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Today my wife...

I

idflyfish

Experienced Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2010
Messages
61
Location
Boise Idaho
...and her friends were discussing the hobbies their husbands enjoy. One of my wife's friends commented that her husband gets very excited when one of the cards in his baseball card collection increases in value. She thought it was weird. My wife then pipes up and says "oh ya..you think that's bad? My husband collects old computers." After which her friends all agreed that my hobby is the weirdest of them all.

...we're so misunderstood.
 
lol.. I'm surprised any of the cards go up in value these days. They pretty much took a dive after "we" grew up IIRC. Not that they would compare profit margins but I think ya got most hobbies beat as far as an investment goes. The number of as-is and nonworking systems that still sell for big bucks, but as always.. it takes money to make money.
 
I think the older cards (pre 1970's) might be a good investment (hall of famers). I ditched all my baseball cards in the late 1980's early 1990's when prices were stupid. There are plenty of old hobbies that are dead or dying because few people bother collecting them anymore (coins and stamps) but rarities are worth more and more while common stuff is worthless.

The computer hobby will shake out sooner or later, real desired rarities will be worth something and junk will be scrapped. Most poeple doing this as an investment will probably be screwed.
 
Unknown_K said:
The computer hobby will shake out sooner or later, real desired rarities will be worth something and junk will be scrapped. Most poeple doing this as an investment will probably be screwed.
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Agreed, although I think this is true for all hobbies. I don't think anyone really made any money collecting comics, coins, stamps, etc. Dealers, on the other hand, usually do. My father is a famous numismatist so I had this drilled into me from an early age.
 
I think a few people who were just crazy collectors (before their particular collectable was mainstream) could have made a decent chunk of change (if they wanted to sell out). Some people can jump in when something is getting hot and buy the best stuff and keep it for a while to make a profit. But the vast majority of people don't collect anything that ends up being worth much more then the money and time they spent to get it. Even people who get lucky in a find probably have a ton invested in other things they can't sell.

I do agree that dealers are (or were pre ebay) the ones who made the money because they tended to do well with selling supplies plus getting buyers and sellers together. With online auctions the days of the dealers is a bit limited unless they can buy up rarities for little money from people who have no clue what they have. I recall in the 1980's when stamps were peaking a bit sitting at the local coin & stamp shop and seeing buyers from the big name companies trying to buy the local guys best stuff for pennies on the dollar so they could sell it to collectors at retail. Even then the small shops had a hard time selling inflated zepplin sets for half of what the big dealers were getting, they had to drag massive amounts of premium stuff to the big conventions to make a buck.
 
Yes, there are collectors and collectors.

Not everyone collects with market value in mind. Many don't want to make money. The want the item for some emotional or nostalgic reason, only very loosely connected to resale value. To them it's worth what they paid, they intend to hang onto it and if they do eventually sell it then it's served it's emotional/nostalgic purpose.

Some people spend thousands on a holiday. Holidays can't be resold once taken. On the other hand someone might get a kick out of playing with a lot of the old computers they could never afford for just a few hundred bucks. Either way, a good time has been had.

Tez
 
Tez has a very interesting point - buying even one of the expensive units is probably cheaper than a premium vacation. Some people's hobbies, like owning a boat, RC aircraft, RV, jeep, etc. can be quite expensive. By comparison, vintage computing is reasonably cheap, even with the rising prices.

- Earl
 
I agree with Tez and retrobits, but only if you consider direct costs. As of indirect costs like home space, that's another world. At least for me, space has become a limitation for this hobby. Can't count the number of old computers, but i can tell you they do take a lot of space at home... and wife notice it too... still no complaining though :D

Jose
 
Tezza, I agree with you. I got into collecting because I enjoyed seeing the old stuff run again. I really do not care if I ever get my money back (not that I have spent a whole lot). I think a lot of people are like me retired or ready to retire and enjoy revisting some of the old days.

My wife thinks I am crazy also "for dragging all that junk back to the house"
 
Jimmy said:
My wife thinks I am crazy also "for dragging all that junk back to the house"
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At least yours are ALLOWED in the house. Every time I suggest I could set up some of my pristine models as "coversation pieces" in the lounge, the temperature lowers a few degrees ...and I'm not talking about the weather here! :)

I tend to mention it every time I want to tease Annette. A bit like throwing a stone into a pond to see the ripples..lol

I don't mind though. I'm happy to play with them in my computer shack. In our next house move the plan is to have a dedicated display room.

Tez
 
retrobits said:
Tez has a very interesting point - buying even one of the expensive units is probably cheaper than a premium vacation. Some people's hobbies, like owning a boat, RC aircraft, RV, jeep, etc. can be quite expensive. By comparison, vintage computing is reasonably cheap, even with the rising prices.
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Yes. If you think of a hobby like golf. That can be really expensive. You have clubs, maybe lessons, course membership and fees, travel to the course, drinks in the clubhouse for you and your friends. You can't resell any of this. So what's the payoff? It's the mental and physical challenge of the sport...the satisfaction of playing a good round...and the social payoff through camaradarie, friendships and interactions with other people. An indefinable value but obviously worth it to those who participate.

So, vintage computing. Inexpensive to get into compared to the above. Collecting can be part of it, where the aim is to tinker around with some old machines..possibly ressurect them. The payoff: Enjoyment and mental stimulation...the satisfaction of fixing, displaying or finding something. And the social payoff through camaradarie, friendship and interactions with like minded people. Cheap at the price!

On a related point, Earl, in the latest Retro Computing Round Table you pondered on why prices are rising. Charlie pointed to a possible reason. The babyboomers are getting close to retirement age. They want to revisit those things that may have engaged them in younger days. If you have some savings, a few hundred bucks is not a lot compared to other ways you might spend your time. This may be a factor in rising demand for those classic models.

Tez
 
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tezza said:
So, vintage computing. Inexpensive to get into compared to the above. Collecting can be part of it, where the aim is to tinker around with some old machines..possibly ressurect them. The payoff: Enjoyment and mental stimulation...the satisfaction of fixing, displaying or finding something. And the social payoff through camaradarie, friendship and interactions with like minded people. Cheap at the price!
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I couldn't agree more. I am an ASP.NET developer by trade. While I love what I do I still feel like all of the abstraction doesn't allow me to know what is really going on inside the computer. These computers of yester-year allow us to really get intimate and it is entirely possible for a person to know everything there is to know about one model or another.
 
Tezza:

You are right, I am a boomer. I still had a couple of IBM's 5150's and 5160's in the junk room at work, but I have purchased some parts and software that I wanted. I am sure I overpaid for some of the items I bought.
 
Jimmy said:
Tezza:

You are right, I am a boomer. I still had a couple of IBM's 5150's and 5160's in the junk room at work, but I have purchased some parts and software that I wanted. I am sure I overpaid for some of the items I bought.
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Yea, me too Charlie. I kinda squeeze in at the END of the baby-boomer period so I've still got a few years at the coal-face to go. I'm looking forward to the time I can devote more time to this hobby though.

Tez
 
My wife is unbelievably patient with my hobby. She even pretends to listen when I prattle on about the 4016 I just repaired!

I would have to say there's an important financial component to my hobby. Every once in a while I sell something, which helps me to buy something else I'm wanting. For example, I've got 2 PET 8032s to fix. Once repaired, I will probably sell one on ebay, and the PETvet and PETdisk I'm buying will have paid for itself and then some.

Oh, and Earl, welcome to the ranks of what my wife calls my "imaginary friends". I'm hooked on several podcasts on the TWiT network, and I'm known for going around the house saying "Steve Gibson says...." and "Leo Laporte says..." Now I've just found Retrobits! Great fun!
 
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Saw this thread and felt i'd add my bit :)

I agree with a lot of whats already been said. Especially regarding what collecting is worth to each and every one of us. For me, it's not about the money. I dont have the room for a huge collection, but the machines I do have. Where bought because I had either used them while growing up or because i just wanted to mess with one. My hobby is getting a 286 and finding a modern use for it, try get it online that sort of thing, write an article on my blog documenting all i did playing around to get something to work. I guess its an acquired taste old computers.

I find the hobby fun, living in England, the BBC micro was big over here, especially in schools. It's the first micro I've owned, where a hand books encourages you to take the lid of and fiddle, hack and modify bits your computer. Totally unheard of in modern machines, the technical side has been removed from the equations. Which has taken the fun out of it.

I feel lucky that my partner is a patient woman, who not only finds my ramblings about vintage tech amusing, but will also come and see what i'm playing with. She loves old games and is the only female Mig user in our local Amiga club, also probably the only member to bring an A600 along to meet ups too :)
I've been told eventually when we have our own place, I'm having my own room for all the bits and they are not allowed anywhere else..Especially in pieces on the kitchen side at 3am, with me hunched over soldering something back together...Hey the kitchen has great lighting! :D
 
I don't collect for money at all, actually, Vintage Computing was about the exact opposite for me. I did not get into it as a hobby, but rather - I was 18, could not find a job, wanted internet, a 486 can get on the internet, and 486's are $10 a pair at Salvation Army (circa 2001), so buy 2, take the best bits from both, build one good fast one, put the most modern Windows on it possible, and run it into the ground. That's where it all started for me....that and because for about 12 years, I vowed I would get a bigger, better, faster 486 than my sister's 386 that caused so much family drama with repairs (that I was always the scapegoat for). I'd say I conqered both goals.

Now I just use them for retro-gaming, and I"ve rather well stopped collecting and just have 4 old machines I'm a caretaker and upgrader of - a Tandy 1000, a 286, a 486, and a Mac SE FDHD, all but the Mac are souped up about as far as their little 60-200 watt power supplies can handle. I got out of the game as soon as I started seeing such boxes on fleabay for $150.00 a pop. It just defeated the purpose to me....from being a almost "Free" hobby to costing me large sums to get some obscure hard-to-find piece of hardware to make a 15+ year old PC work the way I want it to.

My woman gave me a Man Cave for all my stuff, I feel lucky. About the only thing I get any grief for is the time it takes to fix/tweak something so we can do something with said hardware. Thankfully a few hours last night with her sleeping gave me the time to get everything fixed better than ever. Hopefully some Turkey Day gaming is in order once I get everything on the Tandy.
 
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