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  • Photo: Jonathan Zufi

PORTLANDER JIM ABELES is the proud owner of "the world's largest collection of Apple prototypes"—many of which will be on display for Design Week in an exhibit appropriately called Apple Prototype Collection: An Exhibit of Unreleased Apple Products. While the name might come off as a bit clinical, for those who grew up on Apple products, it's an entertaining trip down memory lane, as well as a very interesting peek at "what might have been." The former owner of a small Mac-based software company here in Portland, Abeles has been collecting the prototypes since 2002, and has built a collection 200 pieces strong. He was nice enough to geek out with us on the subject.

MERCURY: Is your collection really "the world's largest" collection of Apple prototypes?

JIM ABELES: It's the largest I know of. There's one guy in Japan and another in Russia who are rumored to have epic Apple collections, including rare prototypes. I've made contact with the guy in Japan, but he wasn't very communicative. And the Russian guy is pretty secretive. That all sounds way more intriguing than the reality of three nerds competing with each other to collect as many Apple rarities as possible.

What got you interested in collecting Apple prototypes?

When I started collecting, it was kind of a nostalgia thing. The first computer I used regularly was a Macintosh Plus. And the first one I owned was an SE—which was a college graduation gift from my parents. Over the years, I regretted selling it. Well, one of the guys I worked with knew I was looking for an old SE and one day he walked into the office with one and handed it to me. He told me it was for sale for one dollar at a Macintosh swap meet. The best part was how he proudly told me he waited until the end of the night and the seller accepted his offer of 50 cents.

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