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Tandy 3000 on ebay

I did a search and apparently an NL was sold for 100$. It didn't turn up in my saved searches email. I never knew that model existed and it doesn't have any particular interest to me. But as I said they don't turn up very often, but never seem to command excessive value. A 3000HD or HL all decked out may fetch a tidy sum though.
 
tipc said:
I did a search and apparently an NL was sold for 100$. It didn't turn up in my saved searches email. I never knew that model existed and it doesn't have any particular interest to me. But as I said they don't turn up very often, but never seem to command excessive value. A 3000HD or HL all decked out may fetch a tidy sum though.
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The HL and NL served the same market and sold for similar prices when new. The NL is the newer of the two and is an updated version of the HL with a faster processor and more RAM. It also introduced 3.5" floppies to the line. A later update to the NL motherboard put a VGA chipset onboard to free up a slot. The HD has always been harder to find because it cost $4299, while the HL was $1699. You usually see one HD for every 4 or 5 HL/NL machines. That's been my observation, anyway.
 
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I have a Tandy 3000 Diagnostic Disk (IND format) if anyone is interested. It was in a bunch of floppies I picked up the other day and I just archived it.
 
Someone way overpaid for it. About $400 shipped, and don't forget ebay charges sales tax at checkout now. The keyboard might sell for that on a good day, but sorting out the problems with the machine itself isn't worth it. In that condition, I don't consider it as anything other than a parts machine.
 
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Wow...$324.52. Anyone here the winner? That was about twice my max bid. :-( I would be curious to know the deal with the BIOS identification.

The first computer we had a home for the family was a Tandy 1000SL. A number of years later I was online with the Delphi online service, and someone in the Tandy group was giving away a 3000HD, so I acquired it for the cost of shipping, and thus was the first computer that was truly mine. Came with a CM-1 monitor (had issues, ugly display, but it worked - wish now I had kept it anyway). Upgraded it in various ways and eventually upgraded into a custom 386 and went on from there. The 3000 got set aside, and ultimately the battery leaked, messed up the motherboard a bit, and turned the case into a rusty mess. I tore it apart some years back with the intent to try to clean up the rust and see if I might be able to get it going again, but never made it any further. Probably need to sandblast it or something...probably should do something before it rusts away to nothing, even if I can't get it going again.

If anyone has a spare 3000 motherboard (or whole computer) laying around they want to sell, please keep me in mind... :)

Wesley
 
animekenji said:
Someone way overpaid for it. About $400 shipped, and don't forget ebay charges sales tax at checkout now. The keyboard might sell for that on a good day, but sorting out the problems with the machine itself isn't worth it. I don't consider it as anything other than a parts machine.
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Everything seems to be going way high these days, at least in my opinion (for what little it is worth). Wasn't all that long ago you could pick up an old computer for $50 shipped...though shipping prices have certainly gone up a lot too.

As for the keyboard, if you do a search on completed items, there is a listing titled "Private Listing 1 (Tandy 3000 Vintage Keyboard)" that sold for $345. I wonder what the story is there, I can't imagine a 3000 keyboard is anywhere near that valuable! But if it is, someone got a good deal on this one since it came with a keyboard...

Wesley
 
wesleyfurr said:
Wow...$324.52. Anyone here the winner? That was about twice my max bid. :-( I would be curious to know the deal with the BIOS identification.

The first computer we had a home for the family was a Tandy 1000SL. A number of years later I was online with the Delphi online service, and someone in the Tandy group was giving away a 3000HD, so I acquired it for the cost of shipping, and thus was the first computer that was truly mine. Came with a CM-1 monitor (had issues, ugly display, but it worked - wish now I had kept it anyway). Upgraded it in various ways and eventually upgraded into a custom 386 and went on from there. The 3000 got set aside, and ultimately the battery leaked, messed up the motherboard a bit, and turned the case into a rusty mess. I tore it apart some years back with the intent to try to clean up the rust and see if I might be able to get it going again, but never made it any further. Probably need to sandblast it or something...probably should do something before it rusts away to nothing, even if I can't get it going again.

If anyone has a spare 3000 motherboard (or whole computer) laying around they want to sell, please keep me in mind... :)

Wesley
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Don't forget the $78.10 for shipping plus whatever the buyers state sales tax is. It could run as high as $425 total before it's all over for a machine with a questionable history that will probably continue to have compatibility issues until the original BIOS is restored. It's not worth having at that price.
 
animekenji said:
sorting out the problems with the machine itself isn't worth it. I don't consider it as anything other than a parts machine.
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While it still boggles my mind that a dirty 286 selling for over $300 isn't particularly noteworthy these days (dang, do I wish I had the contents of my garage circa 1998-ish to sell right now...) I don't think there's that much wrong with the machine. I doubt the memory error has anything to do with the replacement BIOS; the address of the error looked to be over the 1MB mark so it's probably a solvable issue with that expansion card. (The machine itself has only 512k on the motherboard.) The mismatched BIOS issue is mostly a cosmetic problem; if someone can be convinced to copy the ROMs from their unit then a few minutes with an EPROM programmer will fix that.

Here is a good reason why someone might have decided to update the original BIOS.
 
animekenji said:
Don't forget the $78.10 for shipping plus whatever the buyers state sales tax is. It could run as high as $425 total before it's all over for a machine with a questionable history that will probably continue to have compatibility issues until the original BIOS is restored. It's not worth having at that price.
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Definitely not worth that much to me...and pushing it to bid as much as I did, which I wouldn't have done for any other model computer. I also have my damaged 3000, figured if it was just the BIOS chips, I could try swapping them with the ones from my board. Though at this point, I'll just have to hope that just maybe I can repair the damage...a long overdue project.
 
wesleyfurr said:
Everything seems to be going way high these days, at least in my opinion (for what little it is worth). Wasn't all that long ago you could pick up an old computer for $50 shipped...though shipping prices have certainly gone up a lot too.

As for the keyboard, if you do a search on completed items, there is a listing titled "Private Listing 1 (Tandy 3000 Vintage Keyboard)" that sold for $345. I wonder what the story is there, I can't imagine a 3000 keyboard is anywhere near that valuable! But if it is, someone got a good deal on this one since it came with a keyboard...

Wesley
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The keyboard is a buckling spring keyboard that goes clickety clack when you type on it.
 
well mine sans keyboard (I already had one, but it isn't the enhanced model) was a bit over 100$ w/shipping iirc. But it was a very early morning BIN, sold by people in the Chicago area who liquidated buyouts of computers. It was just an odd item they figured they could get a c-note for.

Just looked it up, free shipping. 106.58$. No hard drive, power switch has a cosmetic issue. Still worth a lot more then I paid though I guess.
 
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