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Best finds?

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Primo007

Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2022
Messages
19
Location
Portland OR
This is just a place to share the coolest, rarest, and best stuff that you've found!

Mine would probably be an osborne 1 with the double density and 80 column upgrade, as well as the modem that fits into the floppy disc storage cubby, along with a whole bunch of original software, and an external hard drive!
 
Got an IBM PS/2 Model 95XP 50MHz with 256MB RAM for 40GBP once. Also snagged an Intel iSBC 386/16 motherboard of eBay for cheap, a few years ago. (It's the first 386 board.).
 
The wow factor of finding stuff is mostly temporary to my experience. I've had a Osborne 1 too for example. Back then is was a wow factor. After a while collecting it became just another cp/m thing for me and sold it again, just like two xerox 820 machines with 8 inch drives. Now I have a few S100 cp/m machines and a few Holborn cp/m machines. (Holborn 6100 / 6500). Then I went back further in history. Found a mark 8, Dec pdp8/11 machines with core memory and even a little Philbrick analog computer.

I'm always searching for technology where I can discover 'new' techniques. When I learned all ins and outs I go to find other stuff which is new to me.

I think one of my coolest things I have is the vt05 terminal connected to my pdp8/e...

 
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I just bought a "vintage computer collection" that looked like 2 or 3 computers from the messy photo's. I went to look at it, and it just kept coming, all boxes were chock full with vintage stuff. All in all I went home with 11 computers and a bunch of related items. No extreme rarities (C128D is nice though, just like the VC20 VolksComputer), but as I priced my offer for 3 untested units, I ended up with a good buy! Well, unless it all turns out to be defective...

In the days before common internet and vintage desirability, carboot sales were a goldmine. Entire Sega systems for 2-10 dollars. We'd buy entire systems just for the games that were in it, so we ended with a pile of Sega's while using only one. But that's how we ended up with 30 games on a looooow budget.
 
That Packard Bell is an odd duck too :)

About the Holborn 9100... Don't forget that you are showing the 9120 terminal. The computer itself was a little refrigerator with max 4x 8 inch floppy drives.

IMG_20220424_083700.png
 
Hmmmm, the elegance of that system just went out the window! :-D

Somebody should make a graph of screen area versus total system volume (I mean dimensionally) over the years. The ratio has gone from 0 (no display) to very close to zero in the early days, to end up very close to 1 for modern tablets.

(and I believe post #5 and #6 were meant for the "cool looking vintage computer cases" thread?)
 
My best finds fall into 2 categories, the pre legit hobby days and the current it's not worth my time deals.

In the old days you could find tons of stuff in places like freecycle where people were thrilled you even showed up when you said you would and piled on other computing gear before you left so they didn't have to junk it. Even among fellow collectors at the time you had people who found cool finds and got bored with them after 2 weeks and sent them to somebody else. Shipping was also dirt cheap back then. You also had people with rarities that they couldn't get to work so you got them for little to nothing. Also the small time ewaste guys who sold you stuff at 2x scrap value.

Now you have people who are well off who for some reason clear out a whole office and sell you complete very usable machines for a token $10 and the older retro stuff is just free. They just want to keep it out of the landfill and maybe get a free lunch out of it. Sure there are a ton of common office dells there but you do find some old relics in decent condition this way.

An example of the first category was an IBM PS/2 model 95 with P66 and 160MB of RAM for $40 shipped from 2007 from a fellow collector who got bored with it.
 
  • 1985 Tandy 1000A - I bought this at Value Village minty for $10 in 2007. I still have it and still use it, though it's got a "stealtlhy" hidden 2.5" HDD installed on an XT-IDE Rev 1.1 card, Deluxe Mouse, and a NEC Monitor. It's my main XT class system. I plan to throw a V20 in it and an 8087 this summer.
  • 1988 NEC MultiSync II - Found at Computer Surplus in Redmond WA for free in the junk pile. Had a broken PCB I bodge wired together, I've had this monitor for 7 years and for some odd reason it seems to be getting "better" as it ages not worse. It's now bright and crisp like new.
  • NEC Versa M/75CP w/ Words+ System 2000 - My main vintage laptop. It's a rare color active matrix model with a TOUCH SCREEN - resistive touch no less (3M MicroTouch). I'm still finding a digitizer for it, but another great thing was the AAC Digital Speech synth it came with which I occasionally write silly songs with and run it through AutoTune in BandLab
  • Compaq Deskpro 386s/20 w/Blue Lightning chip - My most recent "good find" A guy at work named Joseph was moving house and handed me this monster, 10MB of RAM (a lot for a 386) and it turns out one of the RARE IBM Blue Lightning Evergreen RevTo486 upgrades with the 16K L2 Cache. I had to special order a 387 from France for it and it's becoming one of my favorite machines in the collection for gaming because I can literally run - on actual hardware mind you - as a 386SX, 486DX, 486 DX2, or 486 DX4 with this setup.
That's just a few, 20 years in this I've had a lot of great finds.
 
Primo007 said:
This is just a place to share the coolest, rarest, and best stuff that you've found!

Mine would probably be an osborne 1 with the double density and 80 column upgrade, as well as the modem that fits into the floppy disc storage cubby, along with a whole bunch of original software, and an external hard drive!
Click to expand...
Can you share some photos on that external hard drive for an osborne 1?
 
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