Whom here buys vintage computers?

I occasionally come across vintage laptops/towers (IBM, Packard Bell, and such). Is there anyone who is interested in such items?

Do you mean in volume or a few here and there? I collect vintage machines I find interesting.

I know there are a couple in the buyer forums who have expressed interest. I have a few and I'm trying to figure out if it's better to part them out or plop them into a shipper, whole.

There used to be, an pretty sure there are still a couple buyers who buy them so they don't end up scrapped an sold for more then scrap value to other collectors of such things. One person we used to have here, who was very helpful with such things, up an vanished with no word or anything, not even a "Hahaha! Eff you all an your goats to!" Tho said person still had one of our members stuff if I recall. Such a shame.

For the love of god...don't scrap the old vintage collectibles. I'm the first one to say "To hell with ebay" but..please..for the love of all the beverages and the Glorious coolers that hold them..don't scrap the old collectible stuff! Every time you do a beer can somewhere is killed, or a soda can, or whatever your beverage of choice is...

I think I saw a buyer thread recently when I was browsing pricing that mentioned buying "vintage" computers/equipment.

Unknown spoke up, and there a couple other collectors out there in our membership that also collect such things.

If you had asked about video games an their systems(Quite collectible if you find the right games/stuff) I'd point you to one of our buyers who also is a fan of ninjas(Good guy tho, don't hold it against him being pro-ninja ).

Good luck to ya, an post pics if you got any good old stuff. You never know who is lurking out there reading, just might be somebody interested in that early 80s IBM, or whathaveyou.

Sirscrapalot - Siizzzzle me shivers!

I might be interested depending on what you have. Send me a PM with what you got, and we can go from there. Thanks

Like anything else you need to list what is available and maybe a picture so people can see their condition. Even machines with bad cases can be parted out for parts if they are collectable. I know a bunch of collectors from a few forums and mailing lists, if somebody here posts something interesting I forward it to interested parties (like I did to some old time mainframe collectors for that TRIAD system). Just like people here lurk in computer forums people there lurk around here as well.

I actually just received two vintage laptops the other day. One is a 1989 Compaq LTE 286 that ran MS-DOS 3.1 and the other is an old Toshiba satellite that I don't know when it was made. I will try to post pictures later this afternoon to see if I can get some assistance with getting more information on them. I plan to part them out to see what is inside, and then I'll go from there. But post some pictures if you can for those of us that like to see what we are discussing!

Originally Posted by Stargate1

I actually just received two vintage laptops the other day. One is a 1989 Compaq LTE 286 that ran MS-DOS 3.1 and the other is an old Toshiba satellite that I don't know when it was made. I will try to post pictures later this afternoon to see if I can get some assistance with getting more information on them. I plan to part them out to see what is inside, and then I'll go from there. But post some pictures if you can for those of us that like to see what we are discussing!

I would keep that 89 Compaq in tact. You will get much more for it if you can find a collector to buy it as-is.

You can easily break something taking apart old laptops with brittle plastics, and parts can become broken or lost easily. Unless you know what your doing and have experience with laptops you should sell them whole.

I don't pay much (or anything) for vintage laptops where somebody was poking around and screws and parts are missing. For example old I series IBM Thinkpads have a short cable between the keyboard (controls the trackpoint) and body that is very easy to rip when removing the keyboard. Most old systems have custom HD mounting sleds and adapters, if they are missing then the system is pretty much useless.

Just got these two HP Vectra VE 4/66s in an auction lot. They both power on and appear to be in good condition. One keyboard comes with them. Anyone have any interest or off to Ebay (only one for sale there was shipping from Bulgaria and was $500)?

In a similar vein, I have noticed a strong following for the "clickback" keyboards from this era. I don't know what it driving that collector's market, only that they have become surprisingly valuable.

Also, we've had better than modest success selling the 5.25" diskettes. I think the last lot was nearly 40 disks for $50, a nice draw when you consider the Media Mail rate for that amount is about $6. And that was for a lot, to say nothing of the price some specific titles/makes command among Those In The Know.

The 3.5" disks seem to have some value, too, but there are so many of them which are just old dox and backup disks that we just ship everything to a CA refurbisher who reimburses at Media rates. The value of old PC games is very spotty, especially once you make the CD-ROM crossover.

Yes, those "clicker" keyboards are popular in some circles- certain gamers use them and they are also being used for steampunk projects and some people just love the tactile feel of that mechanical click of the keys.

I do great with the Keyboards. $20 plus shipping easy, even if mid-90s era Dell & IBM. True clicky keyboards are indeed becoming collectible. Some programmers won't use anything else.

Clicky keyboards (like the Model M from 1987 I am using on my main machine) are great for people who like feedback on keystrokes. The keyboards you get on new machines are just too mushy and the layouts kind of suck, people are just used to what they are used to. Earlier XT era IBM Model F keyboards are worth a few bucks and so are Northgate ones (which I used from the early 90's to early 2000's)

I have a whole stack of spare vintage Model M's in the basement, all stripped cleaned and boxed with cords. If you use a KVM like I do (Belkin SOHO DVI + sound) you can convert the keyboard to USB using an adapter and then use a nice optical mouse to control new USB only machines.

Those Vectra 486/66 machines would be good for DOS era gamers, you would get more then scrap for them (and they look compact enough to easily ship).

Originally Posted by MattInTheHat

also they are very popular with some gamers.

I ran across some interesting ones a while ago and was directed to geekhack.org it's a forum where people restore and modify vintage keyboards

Who knew there was a whole forum dedicated to keyboard usage. I was just browsing that forum and I left scratching my head. Haven't even heard of most of those keyboards. Honestly, I just don't quite get it.

Coming back to this thread, is there a collector's market for old motherboards? I have some Socket 7's and 462's, among others, but I can't figure out how to test them in more modern equipment. I can ID obvious issues like damaged pins or leaking caps and batteries but it seems like a proper test is required to have some hope of really qualifying them.