[Opinion] It's getting harder to get LED Spices

[voltaage]

If you take a look at the Collector's Corner Prices & Rarity classification on the spice series (particularly the 34C) you may think of effortlessly getting one off of the preferred international second-handed auction site we all know. But trying to get one in a reasonably good condition and price is becoming more of a dream. The once claimed "utterly common spice series" is one thing of the past.

Up to the point of finding more 38C complete sets, the "moderate" rarity of the series, poping up in your suggestions like they are despicably laughing about you (financial...). I don't think the 34C is the "last calculator you'll ever use"; but after rescuing my first HP LED model, a little abused HP21 at a recycling bin. Having it restored after a 2 months nurse, turns any atheist into a faith believer in the magic of HP LEDs...

Texas Instruments' displays are a soulless replica.

What has been your experience?

[voltaage]

EDIT: POLL SET INCORRECTLY.

Sorry but I messed up the poll answers. The correct options are:

How hard are HP LED Spices to get nowadays (online)?

• Yes, they are as common as breathing ---> They are very easy to get. Both in good and bad condition.
• Yes, but you have to wait for a good deal (as usual) ---> Good ones just take some time to look . There are plenty of bad ones.
• Yes, but you need to persevere ---> You need to be very lucky to get one in good shape. Even bad ones aren't common.
• No, they are hard to find (even in bad condition) ---> Can't find any. Both in good and bad condition.
  

the mess...

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello,

in my opinion it is getting harder to find _any_ vintage calculator in decent condition. "Spices" were never easy to find, at least not here in Europe, where they cost a multiple of the then already abundant competition products and were therefore only sold in small numbers. At the time they were made (ca. 1978-1983) I was at school and university and surrounded with pocket calculators. But I have never actually seen a "Spice" calculator until I bought one for my collection 20 years later.

Add to that the lowest build quality one can imagine (thin and brittle plastic, solderless connections throughout, zero protection against battery leakage) and it is no wonder that only very few survive to this day. I think I bought most of my "Spice" series calculators from eBay between maybe 2000 and 2005 and it really took several years, already then, until I found a working specimen of each model at a decent price. Not very much has changed since then, apart from the fact that even the cosmetically good ones are now mostly sold "for parts or restauration"...

Regards
Max

[GregOldSchool]

I was able to get an HP34c in very good condition via ebay auction just last October 2022. I was looking for one for on ebay for about 2 months. Maybe I just got lucky. I won the auction - it cost me $225. But I’m happy. It came with a fresh rechargeable battery pack. I had to buy a charger separately but I found that immediately on ebay- HP 82087B AC Adapter - for $30.

Love the keys and the bright LED display. And of course the great functionality. It’s my “desktop” calculator of choice.

[Siegfried]

(01-09-2023 11:26 AM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Not very much has changed since then, apart from the fact that even the cosmetically good ones are now mostly sold "for parts or restauration"...

I’d second that. I paid 60€ for an “untested” non-working 32E about a year ago and have yet to find a 34C for less than 200.

My first scientific calculator was a LED TI-30 and my first digital watch a Sinclair. I do agree that there’s something to LEDs that LCDs can’t match for all their efficiency (I remember how astonished I was at my first LCD four-banger that would last forever on a single AA battery.)

[SteveC]

I picked up a 38C late last year in great condition for what was a fair enough price to me. I love it and want to get another spice model soon. As the economy swings prices will too.

[Allen]

(01-09-2023 11:26 AM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Hello,

in my opinion it is getting harder to find _any_ vintage calculator in decent condition....

Add to that the lowest build quality one can imagine ... and it is no wonder that only very few survive to this day. ... even the cosmetically good ones are now mostly sold "for parts or restauration"...
Regards
Max

I agree with Max!

When I was younger my parents gave me a wonderful wooden puzzle called the "hexadecimal puzzle" by binary arts. Supposedly there were only 7500 made, and through some sleuthing these past 18 years, I've managed to buy 7 of them. I know many are already "locked" in collections (model of nitrogen fixation where they exist but are not available), but think there is a parallel between rare puzzles and some calculator models.

I propose the frequency of rare things (not just calculators) appearing on ebay is a function of some obvious and NOT obvious variables.

Obvious variables:

• Initial quantity and duration of production run. 28C versus 28S.
• Time since end of production There seems to be a half-life function to older things being available for sale.
• Initial cost- the higher the initial cost, the more likely it will retain value later
• Quality/durability- Most of HP's calculators are (mostly) working after 30-40 years.
  

Less obvious:

• Drop in sustained demand- example: slide rules
• Limited look-back period for pricing - e.g. hexadecimal puzzles
• Rising price of shipping- Rare but large/heavy things get thrown away
• No UPC/ISBN numbering system - e.g. some pre-1980 books not compatible with Amazon search product registration
• Non search-friendly model numbers "HP48G+" or anything that does not search well. Have you ever tried buying a 48g+ on amazon?
• COVID
  

SPICE
Having owned nearly all the spice models at one point, I decided to part with them because the quality is SOOOOO poor compared to the preceding HP67 or the HP41 NUT series that came later, I found nothing useful about the entire series. The ABS plastic was thin and brittle, practically ALL of the battery tabs I saw were corroded or broken (when someone forced AA batteries in the case, usually) , and second only to the HP 28 battery door design, ranks among some of the poorest made calculators HP ever produced.

However, I support 100% both the nostalgia and the collection-worthiness of this important (though low quality) time in HP's calculator history. I suspect 2 things have overlapped to make these hard to find.

First, the quality aspect of the Spice series can't be overlooked. Chances are very high if you find one today online or in person that it is broken/chipped/corroded in some way.

Second, a limited price history (90 day window for most things on ebay) actually hurts the chances that it will migrate from a rummage sale (where only 20 people may see it) to an online forum where others might have a chance to add it to their collection. I fear some treasured hexadecimal puzzles may be resting in the dump, not because they were broken, but because there was no price history available to to establish the worth. I believe 1-3 units of the hex puzzle come up for sale each year, which means for about half the year there is no sales history to compare to. I see this sometimes with cyclical demand of HP calculators. If the "strike" prices of a calculator is unusually high or low, it can effect supply/demand for a few months.

With rare items, the best case is some become available and the strike price is below "fair market value", but I'm convinced that some items never enter the market because of lack of pricing data.

A cursory search through the "sold" items on the bay shows a price history for 38 spice calculators in the last 90 days, most of those were not working/parts.

• 31e - 3
• 32e - 4
• 33e - 8
• 33c - 1
• 34e - 6
• 37e - 3
• 38e - 6
• 38c - 7
  

For comparison the HP67 had around 24 items during that period, and the HP 55 had 8.

COVID
Having watched the calculator market closely since about 2005, (see my previous articles with pricing and inflation data), something very strange happened in mid-late 2020 that I've never seen. Although ebay's quarterly revenue was down, I suspect due to excess time at home and perhaps some premature deaths among the age group that typically uses older calculators, a larger-than-expected amount of "rare" things came on the market during 2020-2021. American basements coughed up several items during the first 2 years of COVID that had only available once or twice in the preceding 15 years.

In my opinion, it also seems that in 2022 after the COVID lockdowns have mostly concluded around the world, many "rare" items are even more scarce because they were already sold while people were locked in, compressing several years worth of "rare sales" into a narrow 1-2 year period.

[John Garza (3665)]

Just curious how much of this is due to poor quality vs. the accelerating effect of that rising collect-ability and therefore reducing the number coming on the market (hoarding).

When's the last time you saw a working 25C for sale?

[Steve Simpkin]

(01-17-2023 07:46 PM)John Garza (3665) Wrote:  Just curious how much of this is due to poor quality vs. the accelerating effect of that rising collect-ability and therefore reducing the number coming on the market (hoarding).

When's the last time you saw a working 25C for sale?

I didn’t realize that working HP-25Cs were hard to find. I sold a nice one with a battery charging cradle in 2018 for $375. It seemed like a lot at the time. I sold a very nice HP-28S a week later for only $75.
Here is a video of the HP-25C plus accessories.
https://youtu.be/hqQltKpoWOM