This pretty much sums it up for me. While It burns my ass to see keyboards ripped to shreds for a trend, Its illogical to hold all people to my standards. If I could change anything, I would like to see proprietary keyboards saved, not chopped up. Past that, this is 'MURICA, and whoever pays the most money wins.
- VCF South West - June 14 - 16, Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas at Dallas
- VCF West - Aug 2 - 3, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA
- VCF Midwest - Sept 7 - 8 2024, Schaumburg, IL
- VCF SoCal - Mid February 2025, Location TBD, Southern CA
- VCF East - April 2025, Infoage Museum, Wall NJ
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- Thread starter legalize
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This pretty much sums it up for me. While It burns my ass to see keyboards ripped to shreds for a trend, Its illogical to hold all people to my standards. If I could change anything, I would like to see proprietary keyboards saved, not chopped up. Past that, this is 'MURICA, and whoever pays the most money wins.
White Alps keyswitches on ebay are $15 for 5 ashipped so $3 a piece minus shipping so a keyboard that has 84- 100+ keys thats up to $300 for a keyboard minus the labor to remove the switches. More exotic switches will bring more. Plus you can sell the keycaps for a few bucks each over time.
I hate people stripping rare keyboards from the machines they go to but if they are going to be scrapped anyway why not. A year or so ago I broke a switch on one of my Northgate keyboards and was lucky enough to find a couple replacements on ebay cheap so it is working again.
I hate people stripping rare keyboards from the machines they go to but if they are going to be scrapped anyway why not. A year or so ago I broke a switch on one of my Northgate keyboards and was lucky enough to find a couple replacements on ebay cheap so it is working again.
Eudimorphodon
Veteran Member
It's still an ***k move to tell someone to their face that you're entitled to scrap every proprietary keyboard you happened to lay hands on first at a picking party. I get it, finders keepers, to the winners goes the spoils, whatever, but it's still a giant middle finger to basic civility.
channelmaniac
Veteran Member
If you're not going to come to Texas and buy things to add to your collection then give it a rest. I don't care for keyboard kid's tactics either, but if he hadn't purchased the keyboards who knows how many would end up in a landfill somewhere.
Hours are posted on the FB group - typically Saturday / Sunday as long as the family allows it to continue and as long as the weather holds out. I can't help it if you're doing your best impression of Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino and don't like FB. It is what it is and FB is something most of us use in the Dallas area and it was the easiest way to get the info out there to the collecting community.
Hours are posted on the FB group - typically Saturday / Sunday as long as the family allows it to continue and as long as the weather holds out. I can't help it if you're doing your best impression of Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino and don't like FB. It is what it is and FB is something most of us use in the Dallas area and it was the easiest way to get the info out there to the collecting community.
legalize
Experienced Member
One guy made one comment about desoldering keyswitches from one keyboard, apparently the only keyboard to ever use that switch type.
This stuff was headed for the shredder anyway. Better to have it saved than shredded.
I've got terminals with keyboards with a single busted keyswitch in my collection. Knowing that there are people who make single keyswitches available (NOS or desoldered) is useful, even if what they are doing is not what I would personally do.
This stuff was headed for the shredder anyway. Better to have it saved than shredded.
I've got terminals with keyboards with a single busted keyswitch in my collection. Knowing that there are people who make single keyswitches available (NOS or desoldered) is useful, even if what they are doing is not what I would personally do.
legalize
Experienced Member
I just re-read that entire thread (not the whole forum) and didn't see anything indicating this.
I also don't see anything "new" or particularly "egregious" here compared to all the other stuff I see. I see ebay sellers parting out machines all the time on ebay. I see recyclers cutting off "gold fingers" from boards and then trying to get me interested in the chopped up boards.
The world isn't full of collectors or "history folks", it's full of a variety of people all of whom have different perspectives on what these things are good for.
Once you start down the road of "everyone who looks at things differently than me is a lower form of human being", you end up in a dark place.
Hell, I know people in our community that nominally say that they are trying to get the equipment into the right hands for preservation and restoration and 10 YEARS LATER, they're still just talking and saying that they have the boards I'm looking for.
Bottom line is that all this stuff was rotting away in this guy's warehouse. Things clearly have been out-of-hand for many years, this isn't a recent development. He could have started getting this stuff into the hands of "people who care" long ago, but for whatever reason he didn't. Now it's a free-for-all fire sale and everythings gotta go and it's gotta go quick and it's gotta go now.
You can be irritated at the keyboard collectors because of their perspective on the value of things, but if you're going to blame them for their attitude, then you also have to blame the business owner for his attitude that created this gold-rush-grabbit-now scenario in the first place.
Speaking for myself, I'm not irritated at either party. Both of them are making the best of a tough surprise situation that the business owner found themselves in.
lyonadmiral
Veteran Member
My day job is IT administration and computer teacher and I have many different types of students and I tell them all the time for whatever they gripe about; "Life is hard. If you can't make it easier, come hell or high water don't make it harder." I think this applies to many things. Including this one.
Shadow Lord
Veteran Member
I am not sure how much I agree with your other statements but these two I can definitely fall behind. I personally know some of the people in the first line. All talk about how they want items to get into the hands of people who will appreciate them and will not chuck them or flip them on eBay. However, when it comes to deliver suddenly they are asking eBay prices and acting like they are doing you a favor.
As for the second one the owner was never much into selling/listing his ware. As I have mentioned I had previously bought from him and had asked specifically for certain pieces that he swore he didn't have. Recent postings would indicate otherwise. He just wasn't willing (or couldn't) dig through the stuff to make a good inventory of what he had. Plus once a few items started selling for ridiculous prices he thought he should get that all the time. If you have this much stuff to sell I would think the smart money is on selling as much as you can before you end up in a home - because as they say you can't take it with you...
legalize
Experienced Member
Sadly, it seems that for a lot of these guys that have these big piles of stuff, we have to wait until they have serious medical circumstances or have passed away before the stuff becomes available to collectors at semi-reasonable prices. (My idea of "semi-reasonable" probably makes me willing to pay a lot more than the average vintage collector because I'm accustomed to ebay prices.)
That's how it was with The Black Hole surplus in Los Alamos. I made 4 trips down there with a trailer and hauled out heaps of stuff at very reasonable prices because Ed Grothus's heirs didn't want to continue the business and the stock on hand was their inheritance. They gave interested folks plenty of time to rescue items at a fair price (at least 6-12 months). In the end, they had a last gasp sale before what remained went to the scrapper. I probably could have pulled out even more stuff from there: Friden mechanical calculators, typewriters, some more teletype stuff, about 7 or so TI Silent 700 terminals, etc., had I put even more effort into it. As it stood, I got a good amount of stuff out of there that I'm pretty sure would have ended up on the scrap pile. It was an all day drive one way for me to pull stuff out of there, but for the things I was interested in, it was worth the effort.
That's how it was with The Black Hole surplus in Los Alamos. I made 4 trips down there with a trailer and hauled out heaps of stuff at very reasonable prices because Ed Grothus's heirs didn't want to continue the business and the stock on hand was their inheritance. They gave interested folks plenty of time to rescue items at a fair price (at least 6-12 months). In the end, they had a last gasp sale before what remained went to the scrapper. I probably could have pulled out even more stuff from there: Friden mechanical calculators, typewriters, some more teletype stuff, about 7 or so TI Silent 700 terminals, etc., had I put even more effort into it. As it stood, I got a good amount of stuff out of there that I'm pretty sure would have ended up on the scrap pile. It was an all day drive one way for me to pull stuff out of there, but for the things I was interested in, it was worth the effort.
People get funny when items they purchased as junk starts selling as collectable and prices keep going up.
Nobody really thinks about someday not being able to lift somewhat heavy objects, their eyesight slow failing, forgetting where they put everything or even what they have, and finally not being able to take care of yourself let alone the stuff you hoarded. I would think hoards like that end up in landfills more often then not.
Nobody really thinks about someday not being able to lift somewhat heavy objects, their eyesight slow failing, forgetting where they put everything or even what they have, and finally not being able to take care of yourself let alone the stuff you hoarded. I would think hoards like that end up in landfills more often then not.
channelmaniac
Veteran Member
It truly wasn't the willing part and really was the couldn't part. It's a hoarding issue. Come dig. Come see how much stuff is still left. Get an idea of how packed everything was and still is in here. And then stop and think about the 2 40-yard dumpsters of cardboard that was removed as well by volunteers and how that added to the piles.
legalize
Experienced Member
I would recommend repeat visits as stuff is cleared out, even if you thought you looked really good on a previous visit. As things are purchased, it's like archaeology and older layers are revealed underneath.
With numerous visits to the Black Hole as it was being cleared out, I kept spotting new Tektronix storage tube terminals thinking to myself "I swore I got them all last time!" and things went on like this for every subsequent visit.
With numerous visits to the Black Hole as it was being cleared out, I kept spotting new Tektronix storage tube terminals thinking to myself "I swore I got them all last time!" and things went on like this for every subsequent visit.
Al Kossow
Documentation Wizard
I would be willing to spend a couple hundred bucks for another Displaywriter keyboard if one should surface to get my system running.
classiccomputershop.com
New Member
Does anyone know whether there are new old stock x86 pc's from COMPAQ, HP, Dell or AST for sale?
Caleb Hansberry
Veteran Member
From what I've seen, thats a large portion of what they have. The brands I've seen (online, not in person) are mostly Compaq and IBM. The others would be less likely to be NOS.
classiccomputershop.com
New Member
I've seen some used COMPAQ's but not NOS. That having said, I've only clicked on the links in this topic and on vogons, so I've not seen many pictures (and it's hard to identify anything because most of it sits in boxes and it's a big mess). I understand that they have created a fb group, but I don't have a personal fb account (I value my privacy higher than an interesting sale) and they have taken the youtube video offline. I'm interested in more pictures of especially NOS items, so if anyone has some, then please share publicly. Thanks!
Most of the NOS hardware stuff I saw was PC Jr.
I found some compaq parts that were NOS, I think.
LOTs of software still shrink wrapped. I grabbed a little bit of everything. I found a PC/AT manual kit sealed in the box (and there were plenty more).
Someone found new upper cases for TRS-80 COCO1, and I grabbed one of those, too.
I found some compaq parts that were NOS, I think.
LOTs of software still shrink wrapped. I grabbed a little bit of everything. I found a PC/AT manual kit sealed in the box (and there were plenty more).
Someone found new upper cases for TRS-80 COCO1, and I grabbed one of those, too.
Caleb Hansberry
Veteran Member
The warehouse is only open on days announced in the Facebook group now. People flood in on that day and make piles of stuff they want outside the doors, then load them up later. They also work together to organize regions of the property - I hear the bathroom was in particularly bad condition - and discover new things. There is quite a bit of sharing of finds amongst the facebook group. Here are some pictures from the page:
Again, these are not things available at the warehouse, these are things people have found for themselves. The rarest/most desired things that are easy to reach, such as Model F keyboards, have run dry, now everything is either small gems like accessories rather than whole systems, common things like CRTs and 486 motherboards, and gems found in pockets under piles of boxes. I wish I could go, even now I try to concoct a plan to make time to go by leaving in my little 3-cyl Metro in the middle of the night so I can return for work the day after.
Again, these are not things available at the warehouse, these are things people have found for themselves. The rarest/most desired things that are easy to reach, such as Model F keyboards, have run dry, now everything is either small gems like accessories rather than whole systems, common things like CRTs and 486 motherboards, and gems found in pockets under piles of boxes. I wish I could go, even now I try to concoct a plan to make time to go by leaving in my little 3-cyl Metro in the middle of the night so I can return for work the day after.
exidyboy
Experienced Member
Well said.
channelmaniac
Veteran Member
My son pulled down 2 boxes of NOS IBM keyboard cables yesterday... We've found NOS sealed keyboards, cables, motherboards, monitors, and more for older Compaq systems like the original portable.
If you like open frame green or amber monitors you can get them for a song.
If you like open frame green or amber monitors you can get them for a song.
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