Advice on old-timer collection

[Frans]

Hello,

This post does not immediately offer anything for sale, rather I'm looking for advice on how to go about such a task, should I decide to part with my collection.

I'm a Dutch HP-41 old-timer who was active in the 1980's and early 90's. Was a member of PPC (10993), CHHU, HPCC (583) and HPX (73) and wrote articles for their journals, as well as for Dutch ones. For hobby activities, after that period my focus shifted to other areas, and for work I didn't really need my CX anymore. My daily calculator is a HP-16C, which I purchased from Wlodek Mier-J. at a HPCC conference, by the way.

During all those years I collected a fairly large amount of equipment, accessories, manuals, brochures, ROM listings, books and magazines, and now I'm contemplating passing on most or all of them. It's still not an easy decision, as this stuff meant the world to me -- but that was so long ago that I've forgotten so much of it...

I'm not looking to make a fortune from selling it all, although I see some rather high prices requested in eBay offerings ($400+ for a PPC ROM? Wow). Rather I am wondering how to find a good home for as much of my collection as feasible.

I suppose making one eBay entry for the whole collection is not very effective, as prospective collectors will not want to accumulate a pile of duplicate stuff in order to acquire the few items they may really be interested in. On the other hand, I'd rather not have to create dozens of eBay entries to offer every (set of) item(s) separately. Also, it appears many of the English-language magazines are already available as online PDFs or on a DVD.

The Dutch second-hand and collectors market for this kind of stuff is very small, so I'm looking for European and even worldwide options. How have other old-timers handled this kind of situation?

To get an idea of my possible offerings, I've compiled a detailed inventory of my collection (attached). Would anyone have some advice how to deal with this?

(Cross-posted on forum.hp41. org)

[rprosperi]

(08-25-2017 08:45 PM)Frans Wrote:  Hello,

This post does not immediately offer anything for sale, rather I'm looking for advice on how to go about such a task, should I decide to part with my collection.

...

To get an idea of my possible offerings, I've compiled a detailed inventory of my collection (attached). Would anyone have some advice how to deal with this?

Frans,

While the 2 obvious options of selling or donating the items seems simple enough, both are actually more complicated than it seems.

You can sell the items via eBay or other local auction/sales sites, but this requires a lot of tedious activity which you imply you want to avoid.

Another sales option is to sell the entire lot to someone (presumably a person already selling similar items) who will then sell the individual items. This is far easier for you, but of course, this approach will mean selling the lot for much less total money than by individual sales, but this is reasonable since someone else will be doing much of the work

Donating can also be difficult, as you would surely want a minimum of hassle, which probably means you would prefer to have someone pick it up at your home, and you've noted the active community there is small.

If you do choose to donate the items, I would ask, on behalf of this entire group of fans, that the materials be donated in such a way that the unique items you have, which are not already freely available to the public, are given to people that are willing to scan and share the items with the community, either by donating the scans to the MoHPC document collection (or similar collections such as Jake Schwartz's DVD, hpcalc.org, etc.) or possibly through their own website, etc.

The worse case scenario, socially speaking, is for rare and unique items in your collection to end up in some other private collection, and therefore not accessible or enjoyed by others in the community.

Some collectors are more interested in finding good homes for their beloved old toys, or the social connections that come about through donating, than in the money made, others haven't thought about this stuff in many years and don't care about it, they just want it all to be taken away to make moving easier, etc. Collectors have used all of the above options, depending on how much energy they want to put into it, how much money they want/expect, if they do or don't care about sharing with the community, etc. so it's quite hard to answer with specifics.

Other replies to follow will also provide other views and options on how to proceed, so feel free to ask about the ideas and experiences people have had; as you have guessed, this topic comes up a lot here.

Good luck with your decision and thanks for asking about this within a community that cares about these old treasures; too many people just throw it all away which is a loss for us all.

[Frans]

Thanks for your kind response, it was most helpful in determining my course of action.

Just because I've been silent does not imply I've been idle. Based on feedback here and on HP41 .org I've decided to take these steps:

• Create a photo gallery of my collection, providing me with the good memories of a great hobby era as well as aiding in finding new homes for this stuff. This took a few weeks early this month.
• Offer community collections/collectors (MoHPC, HPCC, PAHHC, HPCalc) first choice and donate documentation they consider interesting additions to their libraries. This happened in the past fortnight, and the HP/TI/Casio brochures and some catalogs are already off to interested parties.
• Offer forumites the opportunity to bid on (groups of) items. I will create a separate topic for this soon. Two collectors have already submitted their wish lists via PM after my first post above.
• Put up (most of) the rest for sale to anyone wanting it all or in lots on eBay.
  

I also found sites by other collectors, and imagine not all of them are following this forum. Would it be worthwhile to contact and point them to my inventory list, and if so, is there's an easier way than writing to all their individual emails?

Thanks for the other information, it's great to hear there is still a fair amount of activity and interest going on w.r.t. to some of HP's greatest products.

[Jurgen Keller]

(09-28-2017 02:28 PM)Frans Wrote:  I also found sites by other collectors, and imagine not all of them are following this forum. Would it be worthwhile to contact and point them to my inventory list, and if so, is there's an easier way than writing to all their individual emails?

You missed my site: http://calc.fjk.ch/ ;-) (and http://hp9100.info/, too) I'm located in Switzerland, and of course there are some items in your collection that I'm interested in. On my site I offer some journals and manuals for download, e.g. the PRISMA journals, CMT-300 manual, W&W journals, etc. Growing as time allows.

[Frans]

(09-29-2017 04:09 PM)Jurgen Keller Wrote:  

(09-28-2017 02:28 PM)Frans Wrote:  I also found sites by other collectors, and imagine not all of them are following this forum.

You missed my site: http://calc.fjk.ch/ ;-) (and http://hp9100.info/, too)

Uhm, to clarify, that list of links isn't mine, my name is not Kees but Frans.

[HP67]

Sent you a PM.

BTW why is a 16C your daily driver?! I sense an interesting story waiting to be told. I use a DM-16L quite often. But not as a daily driver!

[Frans]

(10-02-2017 06:21 PM)HP67 Wrote:  BTW why is a 16C your daily driver?! I sense an interesting story waiting to be told. I use a DM-16L quite often. But not as a daily driver!

Not really familiar with your use of "driver" in this context. Besides my 41CX (which was in storage), the 16C is simply my only calculator. And its base conversions are occasionally handy (I work in IT), but otherwise I don't have much need for a calculator so don't do much more than the basics with it. I still prefer RPN over algebraic, of course.

Sorry that the story isn't more interesting and "driven" than that.

P.S. Preparation to begin selling items in my collection is delayed due to real-life constraints.

[Jlouis]

I'm interested in the HP 41cx, its pouch and the quick reference guide.

PM sent

JL

EDIT: Please desconsider this Post, as I didn't read the OP well enough and so now I realized that the items are not on sale yet. I apologize for the misunderstanding.

[HP67]

(10-02-2017 08:48 PM)Frans Wrote:  

(10-02-2017 06:21 PM)HP67 Wrote:  BTW why is a 16C your daily driver?! I sense an interesting story waiting to be told. I use a DM-16L quite often. But not as a daily driver!

Not really familiar with your use of "driver" in this context. Besides my 41CX (which was in storage), the 16C is simply my only calculator.

Sorry, "daily driver" is slang for something you use daily. In fact that's how I read your post even though you didn't use those words!

(10-02-2017 08:48 PM)Frans Wrote:  P.S. Preparation to begin selling items in my collection is delayed due to real-life constraints.

Best wishes however it turns out!

[Frans]

(10-03-2017 01:31 AM)Jlouis Wrote:  EDIT: Please desconsider this Post, as I didn't read the OP well enough and so now I realized that the items are not on sale yet. I apologize for the misunderstanding.

No worries, PMs are not a problem, but I haven't replied to any of them containing wish lists. Due to recent events I am unable to handle auctioning and shipping stuff in a timely matter. This situation will likely last several months, but once that is sorted out, I plan to organize my own auctions of items for forumites here. This may be different from the first-PMed first-served approach usually taken in forum sales, but since I have no idea what reasonably asking prices would be for items in my collection, to me auctions seem an approach that's more fair to all interested parties.

So, as the Austrian saying goes, "I'll be back."

Edit: the current status of my inventory is in the attached table (striken items are no longer available).

[Jurgen Keller]

(10-01-2017 05:58 PM)Frans Wrote:  

(09-29-2017 04:09 PM)Jurgen Keller Wrote:  You missed my site: http://calc.fjk.ch/ ;-) (and http://hp9100.info/, too)

Uhm, to clarify, that list of links isn't mine, my name is not Kees but Frans.

Mea culpa, I mixed things up, sorry.