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Is this IBM 5150 a worthy system?

Dudeface

New Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2009
Messages
2
Location
Seattle
Hey all,

I was over at my parents house when my father was going to throw away an IBM 5150 that I grew up computing on. My eyes popped open and thought that the nostalgia that I had from playing around on the box was something others might share. So, basically, I'm trying to figure out whether it's worth selling or hanging onto when I feel the need for some good ol' slow processing fun. (Please note: I'm NOT trying to sell this here. If I did sell, I'd do it locally for another Seattle computing nerd like myself could enjoy to make sure its an enthusiast)

The system has:

- Original IBM 5150 in excellent condition with the original 5 1/2 floppy drives(including the original cardboard drive inserts);
- Original IBM keyboard in excellent condition;
- The slots are full with a parallel printer port, a color graphics card, a RS 232 serial port, a Western Digital hard drive, and another pin port that I haven't tinkered with yet;
- A box full of software, including the original "Exploring the IBM Personal Computer ver. 1.0", IBM's Typing Tutor 1.0 and Diagnostics 1.0; MS Flight Simulator, Adventure, MS Adventure in Serenia, and MS Decathalon (all 1.0); Donkey Kong and Dig Dug (with the original boxes, plastic wrap, and sticker price from 1980s a la dot matrix, baby); MS Flight Simulator (original with green MS sleeve, pristine condition); Wordstar 4.0 and 7.0; JRAM 2.0; numerous DOS utilities, Spinnaker kids education games and software...pretty unreal stuff.
- A Princeton Graphics Systems HX-12 RGB monitor

I loved this baby and, since I have time (thanks economy), it's been fun to play with. My father was pretty meticulous about this computer and I remember that he copied every software as soon as he bought it and then only let us use the copies (anyone else remember the 'notch on the disk' copy protection? lol). We also had the first/original 2800 baud modem a la War Games, though I don't know whether he tossed that since I didn't look beyond the box of software and 5150 system he was about to throw away.

Anyway, I was curious what advice some vintage enthusiasts think. Is it a worthy collection or just me re-discovering the nostalgia that created these forums? lol. Thanks!
 
Yes it's very worthly collection I own and run www.ibm5150.net

Congrats on saving that 5150 and using it again!

PS: Welcome to the forums!



Hey all,

I was over at my parents house when my father was going to throw away an IBM 5150 that I grew up computing on. My eyes popped open and thought that the nostalgia that I had from playing around on the box was something others might share. So, basically, I'm trying to figure out whether it's worth selling or hanging onto when I feel the need for some good ol' slow processing fun. (Please note: I'm NOT trying to sell this here. If I did sell, I'd do it locally for another Seattle computing nerd like myself could enjoy to make sure its an enthusiast)

The system has:

- Original IBM 5150 in excellent condition with the original 5 1/2 floppy drives(including the original cardboard drive inserts);
- Original IBM keyboard in excellent condition;
- The slots are full with a parallel printer port, a color graphics card, a RS 232 serial port, a Western Digital hard drive, and another pin port that I haven't tinkered with yet;
- A box full of software, including the original "Exploring the IBM Personal Computer ver. 1.0", IBM's Typing Tutor 1.0 and Diagnostics 1.0; MS Flight Simulator, Adventure, MS Adventure in Serenia, and MS Decathalon (all 1.0); Donkey Kong and Dig Dug (with the original boxes, plastic wrap, and sticker price from 1980s a la dot matrix, baby); MS Flight Simulator (original with green MS sleeve, pristine condition); Wordstar 4.0 and 7.0; JRAM 2.0; numerous DOS utilities, Spinnaker kids education games and software...pretty unreal stuff.
- A Princeton Graphics Systems HX-12 RGB monitor

I loved this baby and, since I have time (thanks economy), it's been fun to play with. My father was pretty meticulous about this computer and I remember that he copied every software as soon as he bought it and then only let us use the copies (anyone else remember the 'notch on the disk' copy protection? lol). We also had the first/original 2800 baud modem a la War Games, though I don't know whether he tossed that since I didn't look beyond the box of software and 5150 system he was about to throw away.

Anyway, I was curious what advice some vintage enthusiasts think. Is it a worthy collection or just me re-discovering the nostalgia that created these forums? lol. Thanks!
 
Hey all,

I was over at my parents house when my father was going to throw away an IBM 5150 that I grew up computing on. My eyes popped open and thought that the nostalgia that I had from playing around on the box was something others might share. So, basically, I'm trying to figure out whether it's worth selling or hanging onto when I feel the need for some good ol' slow processing fun. (Please note: I'm NOT trying to sell this here. If I did sell, I'd do it locally for another Seattle computing nerd like myself could enjoy to make sure its an enthusiast)

The system has:

- Original IBM 5150 in excellent condition with the original 5 1/2 floppy drives(including the original cardboard drive inserts);
- Original IBM keyboard in excellent condition;
- The slots are full with a parallel printer port, a color graphics card, a RS 232 serial port, a Western Digital hard drive, and another pin port that I haven't tinkered with yet;
- A box full of software, including the original "Exploring the IBM Personal Computer ver. 1.0", IBM's Typing Tutor 1.0 and Diagnostics 1.0; MS Flight Simulator, Adventure, MS Adventure in Serenia, and MS Decathalon (all 1.0); Donkey Kong and Dig Dug (with the original boxes, plastic wrap, and sticker price from 1980s a la dot matrix, baby); MS Flight Simulator (original with green MS sleeve, pristine condition); Wordstar 4.0 and 7.0; JRAM 2.0; numerous DOS utilities, Spinnaker kids education games and software...pretty unreal stuff.
- A Princeton Graphics Systems HX-12 RGB monitor

I loved this baby and, since I have time (thanks economy), it's been fun to play with. My father was pretty meticulous about this computer and I remember that he copied every software as soon as he bought it and then only let us use the copies (anyone else remember the 'notch on the disk' copy protection? lol). We also had the first/original 2800 baud modem a la War Games, though I don't know whether he tossed that since I didn't look beyond the box of software and 5150 system he was about to throw away.

Anyway, I was curious what advice some vintage enthusiasts think. Is it a worthy collection or just me re-discovering the nostalgia that created these forums? lol. Thanks!

It is definely worth hanging on to. i see you're not willing to sell it, but if you did, you could have gotten around $100-$200 for it.
 
It is definely worth hanging on to. i see you're not willing to sell it, but if you did, you could have gotten around $100-$200 for it.
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Depending on condition, I'd say possibly a fair bit more than that...

But what price the warm feeling of nostalgia...
 
Total Nostaglia Rush

Total Nostaglia Rush

Thanks peeps! Really great feedback and thanks for the welcome.

Yeah, I've been running high all day on this thing. MS- DOS version 1.0 plus the IBM sales version of DOS 1.10 and even MS DOS / GW-BASIC for Tandy (?? - Anyone heard of it?). And had fun playing Zaxxon by Sega! Plus, checking out stuff like VisiCalc - Crazy stuff.

I also had to go to a PC recycler to find a male-male RS 232 9 pin serial cord for the monitor. Good times.

Yeah, $200 bucks doesn't come close to how much I love this thing. It's truly a gem. Are there a lot of collectors out there?
 
Uh guys, no need to quote the entire posting you are replying too ... especially for a 1 or 3 line response.
 
If you've got the original DOS 1.0 slipcase/disks/etc. then you probably also have an original (2-screw, black PS, 16-64K motherboard) PC which is worth more than the later model.

If that's the case, with DOS 1.0 your setup should bump over the $1k mark.
 
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