Your best and worst vintage computer investments?

[TH2002]

Will be interesting to hear from those who have been collecting vintage computers for longer than me, I purchased my first vintage computer in 2014 or 2015 for a mere $7.50 from a thrift store, and to this day I think that is one of my best investments.

As for the worst, I will have to go with the $30 Compaq Armada 7400 I bought from eBay. This was an impulse buy because the initial asking price was $60 and the seller offered $30, figured for that price I could get it up and running and have a functional PII-based Compaq laptop. Bought a floppy drive for $20, created some Compaq BIOS boot floppies (since the BIOS is stored on the HDD with a lot of these older Compaq machines) and could never get it to recognize any hard drive. I think the original HDD was itself on its way out since trying to format it gave me a multitude of errors, but the real kicker is the guy I eventually sold it to. He actually sent me some pictures and it turns out the CMOS battery had leaked and killed the hard drive controller, meaning that effectively no hard drive would ever work in the computer ever again.

If I had bought it to use as a parts machine, it might have been a decent investment, but otherwise goes to show that cheaper isn't always better.

 

[Caluser2000]

I don't consider any vintage/old computers in the terms of "investments"

In saying that folk are now paying 2-3 times or more as much as I paid for my systems.....

 

[VERAULT]

Yeah, these things are like buying a boat or swimming pool. Even if its "free" you end up putting money into them, its impossible not to. So they are all bad investments unless you can sell them all at high profits.

 

[NeXT]

Ignoring a bunch of my deals that came down to "it's free. Pick it up", the $15 IIfx at FreeGeek was a pretty damn good one.

The single worst purchase into a machine I was least expecting to be basket cases was a pair of IBM AS/400 720 series midrange computers. I paid something like $500 after it was all said and done with them at my place and ultimately both were hopeless. One had no drives, the other had a few. Both had PSU issues and neither had interchangeable parts because they were different submodels. The UPS batteries were likewise dead so the primary supply wouldn't go online and we aren't even starting with software. At this point I'd love to push them off a cliff and forget about them.

 

[Unknown_K]

I never considered anything I collect as an investment.

The old analog video capture gear I like collecting is probably worth less then I paid for it because few people care.

When I started noticing my collection growing I just assumed the scrap value would offset the cost of disposing of the monitors.

Having said the above, quite a few things I own are worth 10x that I paid for them or more. I rarely sell anything except for something I have many duplicates of or just can't stand. One time a collector did offer me a very large sum for an item and I did sell it.

 

[NeXT]

Having said the above, quite a few things I own are worth 10x that I paid for them or more. I rarely sell anything except for something I have many duplicates of or just can't stand. One time a collector did offer me a very large sum for an item and I did sell it.

I've been called entitled because I hoarded up PC boards before they were worth anything more then scrap.
The logic baffles me.

 

[Eudimorphodon]

I have stuff to play with, not as investments. But that said I guess I’d have to say the best “money” I’ve spent was $100 for a bundle of junk that included an Imagewriter printer, a Macintosh LCIII, and a Tandy 1000EX. The 1000EX was a bare 256k unit, and having it was what finally motivated me into designing and building my own expansion cards.

Runner up would be the Commodore PET a few years earlier that motivated me to pick up a soldering iron to repair it, but it was free so I guess it doesn’t count.

 

[VERAULT]

Having said the above, quite a few things I own are worth 10x that I paid for them or more. I rarely sell anything except for something I have many duplicates of or just can't stand. One time a collector did offer me a very large sum for an item and I did sell it.

Now you piqued our interest. What was it and how much?

 

[TH2002]

Yeah, these things are like buying a boat or swimming pool. Even if its "free" you end up putting money into them, its impossible not to. So they are all bad investments unless you can sell them all at high profits.

I certainly have to put money into buying food, and I can't sell a half-eaten sandwich at a high profit, but it's still a damn good investment because it's gonna keep my hunger in check for a while.

I suppose you can think in terms of your best and worst vintage computer purchases. That maybe don't necessarily have to be "investments" but considering how much (or little) you paid, which of your acquisitions of computers and/or peripherals have best suited your needs/wants and provide the most value to your collection.

 

[Unknown_K]

Now you piqued our interest. What was it and how much?

Shrinkwrapped boxed Cornerstone by Infocom. 200x what I paid for it.

 

[VERAULT]

I certainly have to put money into buying food, and I can't sell a half-eaten sandwich at a high profit, but it's still a damn good investment because it's gonna keep my hunger in check for a while.

Its not an investment... You are just renting food.

Your clothes would have been a better analogy.

 

[Al Kossow]

Discussing systems as an investment here should be grounds for lifetime banishment.
What's next? Boogiecoin and NFTs?

 

[Unknown_K]

Well let's be honest what do people with original Apple I's actually do with them?

 

[Caluser2000]

Its not an investment... You are just renting food.

Your clothes would have been a better analogy.

Wrong . Hes consuming food. Like a most computers consume electricity to keep going. Cut both off (including batteries btw) and well it's obvious to most of us what will happen....

Why are you soooo damn negative most of the time?

 

[TH2002]

Discussing systems as an investment here should be grounds for lifetime banishment.
What's next? Boogiecoin and NFTs?

Pretty sure no one mentioned cryptocurrency or NFT's, but nice strawman.

If people investing time, money and dedication into their hobbies is a bad thing, then why do hobbies exist at all?

 

[sorphin]

Pretty sure no one mentioned cryptocurrency or NFT's, but nice strawman.

If people investing time, money and dedication into their hobbies is a bad thing, then why do hobbies exist at all?

I agree with you to a point... Investing time, etc is one thing (which is why I have what I have, to mess with it)... hanging on to something in hopes it'll be worth $$$$ someday (like what Al was referring to) is another entirely. I think he was referring to above where the person mentioned holding on to things till they're worth tons, etc...

 

[Unknown_K]

You can't go back in time but you can play with things you wanted back then but couldn't get for one reason or another. There is value in the hobby to YOU because of that, just don't equate it to an investment.

 

[TH2002]

I agree with you to a point... Investing time, etc is one thing (which is why I have what I have, to mess with it)... hanging on to something in hopes it'll be worth $$$$ someday (like what Al was referring to) is another entirely. I think he was referring to above where the person mentioned holding on to things till they're worth tons, etc...

You can't go back in time but you can play with things you wanted back then but couldn't get for one reason or another. There is value in the hobby to YOU because of that, just don't equate it to an investment.

Yeah, my intent wasn't to say people should invest money into hoarding vintage computers hoping one day they'll be worth thousands. I'm talking about spending time, and to a lesser extent, money on the vintage computer hobby.

I think when people hear the word "investment" their minds go straight to money, hell I'm like that sometimes. I accidentally created a bit of a misunderstanding... oops.

 

[VERAULT]

Wrong . Hes consuming food. Like a most computers consume electricity to keep going. Cut both off (including batteries btw) and well it's obvious to most of us what will happen....

Why are you soooo damn negative most of the time?

this guy over here! am i right.. you silly silly man

 

[NeXT]

Discussing systems as an investment here should be grounds for lifetime banishment.
What's next? Boogiecoin and NFTs?

I'll trade you three Hawleys for your one IBM keyboard.

Well let's be honest what do people with original Apple I's actually do with them?

I asked that question to twitter (that's about as broad of a range of a community as I can access) late last year and aside from two programs I could find *nobody* who had used an Apple I in recent history to do anything beyond the ROM monitor or display a picture of Steve Jobs/Woz. This seems to be the case for a lot of the really early single board micros before things got fancy enough to ship with a case. I find it hard to believe most of these systems sold on curiosity alone and there was simply never any software.