Of course, I totally forgot about that part of the story!
He was an ex Apple Reseller. He would take trade ins on new machine sales, but didn't want to sell second hand systems because they would affect new system sales. He sold the shop in 2001 and the new owner only wanted current stock, so he took everything else that was surplus. I think the reason some machines don't work is due to this reason, they needed repair and never got it.
Just remembered I got two Osbornes (I believe non working though), hundreds of disks and software titles, and still more stuff I can't remember.