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Do people collect modems?

pontus

pontus

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2008
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698
Location
Uppsala, Sweden
I have four 300 Baud modems I am about to throw out. I thought I should ask if anyone cares about them?

In that case, they are free for shipping from Sweden + beer money :D

/P
 
I have managed to sell one or two Commodore 75/1200 and 300 baud modems, but I suppose the sellable factor was more due to brand than type of product. Good luck with selling or donating them.
 
Ok, I get your point :) I guess I don't really need the beer money.

So, free for shipping. I'll update with more info later.
 
I'd guess around $50.00 each. I sold an Atari modem a while back for just over $50.00. An early Hayes modem sells for around $70.00.
 
In general, they go for nothing unless they're something really specific. Hayes 300 baud internal modems for the Apple II sell pretty well /if/ they have the external line coupler. I've seen a few acoustically coupled modems sell on eBay for reasonable prices.

I think I paid $1 for my non-Hayes external direct-coupled 1200 baud modem. I enjoy connecting to some of the remaining dialin BBSes and public UNIX systems with my old machines, so it's nice to have an appropriate modem, even if just for terminal use. Depending on the brand of your 300 baud modems (and of course shipping costs!) I might be interested in one for my Kaypro II.
 
I'd say that there are a few modems worth collecting. Old 1960's Anderson-Jacobsen, Milgo and Vadic as well as some Bell modems (103, 208, 209 seem to be very scarce as they were mostly leased).

I hang on to my USR Courier externals (of various vintages), mostly for "just in case" situations and because I can't bear to toss them. But I routinely toss modem cards and low-price consumer modems. The wall wart power supplies are worth more to me than the electronics.
 
Chuck(G) said:
But I routinely toss modem cards and low-price consumer modems. The wall wart power supplies are worth more to me than the electronics.
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Don't know what I'd do if I had any more PCI softmodems to deal with! I keep a few of the 56K "real" modems (mostly 8-bit ISA that show up as a serial port), and I've got a few softmodems that can be used with Asterisk as PBX interfaces. Other than that, only a 56K USR external and a 14.4 USR configured for auto-answer...the rest are of some vintage nature, or specific to a machine.

The wall warts are nice though, especially since many of them are transformer-only supplies that put out AC...no worries about dried up filter caps in the box.
 
glitch said:
The wall warts are nice though, especially since many of them are transformer-only supplies that put out AC...no worries about dried up filter caps in the box.
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I still have a few Racal-Vadic DC supply "bricks" (not wall warts) that I use for projects. +5 +12 and -12 regulated supplies and cases held together with screws make them very handy. One can easily run a 5.25" floppy drive, for example.
 
glitch said:
I've got a few softmodems that can be used with Asterisk as PBX interfaces.
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Maybe off-topic, but what types of modems can be used that way and how do you set them up? I've been wondering if there was a way to set up some internal phone lines in the house that some vintage computers could use to dial into a modem connected to a modern server. Just one of those things to do to see if it can be done. I have a couple of POTS ports on a Cisco router that can do VOIP with regular phones, but not sure if they support modem-pass-through.
 
I keep any modem on a 16- or 8-bit ISA, and recently got rid of a BAG of PCI modems. The thought here is that while modems are near useless in their traditional role of one machine->internet, they are useful for bridging internal machines to one another, possibly to a machine bridged to lan, as the guy above inferred. I keep them around in case I need to hook up an old XT to a network and can't get an 8-bit ISA NIC working, and the 16-bit ones so I can use an AT or above to bridge it to a LAN with one of the many PCI or 16-bit ISA NICs I've got. They're obsolete even to most vintage enthusiasts, though, heh.
 
Raven said:
I keep any modem on a 16- or 8-bit ISA, and recently got rid of a BAG of PCI modems. The thought here is that while modems are near useless in their traditional role of one machine->internet, they are useful for bridging internal machines to one another, possibly to a machine bridged to lan, as the guy above inferred. I keep them around in case I need to hook up an old XT to a network and can't get an 8-bit ISA NIC working, and the 16-bit ones so I can use an AT or above to bridge it to a LAN with one of the many PCI or 16-bit ISA NICs I've got. They're obsolete even to most vintage enthusiasts, though, heh.
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Huh??? Modems are near useless to connect to the Internet??? It will no doubt surprise you that there are still many thousands of people using dial-up access...

What make/model of ISA modem do you use to connect to a LAN? Don't think I've seen any modems like that myself...
And why use modems to connect two machines together? It's usually a lot simpler to just use the serial ports...

One thing many models (even some slower ones) are good for though is to deliver Caller-ID info if you need it for anything.
 
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I checked them out, they are 19200 Baud. Slightly more modern then. The brand is Comex Electronix AB (a Swedish brand) and the model is COM-MOD 3010. A fun thing is that they run directly of 220v! Maybe they will be useful as boxes for small projects that need a transformer.
 
MikeS said:
Huh??? Modems are near useless to connect to the Internet??? It will no doubt surprise you that there are still many thousands of people using dial-up access...
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I think he's referring specifically to people who now only have high-speed internet accounts, with no dial-up account to use. I, for one, have no account that allows me to dial in anywhere for any kind of access. (Sadly, dial-up inbound won't work over my VOIP, not even 1200 baud will connect reliably.)

MikeS said:
What make/model of ISA modem do you use to connect to a LAN? Don't think I've seen any modems like that myself...
And why use modems to connect two machines together? It's usually a lot simpler to just use the serial ports...
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I think here he specifically means using a modem and a phone line emulator to connect two systems internally, with the second also having a network card; thereby bridging the two connection types. I don't think he literally means plugging Ethernet into a phone jack.
 
I have a bunch of ISA card and external modems for the PC and a few externals for the mac (plus one commodore cart modem). Since I have not use dialup for internet in over a decade they collect dust. Most likely I will keep the externals and recycle the rest when I get around to it. The only modems I would want were the exotic ones that were around during the BBS days (16.8K, 19.2K etc) when everyone had a 2400/9600 modem.
 
Depending on area they may be useful for someone local. I honestly don't know enough about international lines but I thought the phone system over there had a different DTMF signal or something. I know our company (before my time) paid something like $2000 for a fax modem that could talk to lines in Mexico. That's all I know though was just a coworker talking about it before chunking it in the trash. That was probably the first time I wanted the modem though lol. But yeah if it's a non-standard connection (probably non-x86) for the modem or it's a commonly sought after system I think the modem gets some value. Otherwise it's a good offer if someone needs/wants it and you can tell US what the demand was.
 
barythrin said:
Depending on area they may be useful for someone local. I honestly don't know enough about international lines but I thought the phone system over there had a different DTMF signal or something. I know our company (before my time) paid something like $2000 for a fax modem that could talk to lines in Mexico. That's all I know though was just a coworker talking about it before chunking it in the trash. That was probably the first time I wanted the modem though lol. But yeah if it's a non-standard connection (probably non-x86) for the modem or it's a commonly sought after system I think the modem gets some value. Otherwise it's a good offer if someone needs/wants it and you can tell US what the demand was.
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Heck, back in the 70's, it was hard enough for one modem in San Jose to talk to another Los Gatos... :) (Pacific Bell connecting to GTE)
 
Anonymous Freak said:
I think he's referring specifically to people who now only have high-speed internet accounts, with no dial-up account to use. I, for one, have no account that allows me to dial in anywhere for any kind of access. (Sadly, dial-up inbound won't work over my VOIP, not even 1200 baud will connect reliably.)
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Yes, if you don't have a POTS line then a POTS modem is not very useful for accessing the Internet.
DSL modems are also equally useless for the same reason.
Cable modems are also useless (if I'm referring to people without Cable).
Wireless modems are of course also useless (if I'm referring to people without an accessible access point).

But whether you believe it or not, and whether your ISP allows it (I have access to four different ones who all allow it), there are still people out there (me included) who still use dial-up modems.
I think here he specifically means using a modem and a phone line emulator to connect two systems internally, with the second also having a network card; thereby bridging the two connection types. I don't think he literally means plugging Ethernet into a phone jack.
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Of course; just connecting the two serial ports together is much too simple and not nearly as much fun as installing a pair of modems, making/building a line simulator, configuring answer/originate etc. just to talk to another computer or bridge...
 
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