Your best deals

[badaze]

Hello,

The thread Miracles can happen made me wonder if you did great deals on purchasing HP calculators.

So I start. The big part of the items were bought at flea markets or garage sales in France.
HP 11C 1€.
HP 17B II 1€.
HP 32S 1€.
HP 32S 50th Anniversary boxed 15€.
HP 33E boxed 3€.
HP 35 0.50 €.
HP 38E 0.50€.
HP 41CV boxed + card reader boxed 20€.
HP 42S + manual. 12€.
HP 45 1€.
HP 65 10€ + 6€ shipping
HP 67 boxed + 2 packs 15€ + 10€ shipping
HP 95 5€.
HP 97 3€.
I don’t mention the bunch of HP 48 series calculators I often found for a bite of bread (as we say in French).

[pier4r]

Hp 50g bought for newRPL, 2017 from ebay (Germany). 43€ and the guy that used it (likely a father that passed away, considering the description) used it pretty a lot too considering the libraries that were installed.

I thought it was a good price but not that good. Now when I check from time to time (for a possible 3rd 50g, if I may ever need one) I find only prices over 80€ , with one seller having a lot of them (it seems) selling at a fixed price of 95€ .

43€ is even great compared to the Dec 2010 price of a refurbished 50g (still working greatly) that was 110 € from the US. I could buy it because the € was like 1.4 dollars at that time, so was relatively cheap.

[grsbanks]

Many of mine were bought new but I did get some good bargains, mostly on Casio and TI machines (I don't collect HP machines exclusively). I've recently acquired, for example, a TI-80, TI-82 and Casio f-4500P and fx-9750G for £10 (€12) or less each.

While it's not much of a machine, the TI-53 has some sentimental value in that my first ever programmable calculator was one of those and I found one recently for £15 on TAS.

Some of the deals you've got there are incredible, in particular the 41CV and the 67!

[badaze]

(12-16-2017 08:09 PM)grsbanks Wrote:  Many of mine were bought new but I did get some good bargains, mostly on Casio and TI machines (I don't collect HP machines exclusively). I've recently acquired, for example, a TI-80, TI-82 and Casio f-4500P and fx-9750G for £10 (€12) or less each.

While it's not much of a machine, the TI-53 has some sentimental value in that my first ever programmable calculator was one of those and I found one recently for £15 on TAS.

Some of the deals you've got there are incredible, in particular the 41CV and the 67!

I just mentioned the good deals on HP. There were a lot more with other brands.
Indeed I was lucky with the HP 41 and especialy with the 67 because when I saw the ad on the most famous french trade site it was published two days before. I emailed the guy and he answered the calculator was still available. I was quite sure it was a fraud but the ad was written in really good French (which is rare in France) so I paid and got it ! It’s the most beautiful calculator I have.

[d b]

USA made 12c - 59 cents
41cv in a box of tv remote controls - 3 bucks
HP65 - 6 bucks
HP55 - $5
HP91 - 2 for $5. I'm still looking for someone who wants to trade an HP-70 for one of these
HP29 with manual - $7

Plus, the days when I carried the Want-Lists for Joerg Woerner and a couple of others. Joerg found (sometimes unknown) non-hp RPNs for me and I found TI models that hadn't been imported into Europe. The only thing we were ever out was the $1 or €1 for a flea market calculator and shipping costs across the Atlantic. I sent more, he sent better. That was fun.

I've been given several from retired surveyors and payed it forward by giving a couple to other surveyors and fixing several more. There was nothing I could do with that one that a Registered Professional Engineer crushed in the tailgate of a surveyor's truck. Nada but four spare screws and four spare rubber feet there.

[Mark Hardman]

I display a part of my collection on the credenza behind my desk at work. I frequently have visitors stop by just to look at the calculators. In one case, a consultant remarked that his father had an HP-41C. The next day there's a boxed HP-41CX with aviation pac, extended memory and HP-IL module--all in excellent working condition. I tried to explain to the consultant that he was giving away several hundred dollars worth of hardware. He replied that the HP-41CX belonged to his father and was just gathering dust and he would prefer that it find a home with someone that could appreciate it.

On another occasion, a co-worker was going through his recently deceased uncle's possessions and noticed a boxed HP-19C. He called asking if I would be interested. I offered several hundred dollars depending on condition. He laughed and insisted I take it for free.

I've also had dozens of TI calculators donated to the collection. I remain gracious and accept these gifts in the spirit they are given.

One final story, late in the life of CompuServe, someone posted in the classifieds that he had a box of ~100 HP-12Cs. I offered $120 and amazingly he accepted. On delivery his package included 78 HP-12Cs in mixed condition, but it also included: 7 x HP-11C, 6 x HP-15C and 4 x HP-16C! I contacted the seller to offer extra for the non-12C calculators. He insisted that "a deal is a deal". Who was I to argue. That works out to 95 voyagers at $1.26 each.

[Garth Wilson]

I don't know why the bulleted list feature isn't working for me, so I'll just separate the points as paragraphs.

I started with a TI-58c in Dec '81. My programs quickly outgrew its memory size; but an old radio amateur had a TI-59 and printer and three extra modules and a few solutions books which he said were more than he needed, so he offered to trade all that for my 58c plus $100. Obviously I couldn't resist.

When I got my HP-41cx in 1986 from EduCalc, the Advantage module was being given away with it, free, so I got that.

When EduCalc was closing out the ZENROM module, they offered it for $25. Got it.

My 41cx was being used at my employer all the time for controlling an automated production test set-up, so the boss offered to buy it off me and suggested I take the opportunity to move up; so I sold him the 41cx for what I paid, and got myself a 71B. Years later when they were no longer using the 41cx, I offered to buy it back, and the boss said, "We don't need it anymore. Just take it."

Some years later, someone said he had a HP-75 he had no use for, and offered to just give it to me. I don't think I even had to pay shipping.

The same man told me where I could get another HP-71B for $25, absolutely brand new. This was obviously before eBay, but long after the 71 was out of production. I thought it wouldn't hurt to have a backup, so I got it. Even the lexan overlay smelled brand new.

At an electronics surplus store, I found an HP82161A digital microcassette drive for something like $25, used, which had the stickers from what was apparently one of the local aerospace companies. I grabbed that too.

A friend had the HP92198 80-column HPIL video interface and said he didn't need it anymore, so he gave me that, free, along with the Zenith monochrome monitor. The interface today goes for $600-$700 on eBay.

I got a card reader for the 41 for $60 on eBay, recently reconditioned. I just wanted it for the shell to install the MLDL2000 or something like that, but I never did that. I now have a Clonix-D from Diego instead.

Someone on this forum gave me a bar-code wand for the 41, free, including shipping. I don't know if he wants to be named, but he knows who he is. Thankyou again!

[pier4r]

This thread let me remember that does not exist only ebay. This has pro and cons, as many offers may be less visible. So I found https://i.imgur.com/mSI2x5w.png (ebay kleinanzeigen).

Do I really need a third 50g? I mean I have one working, the second for the newRPL, I may need a backup or not? On the other side I do not have much bugdet and if I really need to spend 40+ € I may also consider the calculators mentioned here http://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-9646.html

But having an SD card slot is quite a plus, isn't it?

Why did I search it? Damn userRPL/newRPL that are so versatile. Someone else could please buy that item above so I don't think about it anymore?

[Maximilian Hohmann]

(12-17-2017 09:44 AM)pier4r Wrote:  Someone else could please buy that item above so I don't think about it anymore?

No, thank you ;-) I already have an HP-50 (which I got from eBay at around 10 Euros because it was listed in the wrong category). But I don't consider this to be my "best deal", simply because a 50G is not a collectible (yet) and only those I really care about.

My best deals (apart from calculators which I got for free for various reasons) date back from the days when one could still find calculators on flea markets. HP25 for 5DM (German Mark, ca. 2,5 Euros), HP35, boxed and complete for 10DM, HP11C boxed for 5DM, Olympia Nixie Desktop calculator (another one of those with a delay line memory) nice and working for 5DM and so on...

Unfortunately old calculators have dissappered from flea markets, at least around here, for about as long as we have the Euro. Flea market dealers have long discovered eBay themselves and are very aware of the prices for collectibles.

As others above already wrote, the best way to get cheap - -or free - vintage calculators is to spread the word around collegueas and acquaintances that one is interested in these things.

[pier4r]

(12-17-2017 10:15 AM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Unfortunately old calculators have dissappered from flea markets, at least around here, for about as long as we have the Euro. Flea market dealers have long discovered eBay themselves and are very aware of the prices for collectibles.

For my observation, instead, I guess that millions of working products not used anymore (calculators, dumbbells, computers, bikes and what not) are just left in storage, trashed or forgotten because people don't want to spend the time to sell them, if their income is good. That is quite a pity but unfortunately it is understandable under the idea of opportunity cost (this because the external cost of wasting resources is not seen by the owners).

[larthurl]

(12-16-2017 08:09 PM)grsbanks Wrote:  Many of mine were bought new but I did get some good bargains, mostly on Casio and TI machines (I don't collect HP machines exclusively). I've recently acquired, for example, a TI-80, TI-82 and Casio f-4500P and fx-9750G for £10 (€12) or less each.

While it's not much of a machine, the TI-53 has some sentimental value in that my first ever programmable calculator was one of those and I found one recently for £15 on TAS.

Some of the deals you've got there are incredible, in particular the 41CV and the 67!

What is TAS? I've seen it mentioned several times.
Thx

.....Art

[Thomas Okken]

(12-17-2017 11:16 AM)larthurl Wrote:  What is TAS? I've seen it mentioned several times.

The Auction Site, otherwise known as eBay.

By analogy to TOS, The Other Site, a well-known web site dedicated to the HP-41, by Warren Furlow, which this site is not allowed to link to, so instead of mentioning its domain name, we use that alias. Long story...

[Maximilian Hohmann]

(12-17-2017 10:40 AM)pier4r...' Wrote:  I guess that millions of working products not used anymore (calculators, dumbbells, computers, bikes and what not) are just left in storage, trashed or forgotten because people don't want to spend the time to sell them, ...

I think most old calculators are simply trashed because people can't imagine that they are of any value to anybody else. I have had so many conversations with people about me collecting calculators where I got ten answer: "Oh! I didn't know that... we just threw out a box of my father's office stuff including his calculators". The only goo thing about that is that it makes our old calculators even more rare and precious.

Regards
Max

NB: TAS = 1984 style newspeak for eBay. Just call eBay by it's name and all will be fine. 1984 did not happen in real life!

[Maximilian Hohmann]

(12-17-2017 12:00 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  ... we use that alias. Long story...

You maybe but certainly not "we". I will rather de-register from this forum than call eBay (or anything else) anything but it's real name.

[Thomas Okken]

(12-17-2017 12:07 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  

(12-17-2017 12:00 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  ... we use that alias. Long story...

You maybe but certainly not "we". I will rather de-register from this forum than call eBay (or anything else) anything but it's real name.

Go ahead, then, and call TOS by its real name on this forum, if you're so principled. :-)

Calling eBay TAS is tongue-in-cheek, not doublespeak. Nothing to get worked up about. OK, so I shouldn't have said "we" but "many people here". I never call eBay TAS myself, but again, I've also never thought of that alias as being anything other than humorous, not something emotionally charged.

UPDATE: For those who don't know what the TOS (not TAS) thing is about, see this thread.
ANOTHER UPDATE: I think this is the post on the old forum that Dave Hicks was referring to in that thread: http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/...524#193524.

[badaze]

(12-17-2017 12:04 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  

(12-17-2017 10:40 AM)pier4r...' Wrote:  I guess that millions of working products not used anymore (calculators, dumbbells, computers, bikes and what not) are just left in storage, trashed or forgotten because people don't want to spend the time to sell them, ...

I think most old calculators are simply trashed because people can't imagine that they are of any value to anybody else. I have had so many conversations with people about me collecting calculators where I got ten answer: "Oh! I didn't know that... we just threw out a box of my father's office stuff including his calculators". The only goo thing about that is that it makes our old calculators even more rare and precious.

Regards
Max

NB: TAS = 1984 style newspeak for eBay. Just call eBay by it's name and all will be fine. 1984 did not happen in real life!

You're right. A couple of years ago I was chatting with the brother in law of one of my uncles. He told me he trashed his TI 59 + printer because he thought it would not be useful to anybody.
Myself, I trashed several Husky Hunters but it was a decade before I started collecting.

[d b]

Yes, exactly Thomas. Thanks.

Dave never forbade the use of the word ebay or linking to it in the 18 years that I've been here. I don't know how that factoid got turned from a joke to an edict. I do know that around a dozen years ago, there were two guys using the forum to advertise their ebay sales. One had two ebay handles, one to buy and one to sell. The other guy got after the first one to the point of posting as another person to bolster his complaints. I personally thought they were both valuable members of the community who helped many of the rest of us fix our aging calculators. The whole thing was a bit much though. So eventually three things got done.

Dave asked that we all identify our ebay handle if we were beating our own drum.
He also initiated the registration system required to post, one person / one registration.
He also asked that we "Do not post links to ebay or other auction sites" in the classifieds.

Ebay auctions ARE mentioned and linked here if someone finds one interesting. Lots of people have mentioned they have a product to sell, such as a hand made calc, replacement part, or an iphone app. It all seems to be OK. I've even seen a couple of long time members following the old rule and identifying an auction as theirs and stating their ebay name.

Mentioning Warren's site has never been an issue but as your link pointed out: printing a direct link to it should not be done. You'd think that HP would see any active user group or site for a 38 year old calculator as a feather in their cap, and the calculator division clearly does. The possibility of corporate lawyers out to prove how "smart" they are (at the expense of the company's interests) are another thing though.

(12-17-2017 12:20 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  

(12-17-2017 12:07 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  You maybe but certainly not "we". I will rather de-register from this forum than call eBay (or anything else) anything but it's real name.

Go ahead, then, and call TOS by its real name on this forum, if you're so principled. :-)

Calling eBay TAS is tongue-in-cheek, not doublespeak. Nothing to get worked up about. OK, so I shouldn't have said "we" but "many people here". I never call eBay TAS myself, but again, I've also never thought of that alias as being anything other than humorous, not something emotionally charged.

UPDATE: For those who don't know what the TOS (not TAS) thing is about, see this thread.
ANOTHER UPDATE: I think this is the post on the old forum that Dave Hicks was referring to in that thread: http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/...524#193524.

[HP-Collection]

Is "Best deals" only for low budget?

If so: HP 9100B for $50
If no: HP 95C for a high price

[AndiGer]

You can make another "good deal" at TAS these days ...
Michael Eckstein is selling his HP-35 red-dot, 1143A00100.
Look for article no. 173038780722
Andi

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(12-18-2017 06:25 PM)AndiGer Wrote:  You can make another "good deal" at TAS these days ...
Michael Eckstein is selling his HP-35 red-dot, 1143A00100.
Look for article no. 173038780722
Andi

Already have one, and with the serial # in the right place and original back label...