That’s great! That’s by far the best way for vintage equipment to arrive at its destination unscathed. The plastics in vintage computer cases can get quite brittle over time, and of course, displays present particular problems. Good luck!
A color Macintosh II in February 1988 along with an Imagewriter LQ (letter quality) dot matrix printer. Was flush with cash at the time. The entire package retailed at $6,900, but I got a 40% discount since my employer, Control Data Corporation, was an official Mac dealer. Even with the 40% off that works out to $11,600 in 2026 dollars. Upgraded it later to a MacIIx. Still works and boots into MacOS 7 ready to go in 16 seconds.
1 Like
My parents owned an Apple IIe, and in the Spring of 1984, I bought a Macintosh.
Bought a used XL in 1989. I’d start it up by pushing the power button, inserting the operating system on a 5” floppy that also held MS Word, and then went to go make coffee. Most of the time the OS would have loaded by the time I got back.
2 Likes
Sounds like my Mid-2011 iMac that is maxed out at MacOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra)! 
I had used an Apple ][ and a Mac Plus at university, but the first Apple product I actually owned was a dual floppy Mac SE, purchased with a loan to write my PhD thesis. I had typed my Masters thesis on a typewriter (having not taken typing in high school), and my wife and I both declared never again!
1 Like
My first Apple was a LISA in 1983. What an amazing computer. It had a 5 Mb hard drive. Unheard of.
My next was a 128k Mac in March 1984. I purchased both the LISA and Mac for my company and followed the Mac purchase up with 4 more plus a ton of AppleTalk cable do we could network them. We had cable running all over our office.
Later, the LISA was converted to a FatMac as were the 128k Macs.
4 Likes
2010 first gen iPad. Followed by 2017 iPhone SE and 2018 macMini.
Apple //+ with 2 5.25 floppy drives and I think a joy stick. I sold the Apple //+ and purchased and Apple //e with 2 5.25 inch floppy drives and later added a pair of 8 inch floppy drives (2 whole MB online at one time). I still have the Apple //e and related drives on my desk and it all still works after 40+ years kind of amazing.
1 Like
SE FDHD with 40 MB hard disk.
1 Like
I won in a PBS-station auction in 1978 an Apple II, serial #453, with 8K of RAM. Several months later I’d managed to save enough to add 16K. That cost $300, which was a huge bargain at the time. A year after I got the Apple, I was able to add my first Disk II drive. Heaven!
3 Likes
Mac SE/30, back around ‘89 or ‘90.
1 Like
in late 1989, I bought a Mac IIcx with a Laserwriter and a large display. the whole setup cost around $10K. I had been working with computers for over 20 years, and this was the first one that actually made me more productive. I loved that the LaserWriter was actually a printer that you could repair. And System 7 (I think that was the OS) was wonderfully customizable.
My very first Mac? I guess that it was the 128k, the first one. I’m 88, and have been using Macs for a long time. I’m a professional musician, and those early music apps and the crashing. So frustrating. Learned to save every minute. Even so, that first Mac—it was mind blowing. And I can remember learning the difference between hardware and software. They were new words.
As soon as command-S became a thing, it went into muscle memory. Even today, I find myself absent-mindedly typing it, which, to be honest, isn’t always a good thing.
2 Likes
BTW, I’m traveling right now and I cleaned out my wallet to make it lighter for the trip (only a couple credit cards, for instance). And in my wallet I found a tiny paper clip.
That reminded me, I have been carrying a paper clip with me since the late 1980s… back when Macs would get their floppies stuck and you needed a paper clip to insert into the hole next to the drive to force the disk out!
It’s been ages since I needed to do that, of course, but I found the paper clip handy in a lot of situations, so I still carry one, Anyone else still do that? 
2 Likes
I never carried one with me, but I have always kept at least one near my Macs, for the same reason. I still have a few on my desk:
4 Likes
Heh, I have a bent clip on my desk too…not for floppies anymore but for a cheap Verbatim optical drive!
3 Likes
I’m sure I have a bent paper clip or two in my desk, but I find myself using the SIM removal tool that was included with old iPhones more often. It’s a little more solid than most paper clips, so it’s perfect for the factory reset hole on a lot of devices.
3 Likes
Apple ][, Imagewriter. I remember paying $99 for an upgrade card to enable descending descenders, and another to enable Applesoft Basic. Later we bought another interface so we could plug the computer into an IBM Selectric typewriter. At first programs had to be loaded from a cassette tape, which was always hit or miss, and later there was a drive for an 8 inch floppy [literally floppy].
My first foray into programming was to write a Hunt the Wumpus game. In order to generate sounds, you had to poke hex numbers or something into memory locations and to play the sound, peek that location. I was very proud of my randomly-generated cave complex.
1 Like