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What are the top 10 rarest vintage computer bits you own?

Dunno Stone--I'd think that a Zenith FTM VGA monitor would be far rarer.

Magnavox by VGA time was owned by Matsushita, no? I've certainly owned Matsushita-branded monitors.
 
I used to have one of those Magnavox VGA monitors. Cheap low-end stuff.

Nothing I have is really rare, but off hand -
A VisiCorp Visi-On manual/software set.
The battered remains of a CREI 680 educational computer kit
A no-name Apple II+ clone (also rather beat up).
Some 8" disks for Altos 8600 Xenix
A Microsoft Word 1.00 for DOS pre-release disk.
Columbia Data Products 1600
Eagle 1600
Tava PC
A few other uncommon software titles
But what seems like the most rare item I posses is A BRAIN!
 
That's right-->Philips, Norelco, Magnavox, Sylvania. Sometimes it's hard to remember who ate whom. :)

In the early 1990s, you could purchase Philips-branded products as well as Philips-Magnavox ones, which was very confusing, as they were different.
 
Rarest thing I have is probably either my XT 286 (AKA the 5162) or my Kaypro 2 (which was one of the last Kaypro luggables).

I got some sought after Macs (Quadra 950, IIfx) but they're not as rare.
 
Chuck(G) said:
That's right-->Philips, Norelco, Magnavox, Sylvania. Sometimes it's hard to remember who ate whom. :)

In the early 1990s, you could purchase Philips-branded products as well as Philips-Magnavox ones, which was very confusing, as they were different.
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Just to add, I waited until the late 90's to purchase my first 17" color VGA monitor. It was a Gold Star, flat and rectangular screen, and I think it was a Princeton knock-off. My criteria at the time was that it had to be under $600 and it came in just a few pennies under that w/ free shipping from New York. Finally wound up giving it away to someone on the family. Might still be around somewhere.
 
Same here, sorta'.

It was an original NEC Multisync that I also got to use as an EGA. It can do 800x560 analog. I ended up buying out a warehouse lot in 1992 and have been selling them ever since.

FWIW, it had (and still has) one of the best EGA displays I've ever seen.
 
My favorite for EGA was a fixed-frequency Mitsubishi 19" monitor (I believe from a Daisy system). It occupied a goodly portion of my desk and was very heavy, to the extent that my desk legs began to splay. and the top was sagging.
 
I wish I could go back in time to the early 1990's.. UCONN Heath center here in CT had a "surplus store" which would sell off all thier old tech. Plenty of CP/M and older machines. I passed up Apple Lisa's, compact mac's, PDP Systmes, and many DEC alpha boxes which were sold for maybe $5.00 each. Who knew!? They weren't old enough to be collectible yet.
 
Once I finish my basement conversion to a retro computing office / personal museum I am going to buy lots of Philips/Magnavox. Until that time I am space constrained. My office is bad enough as it is and spilling over into the dining room. Not a good place to be in with the Mrs.
 
falter said:
only the rare stuff
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I've mentioned it before, but the rarest thing I have is the Bank Street Music Writer board, a PC version of the Mockingboard that was only bundled with Bank Street Music Writer. Glen Clancy had no idea how many were produced, but the conventional estimate is less than 1000 and I've got the only one known to exist. Glen's son couldn't find any in the stash of packages they had in their archives.

I have other rare computer sound devices, but they lack "popular interest provenance" so they're not really worth going into. I also have rare software but that would be OT for this thread.
 
Yeah, I've got some things that went into production (e.g. terminal, ISA cards), but I doubt they'd get much interest, as all I have are the prototypes.
 
1. Modula Research Corp. Lilith
2. SGI IRIS 1000
3. SGI IRIS 1200
4. Sun 100u
5. Sun 150u
6. Apollo DN420
7. Symbolics 3600
8. TI Explorer II Plus
9. IBM 7437 VM Technical Workstation
10. IBM 6152 Academic System
11. Data General Nova (O.G., no submodel)
 
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