Toshiba T1000

[STeVe]

Just wondering, what do you guys/gals think a Toshiba T1000, which is in great condition (battery still holds a decent charge, a few scuff marks) w/the AC adapter and original documentation (all of it, I'm pretty sure) would go for on a place like ebay? I've heard that to the right person, it can be worth quite a bit. If anyone has any ideas, I'd like to hear what you think. Thanks.

 

[NathanAllan]

Older computers are valuable as collector's items, but not for much cash value. I have a T-1200 and went looking for value, and came up with max $75 in mint condition, with all accessories and attachments. Older machines like your T-1000 are great to experiment with but as far as cash value not much, unfortunately. Sorry to disappoint. If anyone else has input feel free.

Nathan

 

[Erik]

The only input I have is that eBay is weird.

I've got a few interest items that I track on a regular basis. I have, for instance, a fairly complete spreadsheet of every Altair and IMSAI that's sold for the last 18 months or so. Of those items, I see wildly varying sale prices that can't be easily explained by the condition of the item or the description for the auction.

For instance, I purchased a Sharp PC1500 setup including the printer, case, all docs and a small pile of other goodies for about $25+ shipping. I have since seen just the unit itself sell near $100 and other setups with the printer sell for $60+

For Altairs I've seen prices range from the sub $1K range to $3K+ with some of the lower priced machines comparing favorably to the most expensive.

So, if you're interested in getting top dollar for the machine, put it up on eBay with a safe reserve and see what happens. There's a sucker born every minute and maybe you'll latch onto one!

Good luck!

Erik

 

[barryp]

Re: Toshiba T1000

I've heard that to the right person, it can be worth quite a bit. If anyone has any ideas, I'd like to hear what you think.

A problem is that you need at least two of "the right person".

If you list it to start for $25 and I come along and bid $1000 but there are no other bidders I get it for only $25.

I listed a couple of books on the TI-99 a few years ago which each originally sold for about $10, they sold for ~$60 and ~$70!!!

There were two bidders and they went up and up. I still don't know why that was, I sold more of the same books later and they went for about $10, which is what I would expect.

 

[STeVe]

Well, thanks. I see what you mean. Hmmm...maybe if I wait 20 years I can get something for it. Well...I could just put an outrageously high reserve on ebay, like you said...and try that. Well...there are other places to sell it, too. But maybe I'll hold onto it for awhile. As for experimenting, well...I finished doing that in a few hours (after finding a bucnh of DOS progams that actually ran under DOS 2.11).

 

[NathanAllan]

Try running some kind of Linux on it. Here's something else you can do (if interested), put a harddrive in it that has dos 6.2 on it (alredy on it, it won't install otherwise if I remember) and run lots more prog's. But I would think Linux would be the best bet to make it a usable machine again. Er, how much were you looking to get for it? I might could find a home for it for you.

Nathan

 

[ravuya]

You can run Linux on it but I'd recommend that you go pick up a copy of Andrew S. Tannenbaum's excellent Minix and install that, considering the vintage of the processor.

http://www.cyberus.ca/~pgillil/toshiba.html <- Linux info for the T-1100+

When I saw "T-1000" I halfway expected a liquid-metal serial killer computer.