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Just a quick Atari Question

D

Druid6900

Veteran Member
Joined
May 7, 2006
Messages
3,809
Location
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
I have someone that wants to send me the following working equipment as I was wondering, since I make my living fixing and re-selling Vintage Computers, if it's a good investment;

ATARI Mega4 STe with 4 MB RAM
16 MHz 68000
200 MB SCSI HD
Mouse
keyboard
Instruction Manual
SN124 BW Monitor
SC1224 Color Monitor
cables

other components:
Spare ATARI 3.5 inch floppy drive
spare mouse
prototype VME circuit board card
external SCSI HD unit
Link 97
external SCSI cable

Software utilities: Code Head Utilities
Multidesk by Charles Johnson
Magic C
Double Click DC Utilities Ver 2.0
OutBurST Ver 3.3
AdSCSI series 6.5.5 Pro Host Adapters ( SCSI HD drive utility) by ICD
OutBurST Ver 3.3 Printer Accelerator
Jet Speed LaserJet Driver
EdHak v 2.3
A&D Universal Item Selector,

Books:
Data Becker programmer's manuals Vol 2, 3, 4, 5, 13
Scott Sanders ATARI Compendium
Classic ATARI magazines

Programs:
OSS Personal Pascal
HiSoft High Speed Pascal
FLASH II
Page Stream
El Cal scientific math package
ATARI WORKS

Miscellaneous public domain software and ATARI ST user guides.

Any opinions?
 
I'm not an Atari expert so someone here who specializes in them will be a better answer but $150 is a close one. That in my opinion is probably almost the max value of that system right now (although searching ebay and ebay completed auctions may tell you better).

The trick (preaching to choir so I'll keep it short) on value of vintage systems is the number of working ones in the public (naturally the number of released items affects this as well as the age) so while it's a cool system (I'd be interested if it was closer to $50) you'll have to wait a while before it really goes up in value.

I keep not getting an original Altair with accessories because since I first started hunting for one in 98 it was too expensive (an AWESOME auction with everything you could ever want including a terminal, printer, manuals, etc and he was willing to help set it up if you were within a day driving range away) auction went for around $1200 which was too high for me at the time. Since then it went to about $1200 for just an Altair by itself which was again too much, and now their just going for odd amounts depending on the system. It seems to be inflating at the same rate (or higher) than my income so I'll have to figure out if I can ever get one or if I should bite it now and avoid higher costs later (assuming someone doesn't discover a bunker of them in the desert somewhere lol).

Ok.. sorry.. went off on a rant there. Short story is if it's $150 + shipping you can get it if you're interested in that system but I'm not sure you'll recover that from it for a few years. $150 after shipping and you may be able to make a little off of it on ebay but not much.

- John
 
Yeah, I caught that after writing the whole spiel. $150 post shipping isn't bad especially considering they're giving you two monitors and the books, programming software, etc.

I think you'd be able to make your money back however it's not exactly a system you'd be able to flip on ebay and make a bunch more. So if you like the system or like collecting it's worth picking up and holding on to for a while but if you're looking for a quick buck you may or may not be able to make it worth your while on ebay.

Of course (re-reading post again) you said you make your living doing similar things so you may actually have the best idea on whether or not it's worth it vs myself who mostly just collect not sell.

*Sometimes* you can get your money back just selling the software although as a collector I'd rather see it all stay together and purchase a system WITH the programming tools.

- John
 
Well, if I DO end up getting it, it'll go on my site as a complete package for someone to enjoy and relive "the good ol' days"

I don't care to "part out" a perfectly well working system unless it is an old clone box that has some interesting "innards".

I'm asking about the relative worth of the system because I rarely get any later model Ataris in, working or not.
 
When you include all the extras I'd say it's a very good deal. The Link 97 and hard drive would fetch a good amount on their own. Atari mice are getting harder to find unless you pay System Solutions prices including the cost of overseas shipping. External 3.5 Fdds go regularly for about $30-35 on Ebay because the STs used a double-density drive. The VME prototype is especially interesting and finding a VME card for the otherwise useless socket on the ST is a definite score. Ditto the printer accellerator. Nothing too exciting in the software other than Atari Works which is an excellent all-in-one program. The STEs are still in demand by many musicians.

Lawrence
 
Thank you all for your comments, but, since I haven't heard back from the individual, he may have changed his mind.

I really hate when you spend a lot of time arranging something with someone, e-mails back and forth and such and then nothing ever materializes.

It's even happened on here a couple of times with a Mac HDI-45 to VGA adapter. Still don't have one.
 
Hmm..

Hmm..

The Mega STEs and the color monitors are quite hard to come by. Depends what condition they're in, I guess. I'd buy it all at that price.
 
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