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Unopened/original sealed items

carlsson said:
The world is swamped with unopened PC DOS 5 packages..

Yup! I remember upon getting mine (this was when I had just started collecting), I was all "WHOA!! Unopened...Cor, this is worth a lot!" .. Since then I've come across more than I've cared to keep count of...

carlsson said:
The plotter pens are a nice thing, but I would believe they dry out and become useless (but still collectable) faster than a disk or tape media will lose its magnetition?

I wouldn't be surprised... But then, you won't hear it from me, because I'm not going to open them :wink: ...

carlsson said:
It reminds me of someone keeping old bottles of cheap, non-seasonable wine until it is beyond vinegar.

We've all tried that, I think. Although, I'm not sure it can go BEYOND vinegar? Considering that Vinegar is used to preserve stuff in. I'd've probably used some of it in a sauce, or for marinating some beef, or something... :p [/u]
 
I'm no expert in chemistry or cooking, but what I meant is that it is so fermented (?) so it can not even be used as qualified vinegar. Oh, that reminds me of a comp.sys.cbm semi-regular who conducts experiments on his floppies like freezing them, micro-wave heating them, bury them two feet under ground for a week etc. Then he checked the condition of the floppies and if they still can be read and formatted. Probably he has already done the vinegar test.
 
carlsson said:
The world is swamped with unopened PC DOS 5 packages.. I wonder if IBM once in desperation of poor sales threw them from an airplane, or if organisations were honest enough to get as many copies as they would install but only use one or two boxes worth of media.

Yeah, the biggest haul I ever made of unopened DOS 5 (and Word 5.0 & 5.1 for DOS, and other stuff) was from a school auction, where I was paying $1 - 2 per case of 12 packages. Obviously, they only used a few as pass-around disks, and left all the rest sealed.

The plotter pens are a nice thing, but I would believe they dry out and become useless (but still collectable)

The pens are still available, if you know where to look. Panasonic still sells them, as they are used in a Panasonic product that is still on the market, in Argentina. They cost about 8-9 bucks a set.

--T
 
Terry Yager said:
The pens are still available, if you know where to look. Panasonic still sells them, as they are used in a Panasonic product that is still on the market, in Argentina. They cost about 8-9 bucks a set.

Yeah, but I doubt they have a Commodore-logo on them... :p
 
I'd imagine if you're really determined (or are just snowed in and have time to kill ) you could figure out a way to refill the pens.
 
Exluddite said:
I'd imagine if you're really determined (or are just snowed in and have time to kill ) you could figure out a way to refill the pens.

I don't think so. Those little pens are a very special type, tightly sealed and pressurized with gas in order to allow the ink to flow in a horizontal position, without the assistance of gravity. Quite the high-technology for something so simple.

--T
 
Terry Yager said:
Exluddite said:
I'd imagine if you're really determined (or are just snowed in and have time to kill ) you could figure out a way to refill the pens.

I don't think so. Those little pens are a very special type, tightly sealed and pressurized with gas in order to allow the ink to flow in a horizontal position, without the assistance of gravity. Quite the high-technology for something so simple.

--T
Oh ye of little faith. Any one of us could do that trick. What fun would it be if it was easy? :D
 
You mean if the vintage pens are up for sale, the seller can bundle a pack of fresh pens with the deal so the new owner does not by mistake try to use (and thus destroy the collectability) the old pens.

$1-2 for a twelve pack of unopened DOS 5-ish boxes? Sheesh. I realize it was a one time deal, but still...
 
Yeah, I took 'em all to a local computer store and sold 'em for a couple bucks apeice...made a helluva profit. (Of course, the store sold 'em for twenty buck$ and really made out).

--T
 
There are very few real vintage computer collectors from what I have seen. Any software that I have aquired shrinkwrapped gets opened to review the contents and to be installed. The only thing I value about something shrinkwrapped is that I can asume everything I need is there, but most people who keep 10 year old software in the box tend to have everything needed in the box anyway.
 
Unknown_K said:
There are very few real vintage computer collectors from what I have seen. Any software that I have aquired shrinkwrapped gets opened to review the contents and to be installed. The only thing I value about something shrinkwrapped is that I can asume everything I need is there, but most people who keep 10 year old software in the box tend to have everything needed in the box anyway.

A man after my own heart! I bought an unbuilt kit for an S-100 board and completly destroyed it's "collectable value" by actually building it. (I mean, Ghawd forbid a computer collectable should be actually used). I just wanted to do it just to do it, so I could become a bona-fide member of the elite. ( Someone wanna teach me the secret handshake now)? My next goal is to grab one of the ZX-81 kits that keep poping up on eBay from time to time, just so I can say that I built a whole computer from scratch.

--T
 
There are some people who pay large amounts of money for very rare atari 2600 carts that are rare because they sucked so bad nobody purchased them and the stock was destroyed. I collect what is usefull, spending 100x the money just to be able to check off the last item made (which I will never use) doesn't thrill me even if I did have the money to spare.

When I purchase something for my collection I assume that the item has 0 resale value. This keeps me from buying things I realy have no use for, and it also keeps me from buying items on speculation (hoping I can resell and make money). There is a thin line you can cross from being a collector into being a dealer, and it ruins your hobby.
 
I usually collect things with the intention of keeping them forever, but sometimes I'll get tired of something, or run out of room to keep things or mebbe even re-focus my collection in another direction, in which case I'll find myself unloading sometimes large amounts of stuff. If I happen to turn a nice profit in the process, that's just fine with me, but I have been known to donate some pretty nice stuff too, just to save it from the landfill.

--T
 
I have a couple dozen machines setup, maybe 3 on a shelf not in use. Finding room for more would be a problem, but I have room for more software/manuals/books.

I bounce around between machines enough that I don't get burned out but you never know.
 
Sometimes an item's usefulness to me plays a part in my willingness to part with it. Something like a Nixdorf LK-3000 is extremely limited, and therefore likely to get the axe sooner. Also, things that may be semi-functional or non-functional are quick to go too, even though they may still have some sellable value. When I cull my herd, the non-productive, the weak, and the sickly go to the block first, as it's tough to justify keeping them on the feed bill.

--T
 
Most of my gear is early 90's vintage, some 80's too. Nothing I would call rare at all (well some addons are not that common but the base machines are not). Atari ST, Commodore 64/128, Amiga 500/2000/1200, Timex 2068, Apple IIgs, Tandy 1000HX, and a bunch of old pc's and 68k Macs (2 PPC model also).
 
Having rare stuff can make you paranoid too. I have parts for my PCjr that I never see the light of day because they are *impossible* to find replacements for.

Case in point - a SCSI adapter designed for a PCjr. Rather than use one of the 4 that I know are in existence (one of them being mine), I'd rather use a parallel port to SCSI adapter or build an ISA slot adapter for the Jr and learn BIOS programming. (That project is taking a while.)

I love talking about the parts and showing them to people, especially how they work, but I just can't bring myself to use them on a daily basis.

For the most part, the stuff that I have I intend to use. Something 'new' in a sealed box is almost a crime - it was never loved.

I managed to find a Koala Pad, new in the box for my PCjr. You're damned right, I broke the seal and used it!
 
I have two things of interest relating to this conversation:

The original C= calculator(still in box....removed once to make sure it works) that Commodore was selling back in the 70's to generate revenue for the Vic 20 and C=64 projects.

I also have a sealed in box copy of "Weird Dreams" for the C=64...something I never thought existed, because I had believed that new software for the 64 was already stopped. Hence the reason I left it sealed in the box, as it may have been the last game released(don't know how to confirm that).
 
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