For older posts, hit up the Archive or Category links in the right sidebar

 


RescueMyClassicMac.com

Do you need old system software disks to boot your vintage Mac?


MailFromCupertino.com

It's fun to look back at old Apple emails. Check them out.


This site is not affiliated with Apple, Inc.
All company logos and product names may be registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.

© 2004-2022 Kevin Rye. All Rights Reserved.

For older posts, hit up the Archive or Category links in the right sidebar

 

AppleToTheCore.me

I'm a total Apple addict, as you might tell.

1999 & 2000 OS 9 Retail Boxes

I finally filled the gap between OS 8 and OS X in my OS collection by picking up a few retail boxes of OS 9.

OS9retailboxes_0035

I always thought picking up an OS 9 box would have been a relatively simple conquest. I figured it's old enough that it's of no use to non-collectors, but not old enough to be extremely hard to find. I mean, you can buy Windows 98 for $20 bucks on eBay. OS 9 is of the same vintage. You'd think it would be pretty cheap.

Apparently, that's not the case at all.

OS 9 in the box regularly goes for a good $50 or so. Some auctions I've seen have been as high as $100 for a sealed box. I don’t know if they ever actually sold at that price, but that's crazy money for an obsolete OS!

I was very pleased to finally score a near-perfect open box for only $26.55. It still has the shrink wrap on it.

OS9Sherlock2_0020

OS9Sherlock2_0022

This box is dated 1999.

OS9Sherlock2_0021

It also still has the original $89.99 price tag on it.

OS9Sherlock2_0026

All the original documentation is included.

OS9Sherlock2_0023

I was also pretty excited to see that this is the original 9.0 release. The seller didn't specify the exact version number in the auction. All I had to go on was that it was 9-something. So this was indeed a nice treat for such a low price.

OS9Sherlock2_0025

Usually there's only 1 or 2 auctions to pick from at any given time, but this time around there were several auctions running. After wining the first box, I noticed there was one with a totally different cover. I guess I hadn't paid it much attention in the past, but I never noticed there were packaging differences between dot revisions.

This one was a Buy-It-Now for $40 with free shipping. I couldn’t resist. I’d never pay any more than $40 for an old OS, but seeing as I won the first one for only $26, it averaged out to about $30 each. I can live with that.

Instead of "Featuring Sherlock 2", this box has "Featuring iTools" on the front. I never used iTools. The first service I used from Apple was .mac. iTools is the predecessor to .mac.

OS9iTools_0027

The back of the box is the same.

OS9iTools_0028

This box is dated 2000.

OS9iTools_0029

Unlike the 9.0 release, this box has a fold out panel on the front highlighting some of the features of iTools.

OS9iTools_0031

All the original documentation is also included.

OS9iTools_0033

This disc is labelled "Version 9.0.4”.

OS9iTools_0034

Although these fill in a few gaps in my collection, it looks like I'll still have to keep an eye out for 9.1 and 9.2.

os_collection_wOS9_0039

The collection is never complete!