Next Time You Go Throw Away A Box Of Junk Double Check To Make Sure There Isn't a $200,000 Apple 1 Computer In There

CBC - A recycling centre in the Silicon Valley is looking for a woman who dropped off an old Apple computer that turned out to be a collectible item worth $200,000 US. The computer was inside boxes of electronics that she had cleaned out from her garage after her husband died, said Victor Gichun, the vice president of Clean Bay Area.  She didn’t want a tax receipt or leave her contact information, and it wasn’t until a few weeks later that workers opened the boxes to discover an Apple I computer inside. The San Jose Mercury News reports it was one of only about 200 first-generation desktop computers assembled by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne in 1976. “We really couldn’t believe our eyes. We thought it was fake,” Gichun told KNTV-TV. The recycling firm sold the Apple I for $200,000 to a private collection, and because the company gives 50 per cent of items sold back to the original owner, Gichun said he wants to split the proceeds with the mystery donor. He said he remembers what she looks like and is asking her to come back to claim her $100,000 cheque.

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No wonder people don’t throw things away. In fact, I’m realizing I’m slowly turning into one of those people. I still have boxes of baseball cards just gathering dust at my parents’ house. Haven’t touched them in a decade. But yet there they are in my closet, just sitting there. Who knows what is in there. I know they aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, but what if there is some hidden gem in there? And the problem is I sure as shit am not going to look through them to find out. But you can’t throw them away, just incase there is something of value in there. I believe that’s what you call a paradox…I believe. And now my greatest fears are realized by this woman who finally mustered up the courage to take boxes of old electronics to the recycling center and oops! $200,000 Apple 1 just chillin in there. God god dammit dammit. You finally pull the trigger on cleaning out the garage, cleaning out the closet like Eminem, and whatdoyaknow, a rare $200,000 piece of history is in a box. And I’m definitely the type of person who is too lazy to look through boxes before throwing them away. I figure if I haven’t looked in the box for years, nothing in it can make a different in my life. So now all my stuff at my parents’ house will just have to sit there forever I guess. Can’t take the chance on throwing it away, can’t take the time to actually look through it, and I sure as shit don’t want it here.