Prices to pay for old computers...

From: Julian Richardson <JRichardson_at_softwright.co.uk>
Date: Fri May 22 10:31:17 1998

>> Of the 16K-64K mb's there are reputed to have been two distinct series,
>> called "Series 0" and "Series 1." A 16K, Series 0, no-floppy IBM PC is
>> alleged to have sold at auction in the UK for over UKP 10,000 ....and my
>> intuition (but no more than that) detects an institutional buyer. (And not
>> auction like eBay -- auction like Christie's.)

what were the differences between the two? I've got a 16KB model
somewhere with cassette interface; it's got a floppy controller in it
too, so I don't know whether that implies that the BIOS has been
re-burnt at some point to handle this (it's funny joining this list -
it's scary how much of this stuff I would have known at one point and
have since forgotten!!).

I seem to remember scrapping a good twelve or thirteen of these boxes a
few years back working for a firm specialising in bringing old computer
gear back to life (it was amazing how much strange stuff from the 70's
and early 80's I saw pass through that place!). The local scrap dealer
would only pay about 2 pounds for each system, so the whole lot just
went in the skip out the back of the warehouse... it's funny how much
perfectly good equipment I saw get slung out just because there wasn't
space for it and we had several piles of spares, seems a shame
considering that someone somewhere would have made use of it!!

back on topic though, what cassette unit could be connected up to the
original PC machines? Was it a custom IBM unit only (similar to the way
the C64's only accept Commodore tape decks), or could anything be used
if a cable was made up?

cheers

Jules
>
Received on Fri May 22 1998 - 10:31:17 BST