Apple 1 and Apple II programmer, Bob Bishop recently passed away. Though I didn’t know Bob Bishop, I did exchange a few emails with him in June of 2013. From the few emails I exchanged with him, I got the impression that Bob was a good guy, and I feel it’s unfortunate that I never got to meet him in person.

Back in June of 2013, while refining the Apple 1 Registry, I noticed that at one time, that Bob had an Apple 1. I sent him an email, asking if he still had his unit. Bob replied, saying that he had traded it in. This was about the time that Fred Hatfield’s Apple 1 was sold at auction. There was much in the press about Fred’s Apple 1, which included a letter from Jobs, offering a trade in deal. This was a deal which Fred had refused. Bob was a little concerned that the trade he made, wasn’t as good as what Fred and others were offered.

Here is the story of that trade in, in Bob’s words. The article he mentions, was a New York Times article that included some mention about how aggressively Apple pursued the Apple 1 trade in program.

When I read that article, I was a little upset (and said so on my weekly radio show) to discover that the company had “an aggressive trade-in program, offering Apple II’s and sometimes cash incentives in exchange for Apple-1’s.” When I wanted to do MY trade-in, I had to go to apple and ask THEM if they would be willing to do it. They said YES… but only if I paid THEM some additional money! But I guess that was before they had fully started their trade-in program. So it may be that I have the dubious distinction of having been the very first person to trade-in my Apple-I for an Apple-II (since the serial no. of the Apple-II that I got was 0013). 🙂

But now that you’ve showed me the original letter from Fred, It looks like the NY Times article may have gotten their information a little mixed up. According to the letter, it appears that Fred had to pay THEM the $400 — and not the other way around (just as in my case).

I don’t remember exactly how much I had to pay when I made my trade-in, but I think it was about the same amount ($400). And I made the trade-in around late June of 1977, but Apple didn’t ship the computer to me until July. (I remember that they said it would be delivered to my home in the next few days. So on July third, I sat around anxiously waiting for delivey. The next day was going to be the Fourth of July, and if it didn’t come today, I would have to wait two more days to get it! Well, it didn’t come… so I had a very miserable Fourth of July that year. But around 10AM on July fifth, it finally arrived! 🙂

– Bob –

By the way, surviving evidence indicates that though Apple 1 trade ins occurred, it wasn’t a real great deal. Several surviving Apple 1’s that came through the hands of early Apple employees, were probably trade-in’s, but there aren’t that many of them. The only person that I know of, that actually acknowledged that he traded in an Apple 1, was Bob Bishop.