Shrink wrapped Apple Newton sells for $230 on eBay

Why would you never open the thing?

So you can sell it at a loss on ebay i suppose.

I’m a podcaster for the Typical Mac User Podcast and I had a listener send me a Newton 130 with all the software, keyboard, and extra goodies. This was a really great present to recieve from a podcast listener and I’m having a blast getting to know it. Oh yeah looks cool on the shelf.

Some things are better left in their original packaging. Cynic, I’m sure someone further down the road would want to buy an original unopened Newton at a higher price than $230.

im talking about the original purchaser keeping it in the box for so long and it was sarcasm.

I remember back in the day one of my old bosses bought us all Handspring visors to help us organize but he never got around to giving them to us(Ironic huh). A year or so later and the advent of color lcd’s made them very obsolete, he just put them on ebay as a package deal and never told all of us of his flub. Who knows maybe the Original buyer wanted to give them away as gifts but never got around to it.

@davies They probably got it for free after they tanked and just put it in a box

In 2002, I was buying a house. The home inspector showed up with one of these apple newtons and proceeded to check off the inspection report as he strolled through the house with his newton. He would make special notes using the handwriting recognition. Once the inspection was complete, he plugged it into the phone system and beamed it to the escrow office.

The unit looked well used. There were stylus marks on the screen over the usual groups of check-boxes. I had seen the Newton before, when they were being pushed by apple. The entire procedure was very smooth and very quick, thanks to this newton device. He obviously had some special software written for his application.

There is nothing wrong with these little gizmos. They hit the market before their time. Before people were savvy enough to adopt them and before people could envision the productivity gains they make possible. Fed-ex and UPS, in my mind, illustrated how to do handhelds.

I highly doubt that it’s truly factory shrinkwrapped. From working the customer service desk in the retail industry, you get an eye for small time hand operated shrinkwrap + heatgun jobs versus factory automated shrinkwrappers. The corners and small bits of burnt plastic are a dead giveaway.

Over 10 years later and my Newton still works.