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Your best and worst vintage computer investments?

While I don’t consider it an investment, a couple of years ago I bought a trunk load of Commodore 64 stuff for $80 including I think 4 computers, I think 5 1541, and a single 1702. While I’m not going to get rich on it, I could probably make my money back on just one computer, even including some repairs.
 
jafir said:
While I don’t consider it an investment, a couple of years ago I bought a trunk load of Commodore 64 stuff for $80 including I think 4 computers, I think 5 1541, and a single 1702. While I’m not going to get rich on it, I could probably make my money back on just one computer, even including some repairs.
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thats a nice pickup.
 
I find it amusing that C64 gear is actually worth something these days since it was flogged for free on freecycle and other places for ages. There was just so much of the stuff around.
 
Investment is a funny word.

But, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in the garage. My Osbornes were probably the best as they were badly broken but ultimately fixable, whereas my PET (one of my first purchases) worked and is more of an Icon of my youth rather than having any real time invested in it (though the Arduino disk emulator I built for it was)

So my best 'investments' have been the broken machines I have fixed, just for the love of it.

I am about to build an Apple-1. Just for the fun of trying to build it, including the wooden box. Pulls different skills together and produces something interesting at the end. It will probably hardly get any use, but its the building/fixing/tinkering/learning thats fun (like those £600 Lego models I suppose)

And the real investment, is keeping that lump of squidgy stuff working.
 
NeXT said:
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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This thread flew off the handle before it really had a chance to get going.

If I knew destroying my reputation on this forum was as easy as using the word "investment" instead of "purchase" I might have reconsidered using that word...
 
And now look at your reputation.. soiled.. Filthy.. on the ground.. just sad...


No but seriously, lesson learned right? Thats how these kinds of things go on here. No harm done and noone thinks any different of you. Just realize its a global forum with different views.

All in all an interesting thread. If it wasnt, youd have had no responses.
 
Well, in the spirit of the thread . . . My Tandy 1000SX is still up and running (from 1986). It's had many "upgrades" down through the years, including 640x480 VGA, bus mouse, V20 processor, 640K RAM, 720KB floppy, XT-IDE, serial port, and a RTC. All of this is attached to a Dell 15" color LCD. I've experimented with many forms of DOS, none of which made a significant difference with this machine, so it uses the the stands DOS 3.2 which came with the original setup. I think it's destined to outlast me.
 
VERAULT said:
And now look at your reputation.. soiled.. Filthy.. on the ground.. just sad...


No but seriously, lesson learned right? Thats how these kinds of things go on here. No harm done and noone thinks any different of you. Just realize its a global forum with different views.

All in all an interesting thread. If it wasnt, youd have had no responses.
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Nah learning lessons isn't something my brain is capable of. If burning my hands with scalding hot boiling water won't teach me a lesson and dissuade my efforts to make homemade distilled water, nothing will.

Just saying the thread didn't QUITE go the way I expected... but I would be lying if I said it wasn't interesting.
 
VERAULT said:
What is freecycle?!
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It's a movement for local people to post items they want to get rid of for free locally (each city had its own website). Still around but people migrated to facebook and craigslist.

When I used it before collecting became popular and way before scrappers paid money for old pcs looking for gold it was a great place to get free computer gear. It was there I found and old retired guy who would fix up machines to resell and would let me have older stuff people dropped off in trade he couldn't reuse. Now it's mostly household junk.
 
Over the years I have purchased a few old computers at garage sales or surplus stores. In every case it was a good purchase. It gave me hours of fun and I now have a broader collection. Most of what I have was given to me at no cost or retrieved from a landfill/transfer station. I blew up a couple of systems due to not knowing what the hell I was doing. I lost a couple trying to flash the BIOS, etc. All of it was good for me. I learned. Yes, I do regret a couple of transactions - I sold a NorthStar Horizon in working condition, for instance. This a hobby. I've sunk lots of time and money into it and will continue to do so. Don't regret the "investment" of time or money at all.

The best deal I made was for a Tandy 1000HD. It was about to become trash in a house remodel I was installing a fireplace into. I asked if I could have it. They gave it to me for nothing. I spent hours researching and learning and cleaning it up. Now it holds a prominent place in my collection.

I spent $25 on a computer at a garage sale including a box of stuff and a monitor. The computer didn't work. But I picked up a Media Center Remote that works on my Windows 8.1 Media Center. And the monitor is used for testing machines on the bench. I didn't get a working computer but it was still a good deal.

I can't think of any really bad experiences. But then, my expectations are not high. It's all just for fun for me. And to learn something I didn't know before.

I enjoyed the thread. Even the banter between a couple of the members who seems to like to spar with one another.

Seaken
 
My best "investment" was time. A local computer club was having a clearout of its storage space due to the owner passing away. I convinced them that they could make some club funds by selling off some of the stuff and agreed to split proceeds 50/50 with me repairing/selling/shipping. They came and dumped 20 Amiga 2000s in my garage. I managed to get 15 of them working and in decent shape and Ebayed them all. Club and I made around 4k each!
 
My best investment over the years was the Apple ][+ I bought at Goodwill back when they were still selling computers. I paid $15.00 for a complete unit with some nice cards, 2 Disk 2s, a Monitor III and a whole load of software. It all worked perfectly. The worst investment has been pretty much every monitor I've bought off ebay. I'm a little crazy for matching systems, and inevitably overpay for monitors, only to get them and find they have arcing flybacks, like 3 times now.
 
I've had some nice wins, such as some thousand-mile road trips to collect old DEC gear.

On the flip side - and it really pains me to say this, sadly - some of my worst investments have been deals with people right here in the vintage computing community.

Items I've purchased via Paypal and never received, and no communication back to resolve.

Items I've sold (and posted at my up-front expense) and not been paid for, the other party again going silent.

To the tune of hundreds of dollars, not much I can do about it. Sometimes I wonder if it's because I am in another country (er, hemisphere) from the other party, and they just don't care, who knows.
 
I have had for the most part mostly great transactions with the folks here. Some of which will send the item before I even pay them which speaks to their character greatly. I feel that you should at least let the advance know who screwed you possibly start a thread about deadbeat members since we have a eBay Thread about the same thing. What stops them from getting other members in trouble. Of course this has to be done with the admins okay however we do have members screwing over other members I think it should be brought to light.
 
Best investment is whatever I rescue for free/next to nothing, or needed little to no repair work at all, haha.

Worst though, is any sort of portable/laptop I bought locally off Craigslist/Facebook Marketplace. I'm 0 for 2 on a Compaq 486 LTE that the previous owner stole the battery, floppy drive, and all the screws out of and tore the HDD ribbon on, and a Leading Edge D/LT386SX. Seller conveniently didn't take a picture of the bottom, which was barely held on...and hiding some of the worst Varta leakage and water damage I've ever seen. Maybe one day I'll suck it up and resurrect them from the junk pile, but from now on, I'll stick to only getting portables from people I know and trust.
 
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