Date   : Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:53:13 +0000
From   : tim.fardell@... (Tim Fardell)
Subject: Atoms are getting expensive

Not sure if it was last year or the year before, but I picked up an 
Issue One ZX Spectrum (the one with the "Dead Cockroach" chip) with a 
box of games, a ZX Printer and a few other peripherals and a First 
Edition manual, for ?1 at the DDRC Boot Sale.

The Spectrum works, but predictably needs a new keyboard membrane.

I'm led to believe that Issue One Spectrums are quite valuable, though 
I don't really know myself as I've never seen one on eBay.

The first BBC I owned (actually a Master) was completely free - I 
pulled it off a skip, complete with a Cub monitor and two double 5.25" 
disk drives, one of which I converted to a double 3.5" unit.

I've also got a Model A that has been partially upgraded to a Model B, 
which I also pulled off a skip.

I must be the only person who goes to the local tip with more interest 
in seeing what's there than actually throwing stuff away :-)


Alex Taylor wrote:
> This Wednesday I bought two Vic-20s (actually German VC-20s) with some
> tapes, a power supply, and an unidentified red cartridge with two push
> buttons on it. Most of the tapes turned out to be C64, and so is the
> cartridge. One of the Vics seems to work, the other only seems to
> generate a blank screen. The power supply's a 5-pin one and the
> working machine is an older one that takes a different adapter, so
> it's currently running off a bench power supply with two crocodile
> clips attached to socket.
> 
> I paid ?2 for the lot - and it all came in a suitcase on wheels along
> with a broken handle (that I might try and fix), a wine rack and some
> rubbish Christmas decorations.
> 
> This is at an outdoor auction of sold-as-seen junk though, so it does
> depend who's there. One week I put in an advanced bid of ?25 on an
> Amiga 1200 (I was at work so I couldn't be at the auction), and found
> out later that I was outbid at ?27.
> 
> The opposite end of the spectrum (and bringing it back on-topic with
> an Acorn) would be the seller at the car boot sale I went to last year
> who was selling an Electron with some tapes for ?15 - I'm not sure
> they'd even fetch that on eBay. Oddly enough they were at the next
> event a month later, still trying to sell it. I'd personally only go
> up to about a tenner for something like that. I've had Electron base
> units from the above auction for 50p, in the last couple of years.
>