003! Like equill I thought you had fallen off the face of the planet!
In terms of "rare" I must first say that word is used far too often on EBAY. I've come to loath the term because of EBAY, actually. Dishonest classic Mac sellers love to pitch anything as rare, even if it is not. And folks, quite honestly, something is not truly "rare" when you find one of the same items pop up on EBAY once a week!
But there are certain things that are rare. I would say that if you find a Macintosh (no model on back) or Macintosh 128k (red model text on back) that is totally unscratched, unyellowed, with the original box and complete set of original disks and other items (like the programmer's switch), then you have indeed found a "rare" package. But in most cases, complete packages on EBAY have actually been pieced together by the seller. And even those items are yellowed to some extent.
And before anyone says "all Macs are now yellowed," I must say that my Macintosh (no red text on back) is not yellowed at all "to my eyes." And the best way to know yellowing is to flip the machine over and look at its base (where light and airborne contaminants won't yellow that area much at all). All sides of my particular machine look quite nearly the same to my eyes. But such is not to surprising since the person who sold it to me was the authorized liquidator of the estate of a man who had died, and I was told the machine was hardly used and then put inside a soft-sided Mac bag for storage all these years. Even the two protruding circular feet at the bottom of the mouse were unscathed! And so, I could consider the Mac I own as being somewhat "rare."
One final note. I suppose it could be argued that the red text "Macintosh 128k" machines are less rare that the original "Macintosh" machines merely because they came "later," I also would say that "the total number of machines manufactured" would also have some bearing on the final definition of rare. For if the "Macintosh 128k" machines were manufactured in a larger quantity overall than the original "Macintosh" machines, then by the sheer numbers alone you could see the rarity of the original "Macintosh" machines. But I lack accurate numbers to know if that is a valid argument though.
In terms of "rare" I must first say that word is used far too often on EBAY. I've come to loath the term because of EBAY, actually. Dishonest classic Mac sellers love to pitch anything as rare, even if it is not. And folks, quite honestly, something is not truly "rare" when you find one of the same items pop up on EBAY once a week!
But there are certain things that are rare. I would say that if you find a Macintosh (no model on back) or Macintosh 128k (red model text on back) that is totally unscratched, unyellowed, with the original box and complete set of original disks and other items (like the programmer's switch), then you have indeed found a "rare" package. But in most cases, complete packages on EBAY have actually been pieced together by the seller. And even those items are yellowed to some extent.
And before anyone says "all Macs are now yellowed," I must say that my Macintosh (no red text on back) is not yellowed at all "to my eyes." And the best way to know yellowing is to flip the machine over and look at its base (where light and airborne contaminants won't yellow that area much at all). All sides of my particular machine look quite nearly the same to my eyes. But such is not to surprising since the person who sold it to me was the authorized liquidator of the estate of a man who had died, and I was told the machine was hardly used and then put inside a soft-sided Mac bag for storage all these years. Even the two protruding circular feet at the bottom of the mouse were unscathed! And so, I could consider the Mac I own as being somewhat "rare."
One final note. I suppose it could be argued that the red text "Macintosh 128k" machines are less rare that the original "Macintosh" machines merely because they came "later," I also would say that "the total number of machines manufactured" would also have some bearing on the final definition of rare. For if the "Macintosh 128k" machines were manufactured in a larger quantity overall than the original "Macintosh" machines, then by the sheer numbers alone you could see the rarity of the original "Macintosh" machines. But I lack accurate numbers to know if that is a valid argument though.