By the way, those annoying free AOL disks you tossed? Worth cash

For years, America Online has bombarded the country with free software disks, slipping them into airline cabins and cereal boxes, flash-frozen Omaha Steaks and the Sunday funnies.

For years, millions of annoyed Americans promptly trashed them.

Not Peter Engelman. The 61-year-old Pikesville, Md., accountant and computer buff knows a good thing when he sees it.

Attracted to AOL's colorful, cartoony packaging, Engelman began stashing the disks in shoe boxes nearly a decade ago. Friends and relatives happily passed along their unwanted disks. The result: Engelman owns what may be the most complete assemblage of old AOL software, with more than 100 varieties, sorted in chronological order.

The joke, it turns out, is on us. Since AOL's high-profile merger with media giant Time Warner, the unthinkable has happened: Some of those free disks are acquiring value. Engelman recently sold two sets of "vintage" AOL floppies (circa 1991) for more than $70. No Van Gogh, but not bad for a couple of freebies.

"America Online is the icon of the '90s," said Engelman, and people want a bit of Internet history.

He may be on to something. Flush with stock options, aging nerds are prowling online auction houses for unopened copies of DOS 1.0 and rare Apple computers.

Never mind that most vintage software won't work on modern PCs or that today's electric toothbrushes often have more brains than some old computers. "They want the toys they used to have, or the toys they could never have," said George Glastris, director of science and technology at Skinner Inc., an auction house.

"In 25 years, these are going to be the archaeological artifacts people study to see what computers were like in the early days," said Sellam Ismail, a 29-year-old computer programmer and collector in Fremont, Calif.

Ismail owns more than 1,200 obsolete computers plus thousands of diskettes, tapes and manuals. He spends $250 a month for a warehouse to store the collection.

The rarer a machine is, the more it's worth, he said. High on collectors' hot lists: the Apple I.

Introduced in 1976, the computer (such as it was) consisted of a single circuit board. Only 200 machines were produced before the more popular Apple II hit the streets. The original price: $666. A British collector paid $18,000 for one last month.

Another trophy is the Altair 8800, the microcomputer on which a generation of programmers cut its teeth, including a young Harvard student named Bill Gates. Introduced in 1975 by MITS, the computer originally sold for $395. A mint Altair 8800 today commands upward of $4,000.

The popularity of other memorabilia is harder to figure. Case in point: AOL disks.

"This is going to sound crazy, but I just spent 102 bucks on a disk," said Tom Naldzin, a software tester for Unisys in Norristown, Pa., and an AOL buff. His purchase: a shrink-wrapped copy of AOL 2.0.

"People might say, `They're only disks!' But it's like old 45s or 78s that you can't find anymore."