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Your best and worst vintage computer investments?

A good investment is if you buy something at price X and you sell it after considering; the cost of restoring, time spent troubleshooting, cleaning, testing, researching solutions, digging through forums for a possible answers to problems that keep stumping you for weeks or months, assembling the parts to make it as "period" or "updated" to give it new life. not limited but including to monitors, drives, software etc.
So X + "All that" = Y. If you can find someone to pay for Y, then your investment is good. if you sell it for less than Y then you made a bad investment.

Have I had a great investment, Yes, a 1985 TRS-80 model 4D, delivered to the collector *(and yes that is probably the only way to make an item become a good investment)* for a very good profit beyond "Y"

Have I had a bad investment, Yes, a 1984 TRS-80 model 4P, purchase price below market, but as mentioned by a few before me, once I achieved Y, it had become over market pricing,
In the end, selling it for a price X+few more bucks, to a young man that wanted to learn how to program on a vintage computer in assembly language.
Was it truly a bad investment? monetarily speaking, if I only think of hardware and parts cost, I lost a little, but gained a friend.

I have had regrets sure we all make that purchase that the moment you hit buy, your brains goes; "buddy put that beer down and step away from eBay", but in the end,
I seek the knowledge to restore, repair and return to functionality and at times improve the "old systems" for someone else that seeks to own or enjoy the past.

I pass on what I learned to newcomers that wish to "tinker" with a machine they got from a family member and discovered that computers existed before their android phone :)
 
mR_Slug said:
Probably my worst investments (in terms of money) are the stuff I got for free or very low value, but threw out years ago. Even stuff like clone MDA monitors, had like 20 of them, they now are worth a bit. It's sad when I see stuff that I now want but threw away. I once sold 10 486 PCI motherboards on eBay and got 10GBP for the lot. It's not really about the money for me, it's if I had that money, I could buy more interesting stuff at the crazy eBay prices. Most of the stuff I want now is very specific so eBay is like the only place.
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We are all guilty of that.. But I wouldnt call getting something for free/almost free an investment by any means.



As for answering the OP's question:

"Your best and worst vintage computer investments?"​



My answer would be, TIME. I enjoyed and dont regret all the time I put into this hobby. Ups and downs sure, but in the end gratifying. I didnt get into it for the money. I got into it for nostalgia. Talk about money really sullies the spirit of the hobby if you discuss it like an "investment".
 
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Amen! About being a proper curator. Keeping em alive, and having fun, in the process. Crap i'm going for worlds record 5x86 soon. Just for the fun of it. =)

Got the PLL I need a few days ago, this should get interesting with CPU Galaxy guy LOL. I prob should start a channel, but meh , Im not much a guy for social media. This is as much as it gets! LOL!
 
I think my best buys have been bulk lots, such as an Amstrad CPC collection I purchased recently. I wanted the green monochrome CRT, after I sold off the manuals, software, external disk drive, and plenty of those 3" disks (which seem to always be in demand) my CRT was effectively FREE!
 
I've paid 25 euro's for my Mark 8. But I don't want to restore it to keep it just original as it is. I paid 500 for a pdp8/m and I had and still have a lot of fun with it. Now what is a better investment? I don't care, as long as I have a reasonable amount of fun with it.
 
Now, I'm probably gonna get a lot of hate for saying this, and maybe I'm just an asshole because of it, but

EVERYTHING is an investment in my book.

I will say the same thing about my other hobbies, and literally everything I do for that matter. Whether it's an investment of time, money, both, or even something else.

Now, that does NOT mean I only care about the money aspect of investments, and that's not what I was going for when I started the thread. If I was in this hobby for the money I wouldn't have sold off a chunk of my own collection for LESS than what I paid for it, and there are some of my systems that I have much sentimental attachment to. I wouldn't part with those systems for any amount of money, because the returns I get from this hobby are far greater than any amount of money could ever bring. Remember the $7.50 system I mentioned? That was a GREAT investment, but not because I can turn around and sell it on eBay for 10x what I paid for it. I would NEVER sell that system for any price because of the sentimental value I have attached to it.

Now, what are some of the returns I get for my investments of time and money into this hobby. Owning a cool, functional piece of computer history? Being able to play old games and use old software that I used back in the day? Educating myself, my family and my friends (oh wait, I don't have any friends) about computer history?

Those are all pretty damn good returns if you ask me. Even if the returns I get aren't money, it's still a damn good investment if you ask me.

However, there are times where my investments of time and money into this hobby ended up not working out, like the Compaq system I mentioned. I was ultimately unable to achieve my goal of ending up with a working system because it was effectively beyond repair even before I bought it, but had no way of knowing that. That's what I was going for when I started this thread.

On another note, if you don't want to read what I have to say, you can banish me from YOUR vision - hover over my name and click Ignore. That capability exists for a reason.
 
I feel you are just throwing the term "investment" around when you should really be using the word "Purchase". Purchase has MUCH DIFFERENT CONNOTATIONS. And I am sure it wouldn't bother people either.
 
VERAULT said:
We are all guilty of that.. But I wouldnt call getting something for free/almost free an investment by any means.



As for answering the OP's question:

"Your best and worst vintage computer investments?"​



My answer would be, TIME. I enjoyed and dont regret all the time I put into this hobby. Ups and downs sure, but in the end gratifying. I didnt get into it for the money. I got into it for nostalgia. Talk about money really sullies the spirit of the hobby if you discuss it like an "investment".
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My Redstone XT Turbo with EGA video card and EGA TVU monitor was free. Included keyboard and a serial mouse.Only hd to buy a XT-IDE card. The nic , hdd and software I but on it I got 30 and 20 years ago. So for the cost of a XT-IDE card and a couple of hours of my time I have a fully functioning system from the late '80s. My 1989386DX33 was in the situation but no need for a XT-IDE card.
TH2002 said:
Now, I'm probably gonna get a lot of hate for saying this, and maybe I'm just an asshole because of it, but

EVERYTHING is an investment in my book.

I will say the same thing about my other hobbies, and literally everything I do for that matter. Whether it's an investment of time, money, both, or even something else.

Now, that does NOT mean I only care about the money aspect of investments, and that's not what I was going for when I started the thread. If I was in this hobby for the money I wouldn't have sold off a chunk of my own collection for LESS than what I paid for it, and there are some of my systems that I have much sentimental attachment to. I wouldn't part with those systems for any amount of money, because the returns I get from this hobby are far greater than any amount of money could ever bring. Remember the $7.50 system I mentioned? That was a GREAT investment, but not because I can turn around and sell it on eBay for 10x what I paid for it. I would NEVER sell that system for any price because of the sentimental value I have attached to it.

Now, what are some of the returns I get for my investments of time and money into this hobby. Owning a cool, functional piece of computer history? Being able to play old games and use old software that I used back in the day? Educating myself, my family and my friends (oh wait, I don't have any friends) about computer history?

Those are all pretty damn good returns if you ask me. Even if the returns I get aren't money, it's still a damn good investment if you ask me.

However, there are times where my investments of time and money into this hobby ended up not working out, like the Compaq system I mentioned. I was ultimately unable to achieve my goal of ending up with a working system because it was effectively beyond repair even before I bought it, but had no way of knowing that. That's what I was going for when I started this thread.

On another note, if you don't want to read what I have to say, you can banish me from YOUR vision - hover over my name and click Ignore. That capability exists for a reason.
Click to expand...
Like any Community there are just some members who think their point of view is gospel and nothing else matters. They will argue their point no matter what.

My 1990 Zenith 286LP Plus I got in a car boot bundle at NZ$20. It just needed a new IDE hdd and I added 4x 1meg 30pin simms I had had for ever to make up 8megs of ram total. It aint going nowhere....it reminds me of my first ever and only new PC, which I bought in the early '90s and learnt a lot about computers in general.
 
TH2002 said:
I invite you to show me where in my post I said "screw what other people think, my viewpoint is the only one that matters".
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My post was not to have a go at you at all. WTF would you think that?

In fact I was SUPPORTING what you posted;

I stand by what I posted whole hardheartedly.
 
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Worst: probably my MacIvory Lisp machine (MW3 in a IIci). What a steaming heap, expensive to acquire, expensive to repair and retrofit. I estimate I sunk about US$6K into it all told and while they sell for a fair bit now I doubt I'd get that back. That said (other than my 164LX Genera installation) it's my only true Lisp machine, so I'm keeping the damn thing.

Best: bought a 133MHz BeBox for a few hundred dollars (admittedly from someone who knew it was going to a good home). They go for stupid money now. Not that I'd part with it either. Alternatively my blue-label PET 2001. This was also bought for a few hundred dollars, but autographed manual from Jack and Leonard Tramiel? Priceless.
 
ClassicHasClass said:
Worst: probably my MacIvory Lisp machine (MW3 in a IIci). What a steaming heap, expensive to acquire, expensive to repair and retrofit. I estimate I sunk about US$6K into it all told and while they sell for a fair bit now I doubt I'd get that back. That said (other than my 164LX Genera installation) it's my only true Lisp machine, so I'm keeping the damn thing.

Best: bought a 133MHz BeBox for a few hundred dollars (admittedly from someone who knew it was going to a good home). They go for stupid money now. Not that I'd part with it either. Alternatively my blue-label PET 2001. This was also bought for a few hundred dollars, but autographed manual from Jack and Leonard Tramiel? Priceless.
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For me the stuff I have that is worth some money is the stuff I don't ever want to sell.
 
Guys.
I'm pretty sure by "investment" he meant "purchase". Not "investment" as in a financial investment.

You're getting all twisted out of shape. ;)
 
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