Similar story. I was walking through the Physics building at the University of Maryland in the summer of 2004 and a brilliant looking black cube of a computer caught my eye. It was lined up along a wall with a bunch of drab, old computer equipment destined for the trash heap. This was before the era of web-connected phones, so I quickly peeked at the back sticker for some information (model, serial, etc.) and went back to my dorm and looked up what it could be. It was a NeXTcube, which I had never known about. So I hustled back with an empty backpack and managed to cram it in with the zippers barely holding it in and walked back to my dorm. Once I got back and took it apart and was amazed at the quality. I never booted it up, but I kept it for a year or so before selling it on eBay to a person named Chuck (vintagecomputermuseum) for $300. I really should check-in with them and see if they ever got it up and running.