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A thrist store problem.

I remember the hot wheels computers!! I have a chassis for one here, but no outer case. Weird, without the outer case the drives have very little support. And getting a power supply to fit is a challenge. I was thinking of using as an accessory slaved box, maybe scsi, but maybe USB, who knows.

To follow up on the goodwills and thrifts around here, most of them throw away computers and I can't catch any. Lots of cops have been called on dumpster divers, and with the local gang crap coming from Mexico, I can't blame them. But still...

The thrifts are the best places for computers, as overpriced as they seem to be, they're the only ones that have anything anymore. The stores are pretty good for games and programs and the odd video game oddity (found a Blip! from '77 for $2).

No thread is dead, merely "vintage." :)
 
hmmm.
never see comp stuff in local goodwills, but we have St. Vincent De Paul's....
Bet good will could give any comp stuff they have to them
 
Our local Salvation Army doesn't ever seem to have much in the way of computer stuff anymore, but over the years Value Village (similar in some ways to Goodwill and Sally) has been a pretty good source of stuff for me. Last year or two though they haven't been taking much computer stuff, and its slowed down a lot. I think its just the way the wind is blowing as some of the items we want get even more 'vintage' unfortunately. I've had some good luck over the years with hanging out a shingle at the local corner store 'any and all computers and parts wanted - will pay cash'.
 
Kamloops is horrible.
It either ends up in the hands of very aggressive recyclers (they called the cops on me once because I kept going to their annual community computer recycling drives and offering money for computers they were getting) and and anything that ends up in the donation bins at the local second hand stores is either thrown out on sight, stripped and then sold as overpriced parts or sold for insane prices. Our local Value Village sells NES games for $20 per game (and it looks like people buy them as the games seem to vanish from shelves), The salvation army usually throws their computers out and the other less notable places don't know a Commodore 64 from a toaster and somethime they put the stuff on the shelf or put it behind the counter with a $100 pricetag.
The best place I managed to find notably vintage computers was my local landfill and to get them I had to wait until they closed and then manouver myself over an electric bear fence to get at them.
Kamloops is a terrible place.
 
The Goodwill by me (Bellmore, NY) doesn't stock any computer stuff, new or old. They donate the newer ones and toss the old stuff (like more than 5 years old). In fact, I've never been to one that had any real electronics....but I used to buy some nice furniture at the one in Colonie when I lived in Albany....

Do they have Savers thrift stores in other parts of the country? These places are scattered all over NYC and LI and are grimy as hell but they sell any and everything they get in. I've seen old Atari gaming systems and Commodore 64/128s on the shelves many times....and usually dirt cheap too.
 
Yep, there's a Savers store here in Appleton, Wisconsin. Don't find much for older computer stuff in the way of hardware but every once in a while a vintage computer game will be there.

My best find at a Savers was a Nintendo Virtual Boy system, complete in box, with four games, one of them complete in box as well. They only charged $15 for the whole lot.

That was a really really good day for me.
 
Hi
One of the big problems for these stores is hard drives.
Since most people wouldn't by a machine with the
hard drive removed and the people at the store don't
know how to clean the data from them, the end up just
tossing all computers.
There have been a few cases of sensitive personal
data on hard drives. I suspect this is part of the
reasoning. I do realize that a vic20 shouldn't be
an issue but I suspect it is easier to just set an
overall policy than to sort out.
It used to be that goodwill was only interested
in items that needed some minor repair so that
they could provide jobs for a few poor people
and help them learn a trade. now days, most
are just used clothing stores.
Dwight
 
Definitely a good point...I picked up an old PC at Value Village a few years ago complete, took it home, booted it up, and found it untouched - all files still there, including a very full My Documents folder with what looked to be all sorts of personal and professional info. Weird coincidence, it was someone I knew (through work) a local politician. I gave him a call and let him know what happened, and that I was destroying the hard drive for him. People don't realize sometimes...
 
I can add a bit to this vintage thread.
shopgoodwill.com shipping is actual ups cost + 5% high bid,
I won a big one once and got the s&h and was like wtf!
Not sure bout now, been years, but they often do not show everything. I use to get original boxes and manuals 50% of the time and had no idea, big smiles.

GW is trying to recycle all the computers, major areas in full effect already.
So it may be a good idea to make up a business card to present to your local goodwill, ie., Homers Computer Recycling Co.

I made a living for 3 years from the local goodwill, they had auctions weekly, next town over was daily. I would buy shopping carts full of old comps for 2-3 dollars, among other things. Once the recycling set in, bye bye so much good stuff. I could only look into crates and see classic gems headed for the shreader after that, OHH and I SO WANTED TO GRAB! But 4 kids to feed, hands stay firmly in pockets.

No computers where I live now either, prices have gone up on electronics, shelves use to stay pretty bare, I swear it will fall soon from all the overpriced crap building on it now.
 
Recycling is going to slow down alot now. Since the economy has slowed to a crawl so has the demand for recycled material, companies are having problems finding buyers and prices have sunk to record lows.
 
docred said:
Definitely a good point...I picked up an old PC at Value Village a few years ago complete, took it home, booted it up, and found it untouched - all files still there, including a very full My Documents folder with what looked to be all sorts of personal and professional info. Weird coincidence, it was someone I knew (through work) a local politician. I gave him a call and let him know what happened, and that I was destroying the hard drive for him. People don't realize sometimes...
Click to expand...

Yeah however like in the case of my IRIS Crimson, not only did they take the drive but also the sleds and that makes the system pretty useless.
 
Years ago, I picked up a computer that had been given up because the owners lost the boot diskette. I had one and discovered the complete records of the state dental association. I let them know that I would be wiping their hard drive.

Some people still believe that a high-level format wipes out all data.
 
I once picked up a computer at a county auction which contained the complete(?) tax records for the county from about ten years earlier. All kinds of kewl info that a less honest person could have exploited, names, addresses, tax assessments, income, etc. I think it's experiences like these that have made people so paranoid nowadays.

--T
 
Terry Yager said:
I once picked up a computer at a county auction which contained the complete(?) tax records for the county from about ten years earlier. All kinds of kewl info that a less honest person could have exploited, names, addresses, tax assessments, income, etc. I think it's experiences like these that have made people so paranoid nowadays.
--T
Click to expand...
-----------
Especially when you tell them; why bother, just wipe it and let them sleep at night.
Ignorance is bliss...
 
Goodwill Outlet

Goodwill Outlet

Something to check for in your area is a Goodwill Outlet. This is basically where items that didn't get sold in regular Goodwill stores wind up. Everything just gets dumped in a bunch of bins and rolled out to the floor. At mine computers usually go for $5-$10. Most parts/floppy software are priced by weight so that comes out dirt cheap. My Apple II+, Amiga 1000, Osborne Executive, C128, and many vintage game consoles came from there.
 
When I lived n Toronto the main source of my collecton was thrift stores. The second was curbside putouts which meant you had to get out late at night or early in the morning before the rest of the recyclng vultures get out. Some of my finds were amazng. The bowng out of thrift-stores from offerng computers started back in the mid-90s, since most of their personnell hadn't a clue of what the computers were and would toss a DEC Rainbow while retaining a trashy Packard-Bell XT. And of course it would remain on the shelf unwanted. Most times thier pricing reflected that same lack of knowledge which favored me if I got there before they threw the good stuff out. That was were i got my original MICOM 2000 with all peripherals, software and documentation. It had belonged to a lawyer and even had a form on disk to make a will. At one point there were about 12 DEC Rainbows with keyboards for $5 each, while their old PCs and Macs were offerred for $15-$20.

I had a nice Rainbow at the tme. But couldn't resist and did buy two, but at one move put one of them on the curb along with a Wyse 101. Hope someone knowledgeable got them. The other I traded for an Atari Mega-4 many years later. I still have my original DEC R-B many times upgraded. A computer with a hard drive CPM and Dos partitoned and the ability to do MSDOS and numerous versions of CPM. Woo-Hoo. And with a color card and monitor. Still one of my favorite computers.

The small villiage and area in which I now live is far from any major city and while there is a thrift store it sells mostly used clothing to support Mennonite ventures in Africa. The thrifty local citizens rarely toss anything and even a C-64 can be offered for $50 because it IS a COMPUTER.

Fortunately there is a town dump which some local wags call our "TOWN SHOPPING MALL".
There I managed to scoop 2 DEC PRO 350s discarded by a local Oil-dealer when he upgraded( in 2005 !!). I sold one for $150 a couple of years ago before shippng costs went thru the roof and kept the other which had a hard drive. I also managed to trade a VGA monitor for a complete Adam with manuals, and original tapes, as well as some disks and cartridges for the Colleco-Vision which was part of the package. Later at a yard-sale in Vancouver where I was visiting I scooped a large box of Colleco cartridges.

I visited Vancouver several times in late spring, ostensably to visit friends and grand-children but also to scour the massive discards of the spring "all garbage accepted clean-up" and had some great finds. Unfortunately I didn't have enough room in my not-small Chrysler 2-door to take all of them over the Rockies and across the prairies to my central-Canada home, but for a few I convinced my friends I would arrange transport or shipping if they would store them. I also provided some of my grandsons there wth newer working game-machines including one with a Grand Theft Auto disk, to the displeasure of my daughter-in-law.

I imagine there are simliar events around US cities but one must be off work those BONANZA days, or get up early to take advantage. With computers becoming a hazardous item and thrift stores refusing them, curbside could now be collectors best source.

Lawrence
 
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Some of my great finds were from people moving unexpectadly and ditching things before they got trashed, or kids who got nice finds but got bored with them after a month and found something new. Also fellow collectors who snagged items for little during the good days and want to pass them on to somebody who will use them and not ebay them.

The local computer reseller who gets old stuff dumped on him is a great place for vintage items (usually free).
 
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