Ran across this old Apple II order form and thought people here would appreciate it.

What I like about it is how completely un-dramatic it is. "Order your Apple II now." No grand prophecy about the future, no smiling family gathered around VisiCalc, no "world changing" language. Just a price list, a form, and a mailing address in Cupertino. Very much "here's the computer, send us the money."

The numbers are what really grab you, though. $1,298 for a 4K Apple II, and if you want to move up the memory ladder, the price gets serious in a hurry. That's always the part that makes these old documents fun to look at. People today hear "Apple II" and think cute beige machine, maybe some games, maybe a nostalgia piece. At the time, this was not a toy purchase. This was real money for real hardware.

And I love how this still has one foot in the hobbyist world. You can order the full system, or you can go board-only, which is such a great early-micro era detail. Apple was already becoming Apple, but it still clearly expected some customers to be the sort of people who'd look at a computer and think, "Yeah, just send me the board."

A few other bits I got a kick out of:

The free vinyl carrying case offer is amazing. Nothing says late-70s computing like lugging around a very expensive computer in a vinyl case.

Also: BankAmericard and Master Charge. That alone dates it better than any copyright line could.

And then there's the wonderfully matter-of-fact note about personal checks taking extra time. Different universe. You filled this thing out, mailed it in, and then waited like a civilized person.

Stuff like this is why I enjoy ephemera almost as much as the machines themselves. Manuals, ads, warranty cards, order sheets - they show you how these computers were actually presented to buyers at the time, before decades of mythology got layered on top. The Apple II wasn't "legendary" yet. It was just a very expensive machine you could order by mail if you had the nerve and the cash.

Anyway, thought it was a neat piece of early Apple history. The "RAM Complement" wording alone is worth the price of admission.


View the attachments for this post at: http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=702309371#702309371

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: When Apple Sold 4K of RAM for $1,298 and Called It Personal Computing

MummyChunk <mummycullen@gmail-dot-com.no-spam.invalid> wrote:

Ran across this old Apple II order form and thought
people here would appreciate it.

Yes, it is always fun to have reality checks like this. Those
were different times.

br,
KK

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: When Apple Sold 4K of RAM for $1,298 and Called It Personal Computing

On 2026-03-09 13:51:53 +0000, Kalevi Kolttonen said: MummyChunk <mummycullen@gmail-dot-com.no-spam.invalid> wrote:

Ran across this old Apple II order form and thought
people here would appreciate it.

Yes, it is always fun to have reality checks like this. Those
were different times.

br,
KK

Not as ridiculous as the price Apple charged to put feet or wheels on
the Mac Pro. :-\



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: When Apple Sold 4K of RAM for $1,298 and Called It Personal Computing

Your Name <YourName@yourisp.com> wrote:

On 2026-03-09 13:51:53 +0000, Kalevi Kolttonen said: MummyChunk <mummycullen@gmail-dot-com.no-spam.invalid> wrote:

Ran across this old Apple II order form and thought
people here would appreciate it.

Yes, it is always fun to have reality checks like this. Those
were different times.

br,
KK

Not as ridiculous as the price Apple charged to put feet or wheels on
the Mac Pro. :-\

Apple products really *are* expensive, aren't they? I use Fedora Linux
and FreeBSD on my Lenovo laptops. They run well and are affordable.

Over a decade ago I did buy Apple iPad Air 2 and it has been good. I
still use it everyday just a little bit, but since it is so old, I
get no software updates. The Safari browser is so outdated that most
web sites no longer work with it. YouTube still works at least somehow!

From a hardware point of view, this iPad works perfectly so it is
a big shame that it is rotting from a software standpoint.

br,
KK

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: When Apple Sold 4K of RAM for $1,298 and Called It Personal Computing

On 2026-03-09 22:41:21 +0000, Kalevi Kolttonen said:

Your Name <YourName@yourisp.com> wrote:

On 2026-03-09 13:51:53 +0000, Kalevi Kolttonen said: MummyChunk
<mummycullen@gmail-dot-com.no-spam.invalid> wrote:

Ran across this old Apple II order form and thought
people here would appreciate it.

Yes, it is always fun to have reality checks like this. Those
were different times.

br,
KK

Not as ridiculous as the price Apple charged to put feet or wheels on
the Mac Pro. :-\

Apple products really *are* expensive, aren't they?

Nope. Apple products are higher-end. If you compare the prices of Apple devices with other higher0end models from the likes of Samsung, etc.,
you'll find the prices are about the same.

The difference is that Apple doens normally bother with low-end
products - the iPhone SE and the new MacBook Neo are about as close as
they get.

I use Fedora Linux and FreeBSD on my Lenovo laptops. They run well and
are affordable.

Fine if you're pretty much self-contained, but Linux doesn't run any of
the standard software from Microsoft, Adobe, etc., so if you need
those, Linux is useless.

Over a decade ago I did buy Apple iPad Air 2 and it has been good. I
still use it everyday just a little bit, but since it is so old, I get
no software updates. The Safari browser is so outdated that most web
sites no longer work with it. YouTube still works at least somehow!

Get a different web browser. There are others.

From a hardware point of view, this iPad works perfectly so it is a big shame that it is rotting from a software standpoint.

That's the tech industry for you, especially these days with new models released every year, if not more often. Same happens in some other
industries, such as cars - you buy one and a few months later they
release a newer / teweaked version. Book publishers release books with
updated cover designs, often in the middle of a series run, so you end
up with a mess of mismatching books to complete the set. :-(

Then again, it depends on what you do or need. My previous PowerMac G3
lasted me over 25 years of every day work and leisure use (most of that
with a dial-up internet connection too!) before I was forced to replace
it due to a motherboard fault. My car is over 30 years old, and still
goes fine, although parts are becoming quite difficult to obtain.




--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: When Apple Sold 4K of RAM for $1,298 and Called It Personal Computing

Your Name <YourName@yourisp.com> wrote:

Get a different web browser. There are others.

Thanks for the tip! Very stupid of me not thinking
of that before.

br,
KK

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: When Apple Sold 4K of RAM for $1,298 and Called It Personal Computing

Kalevi Kolttonen <kalevi@kolttonen.fi> wrote:

Your Name <YourName@yourisp.com> wrote:

Get a different web browser. There are others.

Thanks for the tip! Very stupid of me not thinking
of that before.

Firefox from App Store requires iOS 15. iPad Air 2
has 12.x and cannot be upgraded as far as I can tell.

Chrome works just as badly as Safari.

br,
KK

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: When Apple Sold 4K of RAM for $1,298 and Called It Personal Computing

In article <10oob7e$b8r$1@dont-email.me>,
Kalevi Kolttonen <kalevi@kolttonen.fi> wrote:

Your Name <YourName@yourisp.com> wrote:

Get a different web browser. There are others.

Thanks for the tip! Very stupid of me not thinking
of that before.

Shouldn't "different" have been in scare quotes? Aren't the "different" web browsers on iOS just wrappers around Safari?

(I could be mistaken. Back when I was running an iPhone 4, you didn't even have different skins for Safari from which to choose. I've had a succession
of Android phones over the 12 years since (currently using a Fairphone 5)
which offer a variety of actually-different web browsers.)

--
_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: When Apple Sold 4K of RAM for $1,298 and Called It Personal Computing

On 2026-03-10 14:18:52 +0000, Scott Alfter said:

In article <10oob7e$b8r$1@dont-email.me>,
Kalevi Kolttonen <kalevi@kolttonen.fi> wrote:

Your Name <YourName@yourisp.com> wrote:

Get a different web browser. There are others.

Thanks for the tip! Very stupid of me not thinking
of that before.

Shouldn't "different" have been in scare quotes? Aren't the "different" web browsers on iOS just wrappers around Safari?

At the basic level there are only a couple of different types of web
browser. Most desktop browsers are based on Google's Chromium or
Mozilla, but Mac Safari and most (if not all) iOS / iPadOS browsers are
based on WebKit.

But even being based on the same source code doesn't quite mean they
all work or don't work on the various websites.

(I could be mistaken. Back when I was running an iPhone 4, you didn't even have different skins for Safari from which to choose. I've had a succession of Android phones over the 12 years since (currently using a Fairphone 5) which offer a variety of actually-different web browsers.)

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: When Apple Sold 4K of RAM for $1,298 and Called It Personal Computing

On 2026-03-10 13:59:01 +0000, Kalevi Kolttonen said:

Kalevi Kolttonen <kalevi@kolttonen.fi> wrote:

Your Name <YourName@yourisp.com> wrote:

Get a different web browser. There are others.

Thanks for the tip! Very stupid of me not thinking of that before.

Firefox from App Store requires iOS 15. iPad Air 2 has 12.x and cannot
be upgraded as far as I can tell.

Chrome works just as badly as Safari.

br,
KK

It can depend on the device you're using to browse the App Store. If
you visti the App Store on the old device (assuming teh old App Store
app itself is still compatible), you might see different options
compatible with the older device than you would using a newer desktop computer. If you ever bought / downloaded an app, it could be in your account's purchased list to re-download.

Another option would be to jailbreak the iPad and then use another
browser from somewhere other than the App Store. Although there are
extra risks doing that.

OR, you can install a completely different operating system, such as
Linux (for example: <https://ipadlinux.org>), but those are currently
more "experimental" and kludgey than actually useful.

OR, just use it for other things such as an ebook reader, video / music player, etc.


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Is there any scans of Chaos in the Laboratory from Vernier?


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: When Apple Sold 4K of RAM for $1,298 and Called It Personal Computing

MummyChunk wrote:

The numbers are what really grab you, though. $1,298 for a 4K
Apple II, and if you want to move up the memory ladder, the
price gets serious in a hurry.

For a coputer with a keyboard, and video output--including
graphics capability, that was a mighty good price at the time.
Compare it to what you'd have to sink into a comparable Altair,
or IMSAI setup.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: When Apple Sold 4K of RAM for $1,298 and Called It Personal Computing

Scott Alfter wrote:

Shouldn't "different" have been in scare quotes?
Aren't the "different" web browsers on iOS just
wrappers around Safari?

I've never liked the term "scare quotes"; it's not about
frightening the reader, but rather conveying dubiousness.
Perhaps "sardonic quotes" would be more apropos.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.12
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: When Apple Sold 4K of RAM for $1,298 and Called It Personal Computing

Duhast wrote:
Is there any scans of Chaos in the Laboratory from Vernier?

Book and Disk, maybe ISBNs 0-918731-46-1 / 978-0918731463

I couldn't find anything


This is a response to the post seen at: http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=702309371#702309371

--
[via JLA Forums] comp.sys.apple2 on the web: http://www.jlaforums.com/viewforum.php?f=368

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: When Apple Sold 4K of RAM for $1,298 and Called It Personal Computing

MummyChunk <mummycullen@gmail-dot-com.no-spam.invalid> wrote:

The numbers are what really grab you, though. $1,298 for a 4K Apple II,
and if you want to move up the memory ladder, the price gets serious in a hurry.

The topic is a bit misleading, since the supporting documents list 4K of
RAM for $100, just slightly more than I paid in 1981.

The real kicker is the (system) -(board) price delta. That?s quite a chunk
of change for a case, keyboard, and power supply!

--
-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://michaeljmahon.com

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)