Twylo
Experienced Member
Yowza. A non-working PDP-8/m just sold for $2705 on eBay. I'd been watching this auction closely to get a feel of what the market is like, since I've only recently come back to collecting DEC stuff after an 11 year absence.
Supply and demand is a hell of a thing!
The only PDP-8 I ever owned was a single-rack PDP-8/i system that I rescued from UC Santa Cruz in 1996. Back then all it took was a $25 fee to the Regents of the University of California, and a big truck. But at the time I was in my early 20s and living in a rented house with three other young guys and didn't have room or tools to keep and restore it, so I ended up giving it to another collector who I trusted to take care of it. He still has it, thank goodness, so it's in fine hands. But I still wish I could have been in a position to keep it. It was a similar situation with the PDP-11 equipment I was able to save in college. It was so easy to come by then that I took it for granted! But, in the end, I just didn't have anywhere to keep it all and I moved around too much.
So now that I'm older and graying and have enough time, money, and security to work on these things, I figured I'd start looking around again. But, times sure have changed!
Thank goodness for SIMH. And thank goodness I got a Spare Time Gizmos SBC6120/FP6120 when I had the chance! It's the only "PDP-8" I'm likely to own these days!
-Twylo
Supply and demand is a hell of a thing!
The only PDP-8 I ever owned was a single-rack PDP-8/i system that I rescued from UC Santa Cruz in 1996. Back then all it took was a $25 fee to the Regents of the University of California, and a big truck. But at the time I was in my early 20s and living in a rented house with three other young guys and didn't have room or tools to keep and restore it, so I ended up giving it to another collector who I trusted to take care of it. He still has it, thank goodness, so it's in fine hands. But I still wish I could have been in a position to keep it. It was a similar situation with the PDP-11 equipment I was able to save in college. It was so easy to come by then that I took it for granted! But, in the end, I just didn't have anywhere to keep it all and I moved around too much.
So now that I'm older and graying and have enough time, money, and security to work on these things, I figured I'd start looking around again. But, times sure have changed!
Thank goodness for SIMH. And thank goodness I got a Spare Time Gizmos SBC6120/FP6120 when I had the chance! It's the only "PDP-8" I'm likely to own these days!
-Twylo