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Vintage Tandy 1000HX Computer

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Maverick1978

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MrRedHat said:
Is this a good price for this? Comes with the original box and manuals.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/310421484385?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1431.l2649
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Maybe if it was new.... and I've seen an open/new one go for that much. $202.50? Welcome to the bid wars, probably between two or three bidders, and people who decided to look for them this week rather than last week. Or last month. Or next month. The only thing that separates this auction from others is it's clean, and has the boxes/manuals. From what I've seen, the high end of a boxed/complete system is usually around $125. And that's more than it's worth IMO.
 
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barythrin

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Neat to have a boxed system but overpriced from my point of view. Plus if you really want a system to play on you'd be better off getting one that's been powered on and proven to work.
 
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barythrin

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heh, lots of various psychological reasons. My personal take is the bidding wars and stubborn bidders who don't want to lose. Tends to get higher than normal prices but not necessarily consistent.
 
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MrRedHat

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A long time ago, I was bidding on a transformer and another bidder sent me a private message saying he was going to win it. I never understood why he would do that, I always thought the object of the game was to pay as little as possible for the item.
 
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MrRedHat

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I wonder if there was some type of fake bidding going on. It looks like someone with just a feedback of 1 kept bidding it up to over $200.
 
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Maverick1978

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No idea. If you're after an HX, keep a look out. I've seen several close out around the $30-50USD mark over the last few months. Unless you're after a nice, complete system to look on a shelf and be pretty rather than one to be used - and if you are, that's ok! This is probably the auction you want! :)
 
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MrRedHat

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Maverick1978 said:
No idea. If you're after an HX, keep a look out. I've seen several close out around the $30-50USD mark over the last few months. Unless you're after a nice, complete system to look on a shelf and be pretty rather than one to be used - and if you are, that's ok! This is probably the auction you want! :)
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Not after a HX. I was curious as to why it was going for so much. I was wondering what was so special about them. It seems this is just eBay being stupid.

I'd rather have an IBM 5070 or 5050!
 
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barythrin

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I think you're meaning an IBM 5150 or 5170? Not much is special about them other then being an all-in-one keyboard system. They're ok if you have good specs on them but otherwise sorta an odd duck to update and mine was a bit of a PITA. Basically not enough RAM (384K) to do half the crap I'd like and a 3.5" other than a 5.25" drive so most of the stuff it CAN run it has too new of a drive for lol. Then DOS on the rom is interesting but it's a low version and also not new enough to be too useful (think it's DOS 2.x something?). Could just be I'm not using it right though.

Oh.. right.. my other point. I say this a lot but if you want a better price but longer hunt I'd consider searching around craigslist and perhaps searching around cities near-by.
 
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Great Hierophant

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The DOS-in-ROM is great for running games off floppies, at least those games that can be comfortably run off a floppy. Comfortably being the operative word here, as nobody is going to put up with swapping more than 2 floppies. The machine has a port for an external 5.25 inch drive and can be upgraded to 640KB. With the RAM upgrade, a serial port and an external 5.25 drive, it's a good system. Find a way to put a hard drive in it, it gets much better.
 
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MrRedHat

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barythrin said:
I think you're meaning an IBM 5150 or 5170? Not much is special about them other then being an all-in-one keyboard system. They're ok if you have good specs on them but otherwise sorta an odd duck to update and mine was a bit of a PITA. Basically not enough RAM (384K) to do half the crap I'd like and a 3.5" other than a 5.25" drive so most of the stuff it CAN run it has too new of a drive for lol. Then DOS on the rom is interesting but it's a low version and also not new enough to be too useful (think it's DOS 2.x something?). Could just be I'm not using it right though.

Oh.. right.. my other point. I say this a lot but if you want a better price but longer hunt I'd consider searching around craigslist and perhaps searching around cities near-by.
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Yes you're right, I meant 5150 and 5170.

There was a thread yesterday about someone spending over $700 for a keyboard. I think this is similar to that. To put things in perspective, you can get a pretty nice SSD drive for $700. :)
 
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christr

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It's funny... I was watching that one too. I liked the fact it seemed complete, but without knowing if it had the memory board in it I didn't want to risk it. I actually sent the seller a note asking if there were any cards installed that he should mention it in the listing cuz that could bring the price up.

Alas, he didn't... and I ended up snagging a rather dirty, beat up looking HX for a heck of a lot less. Took 3hrs over the weekend scrubbing each key and the case, but now it looks nice and nearly new! (and this one had the RAM board fully populated).

I think one of the main reasons this one is going so high is because it's effectively complete. Especially from a 'collectors' point of view. It has the original box, manuals and disks. Kindof like how star wars figures from the 70's tend to sell massively higher if you have the box or still in the box. :)

In any case, now I finally have my 'first' PC again to play with... (got my first computer 'back' again a few weeks ago via eBay which was a CoCo2). Just gotta find a way to get a serial port in it. Ordered the parts to convert the plus header into a regular ISA header and i'll jam in an old RS232 card.... with any luck maybe I can rig up a VGA board as well. Since TV out really stinks. :)

--Chris
 
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Maverick1978

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christr said:
Just gotta find a way to get a serial port in it. Ordered the parts to convert the plus header into a regular ISA header and i'll jam in an old RS232 card.... with any luck maybe I can rig up a VGA board as well. Since TV out really stinks. :)
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I went looking for parts awhile ago to build a Plus cable, but was unable to find the 62-pin female connector for the Memory Board. Were you able to find the 62-pin female crimp connector? - Closest that I could find was 64-pin connectors, which work great with my after-market memory board, but not with my Tandy memory board as the Tandy has a 62-pin full housing and will only accept a 62-pin header (at least without modifying it, which I didn't want to do)
 
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Hatta

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What I did was take two IDE cables, chop them up with a dremel, and super glued them together. Not ideal, but I couldn't find a female 62 pin header either. I did this for an EX. I don't know how big the HX's expansion bay is, but I wasn't able to fit full height cards into the EX.
 
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Maverick1978

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Not a bad idea... I hadn't actually thought of that kind've hack job (and I mean that in a good way!)

Will keep it in mind :)
 
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