Mystery Of Vintage Computers Stacked To Ceiling In 3 Houses

[Simon Johnson]

I just found a property in a remote Australian country town. The place has 3 houses, stacked floor to ceiling with vintage computers. Some of them are the popular brands we know and love like vintage Apples.... but others are far more obscure. There seems to be a lot of proprietary printing / typesetting hardware with 5 1/4" drives and some bizarre stuff I've never seen before.

With that in mind, I've done three videos documenting the entire collection. The first video is out now (Happy New Year). If anyone could help identify some of these, I'll try and save what I can, but its a monumental effort. The property is very remote and hard to get to and I'm slowly uncovering the story behind it, as one of the owners has passed away.

As collectors, we often here of stories like this, but never see them "first hand" until now.

 

[1944GPW]

Nice collection. At 3:11 "...what was tossable" - what sort of things were tossed? Have cables and/or documentation been separated from the more obscure machines? It was mentioned that this was posted to a forum, which one?

 

[Plasma]

It can be a slippery slope from "collecting" to "hoarding."

 

[Simon Johnson]

Nice collection. At 3:11 "...what was tossable" - what sort of things were tossed? Have cables and/or documentation been separated from the more obscure machines? It was mentioned that this was posted to a forum, which one?

I think Jason meant to say he initially posted to a local Facebook group, not a forum. Its all separated and the owners partner and Jason and working to put it back into "piles" to sell off. Its 3 houses of floor to ceiling computers. For example, when I was there, one house might have Macs in it, but the software might be in another house and the boxes in another house... its everywhere!

 

[Simon Johnson]

It can be a slippery slope from "collecting" to "hoarding."

Yes it is.... and I suspect the owner who passed away fell into that category.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

Damn. Its like a mini Computer Reset. Except this time half a world away.

 

[RedskullDC]

I just found a property in a remote Australian country town.

Hi Simon, et al.

I'm aware of a house just outside Armidale NSW with a very similar collection.... Won't mention any names though.

Regards,
Leslie

 

[cj7hawk]

Yes it is.... and I suspect the owner who passed away fell into that category.

I think that by the time you run out of shelves, it's officially hoarding.

I suspect more of is slip into that category than we would care to admit

 

[hunterjwizzard]

I think that by the time you run out of shelves, it's officially hoarding.

What if I legitimately do not have very many shelves?

 

[cj7hawk]

What if I legitimately do not have very many shelves?

Steps.
1. Buy one more computer. Stick it on the shelf.
2. If computer does not fit on existing shelfs, then buy and install more shelfs.
3. Repeat until house is entirely filled with shelfs with computers on them
4. If house is full of shelfs, buy more houses.
5. Repeat until houses are all filled.
6. If all houses are entirely filled with shelfs of computers, then place computer on floor.
7. Congratulations. You are now officially a hoarder.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

You for got:

8. ????
9. Profit.

 

[Unknown_K]

I think even if you have a basement or garage full of gear but not the rest of the house you are doing good.

 

[hunterjwizzard]

I'll make this argument to my wife the best time she complains about my collection.

 

[Ruud]

I have a room full of computers, my wife has two rooms for her perfume bottles collections. That seems evenly divided.

 

[Simon Johnson]

This is Part 2 / House 2 of the massive horde. It's the smaller house of the three, but still interesting. Lots of old school printing gear and some weird vintage computers too.

 

[cj7hawk]

Aligators? In Australia?

Surely you mean a clusterpuck of Dropbears in the surrounding trees and residing in the roof?

I'm wondering if you're mentioning gaters under the floorboards so people will look down and never see the real threat coming?

 

[hunterjwizzard]

So what's destined to happen to all these unusual machines?

 

[cj7hawk]

ebay would be my guess

Or one of the retro computer resellers. But I too am interested to know.

Note: They have a Facebook where you can ask

https://www.facebook.com/RetroRarez/posts/1006288764877208

 

[hunterjwizzard]

Sadly I am not on Facebook. Well maybe 'sadly' is not the right term. But that world is closed to me.

 

[cj7hawk]

I'll relay back what I hear there. I avoid facebook too, but staying away entirely is not that easy.