This is a guest post by Mark Hosbein, a potential iPad 2 customer. Mark has been unable to get an iPad 2 after several days waiting in line. He expresses the frustration felt by many. As we’ve reported, Apple continues to see long lines for the iPad 2 a week after launch day. Mark’s piece was originally published here.

I just returned from the Apple Store at the Short Hills Mall in New Jersey. I arrived at the mall at 5.20 AM to wait in line for my chance to buy an iPad 2. I was number 27 in line. I did not get one. The line went to 81. My wife had been there for the past two days, and both days she was shut out. She was number 39 yesterday, with no luck.

For a revered brand, Apple is risking customer will in the way they are managing the iPad launch.

In 1997, Apple was in deep financial trouble. Wired published a now-famous cover story: “101 Ways to Save Apple.”

Some of the advice was prescient, some was silly, but it was a fascinating list of suggestions. And what actually happened between now and then is even more interesting.

Here, for the first time, is a really detailed followup to each and every one of Wired‘s 101 suggestions.

We start a new week and the last day of January with deals for the iPhone, the MacBook and the iPod. First up is the latest batch of price drops from the iPhone App Store, including “Slingo Supreme,” a game that combines slots and bingo. Next is a group of MacBook Pro laptops, starting at $999 for a 2.4GHz 13.3-inch unit. We wrap up the spotlight deals with an 8GB iPod nano (current model) for just $120.

Along the way, we also check out a deal on iTunes gift cards, including a $100 card for just $85. We also have some bargains on iPod touch cases, a mobile iPod stereo speaker and some software for your Mac. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

2010 was the year of the hot Apple auctions, with an Apple 1 fetching its highest price ever, $213,000 to an Italian collector.

What’s next?

Cult of Mac’s own Adam Rosen, a Mac consultant whose vintage mac museum collection counts some 36 different models and about 75 total computers, was asked to opine for AntiqueWeek on the going prices for some popular Apple collectibles.

What’s past is present, at least in the Vintage Tech World. 2010 saw some significant stories involving those attic treasures: an Apple 1 sold for a whopping $213,000, a Mac Museum for $10k, and an Apple II Festival turned 21. Meanwhile iPads were spotted co-habitating inside old Macs, obsolete status befell our PowerPC friends, and The Macintosh Way lived again.

Travel back in time for this review of the Year in Vintage Apple News.

Rare Vintage Apple items are popular these days. An Apple Lisa 1 put up for sale on eBay last week has sold for $15,000 after 11 bids! The unit, in working condition, belonged to a former member of the Lisa production team at Apple and was sold by his brother.  In an email received by Cult of Mac, the seller noted that the buyer intends to display the system in a museum in Italy.

Black Friday is this week and it will mark the beginning of the 2010 holiday shopping season in the U.S. Cyber Monday is the first Monday after Black Friday.

I’m not exactly excited about braving the crowds for holiday bargains. So I’ll be using my iPhone or iPad and any of the free apps below to help me shop from wherever I happen to be.

Thanks to an issue with light leaking onto the camera sensor, Apple has delayed the white iPhone 4 until at least March of next year… a nine month delay which probably harbingers the cancellation of that device.

It’s a delay that has bitten some customers harder than others: in fact, some customers have been so desperate to have a white iPhone 4 that they have converted them to white themselves as an aftermarket mod.

Don’t even think about buying or selling an iPhone 4 modded to white on eBay, though: Apple’s coming down hard on “fake” and “counterfeit” white iPhone 4s, banning them from sale on the world’s most popular online auctioning site.

Christie’s of London just announced a special item for auction, an original Apple 1 computer shipped directly from Steve Jobs’ garage.  Labeled system number 82, this kit includes the motherboard, cassette adapter, manuals, the original shipping box in good condition, and a signed letter from Steve Jobs to the original owner!

Approximately 200 Apple 1 systems were produced, and about a quarter of those survive today.  The Steves – ever the jokesters – originally priced the system at $666.66.  In 2009 an Apple 1 was listed on eBay for $50,000.  Christie’s estimates this one to sell for £150,000 ($240,000)!  Not a bad return on your investment.

[via Daily Mail]

Vintage Macs come and go, Vintage Mac Museums typically tend to Grow.  One particularly impressive Museum is Moving On. The Mac Museum of Franklin Park, NJ has been put up for sale on eBay:

Due to the owner’s pending relocation, The Mac Museum of New Jersey is closing its doors, and this wonderful collection of vintage Macs and rare Apple products is being sold.

This famous collection and its curator have been featured on CNN, MacAddict magazine and The RetroMacCast podcast. The auction of consists of more 20 rare and distinguished Apple products, several books, manuals, installer floppy disks and CDs, along with nine framed posters, speciality items and more. Note: This collection will only be sold in its entirety as a complete collection. [eBay]

Models include the Lisa, Mac 128k, Plus, SE/30, Color Classic, Mac Portable, TAM, Newtons, etc., along with lots of posters, peripherals and paraphernalia.  A trove of Mac lore indeed; if I had the room, and the money, I’d love to add this all to my own collection.  How much is all this Mac history worth?

We’ll know on October 7, when the auction ends. Some lucky collector will take the prize – then need to pick it all up in a big truck themselves!

[via RetroMacCast]