Apple II Bell and Howell - How Many Were Produced?

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Apple II Bell and Howell - How Many Were Produced?
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I have noticed a lot of references suggest that only 5-10,000 Apple II Bell and Howell's were produced. Mine is serial number 21,357. So, I'm thinking they are not as rare as some think.

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Re: Apple II Bell and Howell - How Many Were Produced?

I don't think the B&H Apple II started at serial number 1.

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Re: Apple II Bell and Howell - How Many Were Produced?

Here's the one I have. Not all original, but low serial number with more info provided by Sean.

http://www.applefritter.com/?q=content/bell-and-howell-apple-ii-darth-vader

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Re: Apple II Bell and Howell - How Many Were Produced?

I think yours has to be one of the first. Love that keyboard.

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Re: Apple II Bell and Howell - How Many Were Produced?

Apple also skip serial numbers, so actual count is more difficult to ascertain.

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Re: Apple II Bell and Howell - How Many Were Produced?

Yeah so why in the world did Apple do that anyway? I've been tracking Apple II's that have been put on sale on eBay for the last few years, and I see a huge gap in serial numbers

For example, the Apple II serial numbers appear to stop at 40,000 and then restart at 60,000... See below:

  • 37835
  • 37991
  • 38804
  • 38495
  • 38650
  • 38657
  • 38764
  • 39558
  • 61407
  • 61422
  • 61847
  • 61872
  • 62101

Weird huh?

- Jennifer

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Re: Apple II Bell and Howell - How Many Were Produced?

Yeah, the highest B&H serial number I found back when I was looking was 033219, and I have no real reason to think there were any major jumps. I think 10K was just a low estimate. It's possible there were some jumps, but the ones I'd grabbed photos of were 001522, 008426, 011082, 011472 (mine), 016147, 021075, 022390, 023165, 031522, 033219.

I did kind of a survey of labels about four years ago here: http://yesterbits.com/2012/05/18/a-labor-of-labels/

I too noticed the jump, it seemed to go to 60000 for standard IIs and 65000 for II+es, and I suspect that below those IIs and II+es shared the same serial number stream.

My favorite one is this one, which I have, and which kind of inspired the project of looking at the labels in the first place. If anyone knows what the deal is with this, I'd be interested to hear it. My estimate had been that it should have been around 147000ish. Mine is A2S2-1497165, and two others like it were reported as well (A2S2-1493696 and A2S2-1492548).

IMAGE(http://yesterbits.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/label-1497165.jpg?imgmax=800)

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Re: Apple II Bell and Howell - How Many Were Produced?

I've been collecting serials for a while, and I've concluded that the II and II+ did not share the same serial number stream.

The highest II is around 78,000, and any II above 33,000 was produced in the II+ era (using the same keyboard, etc). The II seems to have a jump between 40,000 and 61,000.

The II+ restarts a serial count (earliest I have recorded is 360, and several below 20,000).

The II+ seem to cap around 580,000, but I too have noticed a strange few that are in the 1,400,000 range. I have no idea why they are there!

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