yo

From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_crl.com>
Date: Mon Apr 14 01:40:01 1997

Well, today was a rather good day out at the swap meet, my first
excursion in a couple years.

It started out slow. The first thing I found was one lowly Atari 2600
PacMan cart sitting amidst some guy's junk. For some reason I thought I
would buy it (?) thinking maybe I didn't already have PacMan (whatever)
and it went like this:

Me: How about a quarter?
Him: 1 dollar.
Me: A quarter?
Him: 1 dollar.
Me: How about 50 cents?
Him: ok.

Anyway, it got way better. Walking along I found a beautiful little
TimexSinclair 1000! At least I'm am darned sure it is, because the label
is missing on the top but the bottom has a stamp which has
"CEC8E4TS1000R1" in it. There is also a sticker with a serial number and
"Model M330" on it. Anyway, I've never actually seen one, but have been
looking for one for years! And finally its mine! MINE! Haven't tested
it yet but I'm sure it works. Its in good condition. Could someone who
has one describe theirs so I can figure out exactly what I have? I know
there were different varieties of the TS1000. Mine has an Ear and Mic
jack on the side. What the hell are those for? Oh, duh, just figured it
out...data recorder. Never mind. You know how hard it is to find a 9V
DC power source with a 1/8" headphone jack? I looked all over the meet
for one, finally found one but the seller wanted three bucks for it so I
passed. I can't encourage that kind of larceny :)

So continuing on I found some more Atari 2600 carts I didn't have, and
then I found an original IBM PC/XT. The guy wanted $50 but I promptly
talked him down to $7. What a steal. Haven't tested it yet but it
"looks" like it will work :) Now I want the Original IBM PC and a PC
Jr. The funny thing is, I paid more for 9 Atari 2600 games ($11 in one
case) than an entire PC.

So moving forward, I found someone selling a Macintosh 512K. Cool, I'd
been wanting to add a classic Mac to my collection for some time. But
this one was missing the keyboard and mouse. They only wanted $20 for
it. I tried talking them down but they didn't want to move. Later I
found someone selling a complete Mac+. Now this one I know was hot. At
first they wanted $50 but I talked them down to $15 (I used the "It's all
the money I have right now" ruse, except in this case it was true). I
really wanted to get the other Mac, because it was closer to the original
Macintosh, but this one was more complete, so I got it instead.

Now, I don't want to disparage the fine folks of Oakland, California, but
as I said before, I'm most positive this system was hot. They were too
willing to dump off a perfectly good Macintosh (at least I think its
perfectly good, haven't tested it yet) for too little money. Later on
when I was going through the software I got with it I found some BMUG
disks (BMUG = BayArea Macintosh User's Group). So I'll be contacting BMUG
to see if any of their members "lost" a macintosh within the last couple
months, and if I find a match I'll sell it back to them for what I paid.
(I'm such a nice guy, eh!?)

Throughout the day I saw a LOT of Nintendo consoles, carthridges and
accessories (not classic enough yet). I'm sure in 5-10 years when I
inevitably start collecting Nintendo crap I'll be wishing I had picked up a
lot of this stuff. Oh well, maybe when I have enough money to buy all
the truly classic stuff I want and THEN some cash left over for the common
tripe, I'll start collecting nintendo.

So anyway, at the end of the day I ended up with an IBM PC/XT (original),
a MacintoshPlus, a TimexSinclair 1000 (yeah!) and about 25 more atari
2600 carts, plus an intellivision cart and a TI/994a cart.

Total bill: $45.

Not bad. And I'm still under my budget of $100 per month for classic
computer collecting (I just implemented that budget, but I think it may
be too high. I tend to get carried away when collecting old computer
stuff and, if left unchecked, would buy everything I came across. As it
is I just may go back for that Mac512K.) Now I just need to keep my new
booty hidden from my fiance.

If I can offer any tip to would-be flea market bargain hunters: haggle.
Start way low and work up. Some people don't even know what they're
selling, and think just because it's a computer (computer = high tech) it
must be worth big bucks. You have to slap them around a bit until they
come to their senses. No common system console (ie. Vic20s, Atari 2600s,
etc) should go for more than $10 ($15 at the VERY most). No game
carthridge should go for more than $.50 (IMO, unless you REALLY want it,
then NO more than $2.00 each).

What do you all think?

Sam
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Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Received on Mon Apr 14 1997 - 01:40:01 BST