Ebay – national only vs. international shipping

One thing I noticed for Ebay auctions is that if the seller ships nationally only, this restricts the price. A wonderful recent example was a KIM 1 where the price first was 150 Euro, then the seller withdrew the auction and re-listed it in order to allow international shipping. This second time the end price was 270 Euro…

Computer Collections Open to the Public in Germany

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This is a Google map containing sites that show their computer collections to the public. These can be museums (green pins) or private collections (red pins).

If you now more of these sites or if you find incorrect data, please email cyberfritz.

This map is work in progress, so expect data to be completed in the next weeks.

Munich

Computer Museum München

• Name: Computermuseum München
• Type: Public Museum
• Focus: Number Cruncher (CDC, Cray), Micros
• Opening hours: On request
• Notes: The museum consists of two parts. The big irons department is currently located at Stäblistraße 10b,81477 München. It consists mainly of a flock of CDCs and Crays, some of which are working. The micro computer department is located at St. Ulrich-Platz 3, 85630 Grasbrunn. It consists of over 500 devices. The museum will move soon to the “Computicon”, an old hangar on the campus of the University of the Federal Forces in Munich.

Deutsches Museum

• Name: Deutsches Museum
• Type: Public Museum
• Address: Museumsinsel 1, 80538 München
• Focus: Computer History
• Opening hours: open daily from 09:00 to 17:00
• Notes: The “Deutsches Museum” is a gigantic technology museum covering all areas from submarines to mining. It also contains a Computer exhibition covering as well german developments such as the Zuse computers as well as international machines such as a Cray 1.

Stuttgart

Computer Museum of the Computer Science of the University of Stuttgart

• Name: Computermuseum der Informatik der Universität Stuttgart
• Type: Public Museum
• Address: Universitätsstr. 38, 70569 Stuttgart
• Focus: Calculators, Minis, Micros
• Opening hours: Tuesday, 16.15 – 18.30
• Notes: -

Oldenburg

Oldenburg Computer Museum

• Name: Oldenburger Computer Museum
• Type: Public Museum
• Address: Neue Straße 2, 26122 Oldenburg
• Focus: Home Computers
• Opening hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 17:00-21:00
• Notes: -

Kiel

Computer Collection of the Kiel University of Applied Scienes

• Name: Computerschausammlung der Fachhochschule Kiel
• Type: Public Museum
• Address: Heikendorfer Weg 93a, Kiel
• Focus: Everything
• Opening hours: ?
• Notes: -

Berlin

German Technology Museum

• Name: Deutsches Technikmuseum
• Type: Public Museum
• Address: Trebbiner Straße 9, 10963 Berlin-Kreuzberg
• Focus: Technology, also computers
• Opening hours:
  

  Tuesday to Friday	9.00 am to 5.30 pm
  Saturday / Sunday	10.00 am to 6.00 pm
  Mondays	closed
  Public holidays	10.00 am to 6.00 pm

• Notes: Has a permanent exhibition on “Konrad Zuse – die ersten Computer der Welt” (“the world’s first computer”).

Going to VCFE 10.0

I’m sitting in the train right now, heading for VCFE 10.0 in Munich and I’m very excited. My first big vintage event. Wahoooo! Let’s see what I can report in the evening…

Queen Bohemian Rhapsody as played on vintage computer equipment

This video is simply brilliant from a vintage computer lover’s point of view. The artist writes:

• “Atari 800XL was used for the lead piano/organ sound
  
• Texas Instruments TI-99/4a as lead guitar
  
• 8 Inch Floppy Disk as Bass
  
• 3.5 inch Harddrive as the gong
  
• HP ScanJet 3C was used for all vocals.”

Amazing.

Science Of Cambridge (Sinclair) MK14

The MK14 (1978) was the first computer by Clive Sinclair’s company, at that time called “Science of Cambridge”. It was a very crude single board computer with an even more obscure CPU – a National Semiconductor SC/MP. It had a really beautiful drawing of it in an ad. Apart from its historical value the interesting part for me is that although it is reported that between 10000 and 50000 pieces shall have been sold, I never saw one one Ebay in the 13 months I looked on Ebay. That is, until recently. It sold for 520 Euros.

However, it is very strange that so few of these machines appear on Ebay if the production numbers are correct.

Atari Stacy 2 & Mattel Intellivision ECS

I received a working Atari Stacy 2 (with the display separated and the display back cover missing), and a Mattel Intellivision ECS. All I need now is an Intellivision

Final Commodore SX64 Ebay price analysis

As I wrote I will remove now some models from my active search focus that are sold relatively often on Ebay because

• I have enough statistical data to see where the prices tend to
• it cuts down my workload

I will not remove them from the list, and I keep counting the sales, but I move them in a special category.

In addition, I can now analyse their prices and price influence factors a little bit. Here we go.

The SX64 have been produced probably in around 89000 units. It is a very collectible computer (partly also because there is the myth that only a few thousands have been produced, partly because it is the first color screen portable computer). There are only two influence factors on the price, namely:

• whether the unit is working and includes the keyboard and the keyboard cable (as there have been no important accessories produced only for the SX64). IMO, only such units are collectible for this model.
• whether it is sold on the US or on the Europe market (this last factor is probably reinforced by the 110/220V divide as the model includes the PSU)

The Ebay price statistics look like this:

Overall

• numbers of units sold on Ebay in a period of 1 year: 184
• price range (Euro): 26 – 450
• median price (Euro): 175
• average price (Euro): 181

US market

• numbers of units sold on Ebay in a period of 1 year:  63
• price range (Euro): 26 – 290
• median price (Euro): 83
• average price (Euro): 94

Europe market

• numbers of units sold on Ebay in a period of 1 year: 121
• price range (Euro): 90-450
• median price (Euro): 221
• average price (Euro): 226

As you can see, on the US market the price range starts lower, has a much lower average and median price, and some difference between the average and the median price. The Europe market price starts higher, has a much higher average and median price, and there is almost no difference in median and average price. Wouldn’t there be the 110/220V problem, one could earn some money buying SX64 in the US and importing them to Europe.

Ebay price list 17.03.2009 as a post

Explanations can be found in this post.

Company	Model	#1	#2	Av. price EUR	# sales	Market	OCMCI	#/sales	Remarks
Acorn	System 1			157	1	157	3
Acorn	A4			225	1	225	8		Notebook RISC
Acorn	Atom			125	9	1125	29
MITS	Altair 680			820	3	2460	1
MITS	Altair 8800; 8800b	10000		1269	12	15228	10	833
APF	Imagination Machine			197	1	197	0
Apple	I	180					4
Apple	III	65000		321	4	1284	18	16250
Apple	Lisa 1						3
Apple	Lisa 2	100000		630	17	10710	32	5882
Apple	20th anniversary Mac			467	7	3269	16		3000 in Europa, 600 in FR
Atari	4160STE			195	1	195	3		Specially labelled 1040STE with 4MB RAM and TOS 1.6
Atari	1200XL			75	22	1650	29		Predecessor of the 600XL and 800XL, no Basic, 4 months production, not sold in EU
Atari	800XE			39	22	858	45		65XE version sold only in some european countries
Atari	ATW800	200	250				5
Atari	ST Book	1000	1200	546	2	1092	3	500
Atari	Stacy			246	16	3936	6
Atari	TT			141	39	5499	22
Atari	Falcon	14000		280	86	24080	28	163
Be	BeBox	1900		411	5	2055	5	380	100 developer models, 1000 * 66 Mhz, 800 * 133 MHz
Camputers	Lynx 48, 96, 128	30000		104	7	728	27	4286
Canon	Cat	20000		725	2	1450	1	10000	I doubt that all 20000 devices were sold
Commodore	4064; Educator			320	4	1280	2		PET case version of the C64; sold for schools
Commodore	P500	1500	3000	250	1	250	8	1500	15000 machines in total
Commodore	610 / 620			159	13	2067	11		15000 machines in total
Commodore	710 / 720			303	7	2121	4		15000 machines in total
Commodore	C116	10000		46	37	1702	49	270	Only sold in some european countries
Commodore	C64 (Golden)	200	1000	2932	3	8796	2	67
Commodore	MAX Machine			385	10	3850	9		sold in Japan
Commodore	3008			254	1	254	19
Commodore	SX64	89000		169	186	31434	65	478
Commodore	PET 2001	10000		192	91	17472	29	110
Commodore	SuperPET 9000			102	4	408	11
Commodore	Amiga 3000			228	52	11856	23
Commodore	Amiga 3000T						5		Only 80 of these were sold in Germany
Commodore	Amiga 4000			338	93	31434	28
Commodore	Amiga 4000T			642	18	11556	1(?)		200-2000 4000T Commodore, mehr 4000T Escom
Commodore; MOS	KIM-1			245	19	4655	11		7000 in Europe
Compukit	UK-101			273	2	546	5
Comx	COMX35			80	2	160	19
Dragon	64			64	9	576	30		reportedly min. 20000
Dragon	200 / 200E						8		spanish version of the 64 with different case
EACA	Colour Genie EG2000			69	6	414	18
Enterprise	64			201	2	402	27		it’s not clear whether also the 64ers contribute to 80000
Enterprise	128	80000		103	13	1339	31	6154	see above
Exidy	Sorcerer (II)	*0000		198	6	1188	8
Frael	Bruc 100			35	3	105	5
Hanimex	Pencil II			64	3	192	7
HP	2100A			684	1	684	0
HP	Integral PC			115	4	460	3
HP	98xx			80	9	720	26
IMS	Multi-Media One	200	500	485	1	485	0	200
IMSAI	8080	17000	20000	760	11	8360	14	1545	pin compatible with Altair
Indata	DAI			379	4	1516	6
Interact	Home Computer System	*0000		154	2	308	3		Later on became the Hector
Jupiter Cantab	Ace 3000	9000		240	10	2400	13	900
Jupiter Cantab	Ace 4000	800		259	2	518	3	400
Kenbak	Kenbak-1	62					1
Komtek	Komtek 1			122	1	122	3
Mattel	Aquarius II						1
Memotech	MTX500			76	6	456	14
Memotech	MTX512			83	15	1245	23
Micronique	Hector I,II(HR(+))			81	4	324	12
Micronique	Hector HRX			185	1	185	5
Micronique	Hector MX						0
Mupid	Mupid 1	8000	23000	51	2	102	5	4000	23000 im ersten Jahr
Mupid	Mupid 2	40000		45	14	630	10	2857
Nascom	Nascom 2			155	2	310	8
Next	NeXTstation			168	33	5544	23		Next sold 50000 computers over all models
Next	Cube			285	21	5985	14		Next sold 50000 computers over all models
Ohio Scientific (OSI)	Challenger			258	4	1032	1
Ohio Scientific (OSI)	Superboard II			70	2	140	2
Oric	Telestrat	6000					3
Panasonic	JR-200U			70	3	210	7		Japanese version: Matsushita JR-200
Philips	P2000			55	2	110	19
Powertran	Cortex			40	1	40	0
Processor Technology	Sol-20	10000		375	6	2250	5	1667
RCA	Cosmac			144	3	432	7
RFT	KC compact	2000					1		I assumed 2000 as the highest serial number is 1953
Robotron	Z9001	4000		81	1	81	5	4000
Robotron	KC85/1	9000					2		Rebranded Z9001
Robotron	KC87	17000					11		The 17000 is a projected number by me
Robotron	Alba 1505	2000					?		Export version of the A5105
Robotron	A5105	3000					3
Rockwell	Aim 65	50000		175	20	3500	17	2500
MGT/Sam/West Coast	Coupe / Elite	12000		142	10	1420	14	1200
Scientific Development Corp	Minivac 601			236	9	2124	1
Sinclair	MK-14	20000	50000				5
Sinclair	QL	100000		91	158	14378	122	633
Sinclair	ZX80	70000	100000	172	80	13760	57	875
Sord	IS 11			158	2	316	1
Sord	CGL M5			81	16	1296	18
Sord	M23P			32	1	32	0
Spectravideo	SVI-318MKII			127	4	508	6		Has black joystick and grey keyboard
SWTPC	6800			540	5	2700	3
SWTPC	6809			563	3	1689	0
Synertek	SYM-1	50000		140	10	1400	5	5000
Tangerine	Microtan 65			156	2	312	4
Tatung	Einstein	20000		57	19	1083	26	1053
Tatung	Einstein 256			60	2	120	6		Id guess not more than 1000 have been made
TCS	Genie IIs	100					0
TCS	Genie IIIs	200					0
Texas Instruments	TI 99/4			83	2	166	9
Tomy	Tutor			36	7	252	9
Triumph-Adler	TA PC / PC16			46	15	690	23
VideoBrain	FamilyComputer			252	1	252	3
Vtech	Laser 50			21	9	189	10
Vtech	Creativision			179	1	179	3
Xerox	Alto	2000					0
Xerox	Star (Xerox 8010)	30000					0
Xerox	6085	*0000					0

Lisa Heaven

Question to the seller of an Apple Lisa in Ebay.de:

How often do you want to sell the Lisa? There have been 3 successful sales of you in the last 6 months. I hope this is a serious offer…

Answer:

Sigh .

He needs the space for a new child... Oh, and by the way he once had 16 Lisa 2 and one Lisa 1.

This lucky guy is of course Rudolf Brandstötter, a 400+ systems collector from Austria.

Acorn A4 Notebook

Finally, I managed to get an Acorn A4 notebook computer from 1992. Actually, I got a working one and pieces of a second one. The only one(s) I saw on any Ebay since more than one year. As I do not know how many of these were made, I have to try to find serial numbers again. Here are the ones of my A4s:

• AKB64-1015464 (no inner number)
• no outer one (inner: 005220)

The A4 is a A5000 with a 24MHz ARM3 CPU, 2-4 MB RAM and 0-80 MB HDD. The case is shared with some machines of the other brands and OEM machines of Olivetti, namely:

• Olivetti S20
• Triumph-Adler Walkstation SX20(?)
• DECpc 320sx(?)

i.e. the case, screen, battery, floppy drive, and DC/DC converter boards were the same and can be taken from these (cheaper and easier to get) machines.

The A4 weighs 3 kg… It is meant to be used with (Acorn) mouses, but you can simulate the mouse using (keyboard) keys. The interesting thing now is, that the mouse pointer also accelerates faster if you keep pressing the key, in contrast to e.g. a Atari ST where the mouse-over-keyboard behaviour was quite linear and therefore not fast enough.