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](os9retailboxes_0035-2.jpg)
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_0020.jpg)
![OS9Sherlock2_0022](os9sherlock2_0022.jpg)
This box is dated 1999.
![OS9Sherlock2_0021](os9sherlock2_0021.jpg)
It also still has the original $89.99 price tag on it.
![OS9Sherlock2_0026](os9sherlock2_0026.jpg)
All the original documentation is included.
![OS9Sherlock2_0023](os9sherlock2_0023.jpg)
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](os9sherlock2_0025.jpg)
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](os9itools_0027.jpg)
The back of the box is the same.
![OS9iTools_0028](os9itools_0028.jpg)
This box is dated 2000.
![OS9iTools_0029](os9itools_0029.jpg)
Unlike the 9.0 release, this box has a fold out panel on the front highlighting some of the features of iTools.
![OS9iTools_0031](os9itools_0031.jpg)
All the original documentation is also included.
![OS9iTools_0033](os9itools_0033.jpg)
This disc is labelled "Version 9.0.4”.
![OS9iTools_0034](os9itools_0034.jpg)
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](os_collection_wos9_0039.jpg)
The collection is never complete!