Who collects obsolete computers?

cockroachfarm

cockroachfarm

Joined
Jan 6, 2001
Messages
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A few years ago I read about a group in CA (?) that collects, repairs, etc. obsolete computers. A friend of mine has a brand-new, in the box, complete Adam Colecovision family computer system (console, printer, controllers, manuals, cables, etc.) The individual pieces have never even been unwrapped from their plastic bags!

He would like to find out if there might be a market for something like this. Does anyone know of a group/website that he could contact?

TIA :)
 
www.old-computers.com

I love old computers. I remember having a Radio Shack Color Computer with a tape player for storage. 5.25 floppy drives were something like 3 or 400 dollars and IIRC had a capacity of 100K or something along those lines. I was really up-scale when my brother installed 64K of ram!!

My brother then gave me his old TRS80 Model 3 with 48K and 2 floppy drives.

You can simulate old computers and their software by downloading emulators from various sites. I have tried the CoCo, Model 3 and Apple emulators. They really are neat. www.trs-80.com is a decent site for these. Try searching Google or Yahoo. Plenty of information and discussion groups around for the oldies.
 
It's a popular and growing hobby, and there certainly is a market, but prices are not high as yet. Maybe in ten or twenty years.... Search ebay to see what a system like that is going for currently.
 
I collect processors! Great fun. And they older ones are cheap cheap cheap. Keep 'em up here at work as an homage to my years being frustrated by them...

;)
 
I don't exactly collect old computers, but I sort of "dabble" in them. My garage seems to be a clearing house for old computer stuff that people have upgraded from, where I end up scraping together working systems and giving them to broke folks who need a computer. I've also recently pick up an old Timex Sinclair 1000 at a garage sale for a dollar and a Commodore C64 for two dollars. They both went for under $20.00 on ebay, but were a little rough, although the Commodore did have the optional 5 1/4 floppy drive with it. It's cool when you fire up one of those oldies and it actually works, but I can't remember anything about programming in basic (must be getting old).

If you're into old computers, here's the place for you:

http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org

I'm willing to bet that because of the age and condition of your friend's system that he could get a few bucks on it on ebay. Put it up with a $200.00 reserve price. If it's worth a lot more than that, the bidding will go up. If it's worth less, you'll know for the price of the listing fees. Old Vectrex systems seem to be going for a couple hundred bucks if bundled with a couple games and in good condition on ebay (don't ask me how I know this), where Mattel Intelevisions are almost free.

jmx
 
I don't "collect" them, but I've got a Commodore 64 that still works, all disks work too. Anyone remember typing crap like this:


Load "*"

Then for 5 minutes or so you'd wait for the program to load up.....:D
 
I am glad someone mentioned the Timex Sinclair. I loved mine and miss a flight simulator that goes at Mach .000000023 and loading stuff from a cassette tape.:D
 
Originally posted by W.S. DeWeese
I am glad someone mentioned the Timex Sinclair....
Click to expand...

Me too! I still have a tiny, battery-operated black Sinclair B&W television hiding around the house somewhere.

And I had TWO of the black Sinclair LED watches that looked s-o-o-o cool! You had to assemble them from a kit. Being totally un-mechanical, I coerced the Chief Engineer of one of the radio stations I worked at to assemble them in his spare time.

I recently found one of those Sinclair watches (still working) and traded it to a watch dealer friend for a $200 titanium Boccia wristwatch! :cool:
 
Obsolete? What's that?! :rolleyes:


I think I have a few too many. 3 or 4 old Apollo workstations, about a dozen Macs that work and a few that don't, I think I'm down to about 8 working DOS or Windows PC's, an Epson PX-8 and an HX-20, a PDP-11/84, and an IBM Series/1. That's the short list.

ClassicCmp is a VERY busy mailing list that USUALLY has a somewhat acceptable S/N ratio. Like any large mailing list they bicker a bit, but it's been good lately. Recent threads haven't been too useful for me, but I stick around anyway. Web address for more info is http://www.classiccmp.org/.
 
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