: https://imgur.com/a/apple-lisa-1-on-ebay-KgWzFlQ

[AlexTheCat123]

And... the listing has been ended by the seller because the item is no longer available. I wonder if they sold it to a private buyer or something?

[ried]

I reached out and asked. The seller is considering using an auction house (RR Auction, etc.) rather than eBay.

[sigma7]

Images archived here for posterity: https://imgur.com/a/apple-lisa-1-on-ebay-KgWzFlQ

The pic in the original listing of MS-DOS floppies was subsequently replaced with this pic of the Twiggy drives.

[anotherLISAguy]

I reached out and asked. The seller is considering using an auction house (RR Auction, etc.) rather than eBay.

It makes sense - there is a difference in how vintage computer items are perceived and valued between eBay and auction houses - eBay being the hamfest/bazaar approach for parts and tech doohickies while auction houses being the more curated sale of items -the latter comes at a heavy buyers premium and a limited buyer group.

As for the original Christies auction - it would be interesting to see the bid increments and how many interested parties there were.

[TorZidan]

As for the original Christies auction - it would be interesting to see the bid increments and how many interested parties there were.

I was registered for the auction and even had placed a "low" bid few days before the auction end.

Few data points:
- the 79th bid was at $130k, about 1 hour before the auction end.
- the 96th bid was at $420k, few minutes before the end.
- the 103rd winning bid was at $700k.

There is a 26% commission to Christies, which brings the winning bid do $882k + sales tax + shipping. This is insane.

[stepleton]

Interesting to know...

Is Christie's like eBay where you only pay some amount over the runner-up's top bid, or is it just an ordinary auction where you pay the price you bid?

[anotherLISAguy]

As for the original Christies auction - it would be interesting to see the bid increments and how many interested parties there were.

Few data points:
- the 79th bid was at $130k, about 1 hour before the auction end.
- the 96th bid was at $420k, few minutes before the end.
- the 103rd winning bid was at $700k.

Thanks for the data points - interesting that there were that many bids above 130K.
Did the bid increments give an idea of how many different bidders may have been duking it out towards the end?

Anyway, thanks for the info -  though I still don't understand the value/appeal considering the limited amount of images provided.