Calculators you regret not buying?

[twoweims]

(12-06-2023 08:45 PM)John Garza (3665) Wrote:  If I only had a box full of Action Comics #1 ....

Funny you should mention Action Comics #1...
In that issue was: "The Adventures of Marco Polo" (pp. 38–41) by Sven Elven.

Sven Elven is my wife's grandfather. We actually have several original copies of "The Adventures of Marco Polo" that her grandmother tore out of the original comic book and discarded the rest of the pages...

[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.

[John Garza (3665)]

(12-06-2023 09:16 PM)twoweims Wrote:  Funny you should mention Action Comics #1...
In that issue was: "The Adventures of Marco Polo" (pp. 38–41) by Sven Elven.

Sven Elven is my wife's grandfather. We actually have several original copies of "The Adventures of Marco Polo" that her grandmother tore out of the original comic book and discarded the rest of the pages...

Amazing. I congratulate her for saving the Marco Polo stories, and lament the multi-million dollar loss of the 'rest of the pages'. Hindsight and such.

Thanks for sharing,

-J

[Allen]

(12-04-2023 08:48 PM)John Garza (3665) Wrote:  ... If the former, then usability, quality, and maintainability are important. If the latter, price appreciation is important, and nothing else matters ...

Sadly, there are almost no HP calculators that have kept pace with inflation. The closest is the graphing calculators and maybe 15c (variants) and the 42s.

The price, portability and capability of computers and phones have reduced the demand for calculators in practically every industry where calculators were used 40 years ago- except for education, and that market has been almost monopolized by collusion between TI and book publishers.

As an investment, I would suggest there are better and more liquid ways to diversify.

However, I still enjoy having 72 calculators to program on a cold winter day if I want to!

Je ne regret rien.

[John Garza (3665)]

(12-08-2023 01:16 PM)Allen Wrote:  

(12-04-2023 08:48 PM)John Garza (3665) Wrote:  ... If the former, then usability, quality, and maintainability are important. If the latter, price appreciation is important, and nothing else matters ...

Sadly, there are almost no HP calculators that have kept pace with inflation. The closest is the graphing calculators and maybe 15c (variants) and the 42s.

The price, portability and capability of computers and phones have reduced the demand for calculators in practically every industry where calculators were used 40 years ago- except for education, and that market has been almost monopolized by collusion between TI and book publishers.

As an investment, I would suggest there are better and more liquid ways to diversify.

However, I still enjoy having 72 calculators to program on a cold winter day if I want to!

Je ne regret rien.

All excellent points!

(Psst.. remember... all this is subterfuge. The investment angle is just another way we try to rationalize having so many machines we love but don't really need !)

-J

[J-F Garnier]

(12-08-2023 01:16 PM)Allen Wrote:  Je ne regret rien.

The correct French wording is "Je ne regrette rien"

"Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien"
(Edith Piaf)

J-F

[Allen]

(12-09-2023 07:29 AM)J-F Garnier Wrote:  The correct French wording is "Je ne regrette rien"

Merci!! Despite many pleasant years of French and less pleasant years of English, my spelling in both is average at best.

[aurelio]

(12-04-2023 06:04 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  

(12-04-2023 05:16 PM)esm Wrote:  And which current calculators do you think will be future classics?

Honestly? None. Simply becasue in 20, 30 or 40 years, and this is how long it takes for them to become valuable, the number of collectors will be next to zero. But of course I can be wrong!

Regards
Max

Sad to think, but Max I'm agree with you that in a quite few years our community could be extingued

[floppy]

(12-09-2023 02:50 PM)Allen Wrote:  

(12-09-2023 07:29 AM)J-F Garnier Wrote:  The correct French wording is "Je ne regrette rien"

Merci!! Despite many pleasant years of French and less pleasant years of English, my spelling in both is average at best.

This famous expression "Je ne regrette rien" is well explained here in a long announcement. Just missing was the calculator topic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Kvu6Kgp88