alan8086
Experienced Member
An early, non QD Superbrain on eBay for £1000 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202756096792
This is the message I sent:
'Hello - I have an interest and knowledge of these Superbrains, I've owned one for the last 12 years and had 5 when i was a teen. By all means try and get £1000 for it. Someone on vcfed.org may be interested for example but the only folk likely to pay that price are the likes of film production companies who would use it a s a prop.
I have seen many superbrains come and go on eBay over the years. The very few working ones I've seen may scrape past the £200 mark. A vcfed member i know bought one with a burned out power supply plus numerous other issues he fixed for £180 - because it had a hard disk which are like hens teeth in Superbrains.
Yours is an early model - not a QD with the larger capacity drives which were 1980 onwards. The lit up drive light is a good sign - it is waiting for a boot floppy. Also may indicate the boot EPROM is still intact - the ROM code tends to fade over the years with these machines. There should be an 'Insert Floppy Disk' message on the screen. The white block cursor indicates it isn't bank switching that part of the boot ROM code into its upper memory, or the Video Display Attributes Controller IC is faulty - all quite fixable by a person with some knowledge and patience. Also - if you are running the machine with the disk drive doors closed and no floppy disk inserted, you will damage the read/write heads. Leave the drive doors open and only close them, with a floppy inserted. For transportation, insert an old floppy in both drives and close the doors. There are a few enthusiasts who would give eye teeth for this particular machine - but few of us have £1000 to throw at one. If you don't sell it or get anywhere near what you are asking, please don't bin this machine. Its a piece of computing history that should be owned by someone who can use, care for and preserve it. Thanks
- bit wordy I know, not enough paragraphs or tabs either.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202756096792
This is the message I sent:
'Hello - I have an interest and knowledge of these Superbrains, I've owned one for the last 12 years and had 5 when i was a teen. By all means try and get £1000 for it. Someone on vcfed.org may be interested for example but the only folk likely to pay that price are the likes of film production companies who would use it a s a prop.
I have seen many superbrains come and go on eBay over the years. The very few working ones I've seen may scrape past the £200 mark. A vcfed member i know bought one with a burned out power supply plus numerous other issues he fixed for £180 - because it had a hard disk which are like hens teeth in Superbrains.
Yours is an early model - not a QD with the larger capacity drives which were 1980 onwards. The lit up drive light is a good sign - it is waiting for a boot floppy. Also may indicate the boot EPROM is still intact - the ROM code tends to fade over the years with these machines. There should be an 'Insert Floppy Disk' message on the screen. The white block cursor indicates it isn't bank switching that part of the boot ROM code into its upper memory, or the Video Display Attributes Controller IC is faulty - all quite fixable by a person with some knowledge and patience. Also - if you are running the machine with the disk drive doors closed and no floppy disk inserted, you will damage the read/write heads. Leave the drive doors open and only close them, with a floppy inserted. For transportation, insert an old floppy in both drives and close the doors. There are a few enthusiasts who would give eye teeth for this particular machine - but few of us have £1000 to throw at one. If you don't sell it or get anywhere near what you are asking, please don't bin this machine. Its a piece of computing history that should be owned by someone who can use, care for and preserve it. Thanks
- bit wordy I know, not enough paragraphs or tabs either.
