Some of the items from the "Book of Receipts" I got with the Altair
systems I purchased last month:
>From Morrow Computer & Electronics Design Inc: 1 MITS Altair system,
Okidata printer, ADM 1, dual disk drives, mainframe, memory boards,
2SIO, Prom, ACR $5000.00 + $50 to ship. - 11/29/78
>From the Byte Shop: SSM-MB3 - $65, 2 2708s - $49 each, 4 1702a's for
$35, 4 S-100 edge connectors for $5 each and a roll of black tape for
$4.25. - 12/28/76
>From Solid State Music, Inc: 1 MB3 (2K/4K EPROM card) - $64.95. 8080
Monitor on 8 1702s - $25. - 12/14/77 (why would he keep the receipt but
not the manual!)
>From Processor Technology Corp: VDM-1 Video Display Module - $160, 3P+S
I/O Module - $125. - 4/12/76 (I have the Processor Tech price sheet from
March 1, 1976 stapled to this receipt)
>From MITS Inc: 88-16MCD (assembled) - $395, 88-2SIO w/1 port kit - $160,
88-SP K (extra Port for 88-2SIO) - $50. - 12/6/77
>From Microsystems: ADM-3 Lear Siegler kit - $875. - 11/2/76
>From Microsystems: 88-16MCS (16K static - Kit) $765, 88-VI (Vectored
Interrupt) $138, 88-RTC (real time clock) $53. - 4/10/76
>From MITS Inc: 8800 Kit with 4K dynamic RAM, 2SIO, 4K BASIC on paper
tape and an extra port for the 2SIO - $719. - 4/9/76
That's most of the interesting stuff. Every invoice or receipt is
accompanied by a check stub which verifies the amounts paid.
There are a ton of "repair" invoices in this book. Over the course of
about 3 years there seem to have been about 8 to 10 instances where
boards or entire systems were sent out for repair. Typical repairs cost
about $120.
This book also has several MITS catalogs and price lists which I'll scan
and post at some later date.
Cheers!
Erik
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
[mailto:owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Richard Erlacher
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 1:36 PM
To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Period pricing references (was Re: Micro$oft Biz'droid
Lusers)
That might prove VERY interesting, particularly if the dates are still
legible.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Erik S. Klein" <eklein_at_impac.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 12:31 PM
Subject: RE: Period pricing references (was Re: Micro$oft Biz'droid
Lusers)
> I still have many of my old computer receipts.
>
> My first IBM PC (December 1981) cost nearly $2,800 for a 64K machine,
1 SSDD
> floppy (120K with DOS 1.0) and a color card with an RF Modulator.
>
> I have a notebook full of receipts and invoices that came with a pair
of
> Altairs. In addition to the costs for the specific machines there are
also
> receipts for various other hardware items including old Cromemco and
SOL
> stuff. I'll have to take a more careful look at some point and either
scan
> those or post the prices here.
>
> Erik S. Klein
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
> [mailto:owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ethan Dicks
> Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 9:35 AM
> To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
> Subject: Period pricing references (was Re: Micro$oft Biz'droid
Lusers)
>
> --- "r. 'bear' stricklin" <red_at_bears.org> wrote:
> > On another note, I concede that Byte is not the best price guide,
but
> > it's the resource I had available. I'm still skeptical the
difference
> > was THAT great.
>
> I would tend to agree with you. I remember looking at prices in Byte
> and being disgusted at the time, but if you could afford to advertise
> there, you weren't small potatoes.
>
> Computer Shopper is a good place for bargain prices of the day, with
> less "print lag" than Byte. One of the things I hated was seeing
"*CALL*"
> for 80% of prices for what I was interested in, but I know that things
> changed too fast to commit to a price 90 days in advance.
>
> Local sales flyers are also a good place to cull pricing information,
if
> you can find them. There are a few on the web and I have a couple
from
> way-back-when.
>
> One of the cool things about an Atari 800 system a friend gave me when
> he moved was that it came with Atari official price sheets, and, since
> the donor was an Engineer, he saved every single receipt for every
> item he ever bought - $2,500 for the base system (CPU, 32KB RAM,
> printer, external serial ports, modem, two floppies, acoustic coupler,
> tape drive, manuals, joysticks, etc.) and that was about 80% of MSRP!
> It's only one data point, but it is *spot on*. Some real person paid
> those real dollars for a machine that is completely documented.
>
> It's also interesting to look back at what the big iron used to cost.
> Somewhere, I have a DEC third-party-reseller flyer listing the RA81
> at $14,000 (we paid $26,000 for one in 1984) - that's about $33/MB,
> or about 1650000% more than a modern 100GB drive ($0.002/MB)
>
> While I don't have a massive pile of pricing data (that isn't in
> the backs of magazines), I think it's an interesting category of
> data to save. Sometimes the "good old days" don't look so good.
>
> -ethan
>
>
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Received on Fri Apr 26 2002 - 20:48:55 BST