Calculators you regret not buying?

[Siegfried]

I do regret that I didn’t manage to convince my dad that we really needed that HP-41 with the navigation app that could do area navigation. I would have loved to fly with that. Today it would be pretty pointless, however (but maybe a good backup lately as GPS navigation is warped by satellite spoofing).

I concur with Maximilian’s observation that most calculators are cheaper now corrected for inflation than bought new way back when. So there‘s little to regret regarding missed retail purchases. I don‘t recall HP calculators ever being so common here that they would have been sold at clearance prices when discontinued. Smaller specialist office machine shops that typically sold them were unlikely to offload merchandise that way.

The real steals were probably available when former users sold off redundant machines after moving on to better calculators or PCs. I regret not going after such steals a bit but with a young family I had other priorities.

I suspect, however, that unlike bulky early (home) computers calculators were usually small enough to land in a drawer as spares or „for emergencies“ or considered to have too little value to be sold. I have the impression that they tend to surface now as their owners are passing on and relatives clear out those drawers.

That leaves the „heavy iron“ desktop calculators/computers. While a 9100 or similar saved from the dump would certainly be nice, I would have had no idea where to look or ask for one.

So my main regret probably is not telling more people of my calculator/computer addiction and waiting for stuff to be brought to my door „because you like such stuff“.

Fortunately I don‘t „need“ most of the stuff I collect, I just like it.