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Found a nice treasure trove in my childhood home...

T

toastingderbyshire

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Jan 15, 2019
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So my childhood home is being sold, so I was asked to help clean out the garage, and luckily I stumbled upon a bunch of old computers from my past :D We're talking Commodore 64, Timex Sinclair 1000, and the 1984 Macintosh. Thing is.. I really don't know if these are worth much but I have no room for them and not sure if I should sell them just yet. Could maybe put them into storage, but not so easy as I live in NYC. Anyone think these will be worth much in years to come? Or are they at the peak of their nostalgia? :)
 
Man, those are definitely worth hanging on to! They will be worth a fair bit in years to come, maybe when future generations laugh at our old school tech :D I guess if you put them into storage, then do some real research and ask collectors if they are worth much now. Would be a big shame to just let them sitting around or give away for free
 
I mean... the C64 seems to be worth selling right now, I don't think we can know of a "peak" beforehand but they seem expensive to me. They're certainly not worth going through a bunch of effort to put into storage, if you don't have room for them as you say. I personally really dislike the Timex 1000, though don't know if anyone else wants to defend it.
 
Yeah, pretty common systems, none of them will ever be worth what you'll spend in storage fees. To be fair, the timex 1000 and c64 are pretty small, they don't really take much more space then some books... But if they're not of interest to you to keep, then now is as good a time as any to let them go.
 
Hmm, somehow I just have a feeling that these PCs will be useful in the future somehow! Can't explain it, but just can't get rid of tech like that. What if a museum wants it in the year 2050 or something? :D My main worry is how they will be stored. Want to be sure they are safe and sound. This page got me interested, but does anyone know if the PCs will be ok in the NYC heat during summer? I'm pretty sure the rooms are climate controlled, but wonder if anyone had heard of melting PCs :/
 
Sounds a little expensive, but you could do that if you want! If you sell them, they might also make it to 2050, and you don't have to pay storage fees :D PCs can melt as it were - plastics can break down and rubber will definitely melt - but probably not in a climate controlled setting.
 
You need tp make note of value in any cmos memory. Also make copies of BIOS eprom, flash, whatever. Remove any batteries!!! Store in a dark low humidity place.
Dwight
 
In 2050 the microchips will be around seventy years old, will ANY of them still work?
Probably not worth the cost of storage, especially if there is an EMP in the next 30 years.
 
toastingderbyshire said:
Hmm, somehow I just have a feeling that these PCs will be useful in the future somehow! Can't explain it, but just can't get rid of tech like that. What if a museum wants it in the year 2050 or something? :D My main worry is how they will be stored. Want to be sure they are safe and sound. This page got me interested, but does anyone know if the PCs will be ok in the NYC heat during summer? I'm pretty sure the rooms are climate controlled, but wonder if anyone had heard of melting PCs :/
Click to expand...

The problem with storing equipment is similar to storage of an antique car: This is a product that was designed to be used and that tends to deteriorate with disuse. Some of the components in your old computers have a definite shelf life, particularly true of batteries and electrolytic capacitors. And they don't just die quietly; they often leak their corrosive guts all over the copper "traces" of the motherboard. Old disks deteriorate with age as well. Commodore and Sinclair were "built cheap" to meet a mass-market price point, and there were a lot of them sold.

Old computers are worth whatever anyone wants to pay for them. There may be a "going rate" but even that varies widely. If these relics of your past bring pleasant memories with their use then save them and use them for the sake of your amusement. If not, pass them on to someone else. As George Harrison noted: "All things must pass." And we know what happened to him...

-CH-
 
mnbvcxz said:
In 2050 the microchips will be around seventy years old, will ANY of them still work?
Probably not worth the cost of storage, especially if there is an EMP in the next 30 years.
Click to expand...
Microchips? Probably. Other components, perhaps not so much.

If there is an EMP that can destroy all of that stuff, I think you will have much bigger problems to worry about.
 
By microchips I meant integrated circuits I had read that they suffer from "silicon rot" or something, where cracks appear in the silicon causing the chip to fail. Whilst capacitors and such may be replaceable, the ICs will be as rare as hens teeth.
My point was that it is very unlikely that the computer would still work and the storage fees would be wasted.
If there is an EMP the storage fees would have been better spent on a fallout shelter.
 
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Here's the thing: If you're thinking that you should store them til 2050 to hypothetically "cash in" for a museum.... but you don't know if they work today, you don't know how to fix them if they don't, they haven't been gone through and brought back to best original standards today, etc... then why do you think in 32 years, they'll still be viable because you stored them in climate-controlled storage and valuable to cash in with a museum?

Short answer? They won't be. Long answer - even if you do all of the above, as I've described... they won't be worth that much. Realistic answer - even if their value goes up 30x what it is now, and you are the last person on earth, of the millions of items sold of each, who has these working.... will they even be worth what you have paid to store them all these years?

Best bet? Sell them now. If your C64 fires up and works, figure $100 for a full system, likely more if you have working drives and a small software collection to go with (more if you have a large software collection to go with - and don't forget to check that collection for desirable/collectible games!)

The Timex Sinclair 1000 is a great little piece, and has historical significance, but realistically? It's desirability in people's collections is virtually nil because it doesn't DO too much of interest to today's world. It's an oddity, and cheap enough to have in one's collection to say you have one, but it's that piece that will rarely, if ever, get off of the collection shelf. That's why they still sell for nothing despite their historical significance.

The Mac? I'm not too up on those. I know that there's a lot of issues with caps on certain series. Also battery leaks. Working, it's value is probably around the same as the C64 collection. It may go up. Probably will. But not a a whole lot. Best bet to "cash in?" Sell it now.

Sell them all now. Walk away without worry, with around $200-300 in your pocket richer for a quick find that you don't care about.

OR... better yet. Learn them. Use them. Love them. And dive deep down the rabbit hole that is vintage computer collecting like the rest of us :)
 
What doom and gloom bull Sh*%. I expect 99% of the components made in the early years to still be working in 100 years if they are not powered all the time. Some specific components are known to fail in higher percentages, like 2102s. I also suspect these are what the call infant failures.
I've not seen anything to indicate differently.
Dwight
 
One analogy applicable here might be the Model T. The Model T is an icon and desired by collectors. However, 100 years later there is still no shortage of them - there were literally millions made, tons survive to today and you can pick up one for a relatively modest sum. 100 years on you can still find parts, even *new* unused parts to keep them running. I think mass produced vintage computers like the Commodore 64 will go that route - always being iconic and desirable but always existing in sufficient number to never drive prices very high, and always having a large enough pool of components to keep them running over the long term (look at me, I built a TV Typewriter with all new old stock parts datecoded no later than 1975) - at least, beyond our lifetimes.

So really it's a question of whether you're going to use these machines or if you've got better use for the space.
 
To be fair, we're talking about a C64, a 1984 Mac and a Sinclair 1000. These are all mass produced machines that are in abundance and already exist in numerous museums all over the world. No-one else is going to care about these specific machines in 30 years let alone whether they work or not.

Hows that for doom and gloom. :)
 
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