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Glass stair from Apple Fifth Ave spiral staircase on eBay

by Michael Grothaus Feb 21st 2010 at 5:30PM

The seller says the stair is a "collectible" and could be used as a coffee table if you get some cinder blocks. He also states that "I know for a fact that only three of them exist outside of the retail stores' circulation, and this is one of them." According to the seller the stair originally cost $10,000 from a German manufacturer. That manufacturer would be Seele GmbH & Co. For a complete history of the Apple retail staircases, check out this ifoAppleStore article.

Want it? Well, you're going to have to pick it up in Brooklyn, New York and the seller recommends you bring a car and a friend or two -- the step weighs 250 pounds (114 kg).

Thanks to Mark for the tip!

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The seller says the stair is a "collectible" and could be used as a coffee table if you get some cinder blocks. He also states that "I...
 

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15 Comments

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harry

1.) The glass is NOT safe. You will see that "they" (the manufacturers of the glass, located in NY, and the engineer, also in NY) pushed the technology too hard and this results in many failures. I have personally seen failures in Chicago and NY stores.

2.) The glass does NOT pass an anti-slip test. Not safe!

3.) Great design - but it does not run as well as an Apple computer!!!

February 22 2010 at 6:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mark

Typical dumba** customer. Breaking stuff, spilling things, careless, doesn't care and just walks away from the incident I'm sure.

February 22 2010 at 12:30 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to mark's comment
Stewie

A customer isn't going to cough up $10,000 for accidentally dropping a bottle. Apple's insurance would've covered it I guess.

February 22 2010 at 2:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jake

Snapple bottles are the least of Apple's worries. If any sort of liquid like rain or Snapple or even condensation from temperature differential between inside and outside gets on those glass stairs at 5th and 59th, the whole thing turns into a spiral chute right down to the bottom. Early on, I saw plenty of people (usually women in heels) take a tumble. As a result, now when there is any indication that any moisture will end up on the stairs, Apple brings out either an obsessive guy with a mop or a set of form fitting rugs for each tread top to bottom. Or both. Classic moment in modern architecture. Like the buckets at Falling Water.

February 21 2010 at 11:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Steven

So this guy was there and picked up a 250lbs shard of glass the left...

February 21 2010 at 11:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
melican

If you use it as a table, be sure not to drink any Snapple.

February 21 2010 at 10:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
solarpos

It wasn't the impact of the glass from the bottle it was the HFCS!

February 21 2010 at 10:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Vishtor

Where exactly would people put them?

February 21 2010 at 9:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
grifmusic

The Titanic couldn't sink! You'd think they'd put some sort of coating on the top to resist impact cracks. Hope they do that in the glass floor of the grand canyon and sears tower observation decks. Although, I'd probably never stand on either!

February 21 2010 at 8:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to grifmusic's comment
Ed

They're made of many layers of glass and plastic, tightly bonded together - even if one layer smashed or came off completely, it'd still be very sound. I would imagine it's over-specified by more than 100%. The snapple damage was presumably more cosmetic than anything else - having smashed glass on your $300,000+ staircase doesn't look too good!

February 21 2010 at 9:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rot\'nApple

LMAO....

Design patent, designed by STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS, load requirements, fire codes, SEISMIC PROTECTION, vibrations, integration testing... all an interesting read from the link below, but apparently there was one test that was not performed on the glass staircase to ensure survivability...

"DROPPING A SNAPPLE BOTTLE!!!!" ROFLMAO...

That's too much... dropping a glass snapple bottle done in all that high priced engineering work and structural integrity testing, etc... just too much!

http://www.ifoapplestore.com/stores/glass_staircase.html

February 21 2010 at 7:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
solarpos

This will bring out the $$ manic folks who complain about inflated Mac prices

February 21 2010 at 6:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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