Top 10 Holy Grails of Classic Microcomputer Collecting

From: William Donzelli <william_at_ans.net>
Date: Tue Oct 6 22:26:09 1998

> Then why did these obvious assholes get interested in kits? They
> might as well collect old boxes of Macaroni-and-Cheese. If the
> packaging is what counts, who cares if weevils ate the pasta?

Think, please...these people (the vacuum tube era Heathkit people, AKA
Boatanchor types) did not buy their transmitters and receivers back in the
1950s and never build them! Of course they built them! Thousands of
them! Today, nearly all Heathkit type ham gear is fairly easy to obtain
today, all built up. Unbuilt kits from the era, however, are very rare,
and command a BIG price tag. To build one not only rips to shreads any
historic fabric of the kit, but is also finacially a stupid thing to do.
If you have an unbuilt kit, maybe an old Heathkit Mohawk, or maybe an
EC-1, or maybe even an Altair, and really want a working, complete
version, I think you could sell the kit and get TWO complete ones!

My unbuilt Sphere-1 is getting donated to RCS/RI, with the understanding
that the boards will never see an iron.

Of course, anyone can do whatever they want to their machines or kits...I
am just soapboxing.

William Donzelli
william_at_ans.net
Received on Tue Oct 06 1998 - 22:26:09 BST