Vintage computer museum on sale with 80 classic Macs

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Benj Edwards Computer Collection
This is about half of Benj Edwards‘ computer collection
Photo: Benj Edwards

Many people can’t bear to part with their old computers, and slowly build a collection of aging models in their basement. Benj Edwards took that impulse to the next level: He owns at least 228 unique devices, many of them classic Apple products going back to the 1980s.

Now he’s put them all up for sale. Ready to start your own computer museum?

Edwards made the offer on Twitter: “Does anybody want to buy a computer collection I have been gathering since 1993? This is less than half of it. I am considering a move, and I’m not sure these can go with me to the new place. Would love to keep them all together somehow. Want to start a museum?”

He owns 80 Apple computers, including a Lisa 2, quite a few Mac II series and Mac Classics, many PowerBooks and a range of Power Macintosh desktops. There’s even some iPhones and iPads thrown in. It’s enough to make any Apple fanboy swoon.

As Edwards is hoping to keep his collection together, he might insist that a purchase include the 72 classic PCs, the 19 Commodore devices, and the 145 gaming consoles. There are also “thousands of accessories,” he says.

Not your everyday collector

Edwards didn’t get all these devices inadvertently. He runs a blog called Vintage Computing and Gaming: Adventures in Classic Technology. He posts about retro computers and video game consoles, often including print ads originally published by their manufacturers.

The blog doesn’t say exactly how the collection grew to its current size. But VC&G accepts donations of old devices — or it did until the collection went up for sale.

Edwards doesn’t give a price for his garage stuffed with computers, and so far none of the replies to his original Twitter post have been offers for the whole shebang. Still, one reply is a request that sounds like the beginnings of negotiation.

Others suggest that Edwards reach out to various technology museums around the world to gauge interest. Plus, there are requests to buy individual computers in the collection. So it seems anyone who dreams of a computer museum still has time to put in a bid.

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