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Working VT05. What to do?

S

Shadowspawn

New Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2012
Messages
2
Looking for advice...

I have this working DEC VT05. (VT05B to be more specific).

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I've had it for about 33 years. I'd like to sell it for what it's worth, but I have no idea how to go about doing that. This forum seems to not have a for sale sub-forum, so that's out. I've been on eBay since the 1990's, but I completely resigned from selling on eBay about 2 years ago when they crossed the line in term of small-seller unfriendliness.

Are there any sales boards or forums on the Web that specialize in private sales of things like this?

I'm also at a bit of a loss about how I would deliver such a thing as this. You can't just throw this in a cardboard box -- it is big, HEAVY, and fragile. I suspect it would have to be professionally palleted and crated for shipment.

Any advice?
 
Ah, so it does!

Thank you for your quick reply, correcting my usual lack of perception... :D
 
That is a really nice terminal. They don't show up very often(I have never seen one for sale) so it's hard to estimate a value.

If you sell it here, don't forget to tell us where it is. If you are lucky you find someone local to you. I'd want it, but I'm in sweden.
 
I have one too. Yours is the only other one I've ever seen. No idea what it's really worth, but don't sell it too cheap!
I believe the VT05 was DEC's first general-purpose video terminal.
Pete
 
Man that would look sweet with my PDP-11, you located on the east or west coast? I will PM you also but I would pay for a terminal like that. Just can’t see shipping and would prefer to pick up.
 
I've been trying to think when I first saw these. I know for certain that they were used in our facility [Davidson Labs] at Stevens Institute, which would mean ~1979. I recall it as mounted to a "Rolling Stand" - a kind of 5 legged pedestal affair. It could have been almost a decade old at that point, and was used to remote access the PDP-10. We also had a DEC printing terminal, but this video unit saved a lot of paper when we used it. The ADM-3a came along and was used as a low cost alternative to these, but TECO users still preferred the DEC ones.

Prior to that, it was pretty much ASR33s. [these hung around in common use well into the late 70's] VT52s were coming along about then, but that type never caught on in my circles. The VT100 was to become the ubiquitous terminal of choice, replacing all these shortly after [beginning in the early 80's]. I still have a working (...?) VT103.

A few years ago I bought an ASR33 from a Govt warehouse sale. It's in dire need of a mechanical cleaning and re-build. Back in the day, paper tape was something to get away from. I acquired it to keep readability of that media.

Your video terminal brings all those days to mind. I can still picture it in use.

Thanks for a pleasant tour down memory lane.
 
Oh oh oh wow wow WOW! You struck gold! I can't think of any terminal I'd rather have. I seem to recall that I've seen one successfully sold for over $4000 somewhere. Good luck!
 
Wow, this obviously was a Digital internal terminal noted by the capital asset tags. I can't believe it wasn't clean swept years ago. At Sun, we used to clean sweep hardware like this all the time and once people tried taking it home. It was some really good stuff. E6800s, Enterprise class machines, Ultras... We had our hands slapped. I guess the lab administrators have a deal with the recycling/salvage company involved.


Shadowspawn said:
Looking for advice...

I have this working DEC VT05. (VT05B to be more specific).

View attachment 8535


View attachment 8536


I've had it for about 33 years. I'd like to sell it for what it's worth, but I have no idea how to go about doing that. This forum seems to not have a for sale sub-forum, so that's out. I've been on eBay since the 1990's, but I completely resigned from selling on eBay about 2 years ago when they crossed the line in term of small-seller unfriendliness.

Are there any sales boards or forums on the Web that specialize in private sales of things like this?

I'm also at a bit of a loss about how I would deliver such a thing as this. You can't just throw this in a cardboard box -- it is big, HEAVY, and fragile. I suspect it would have to be professionally palleted and crated for shipment.

Any advice?
Click to expand...
 
That is a beautiful terminal, very aesthetically pleasing! Unlike my VT420, which has far more functionality, but somehow they lost their sense of style somewhere in between 1970 and 1990. I would really love to own a VT05, just because of how incredibly sexy they are!
 
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