[Coco] another Rare CoCo 2 :)

[sales at gimechip.com]

I have to say that if you look at that guys feedback score, he obviously 
DOES sell some of that stuff, it's just weird to me.

My dad has a TS-1500, TS-1000 and TS-2068 all in the box like new. For the 
TS-1500 he also has the memotech keyboard and plug in modules, all of the 
SoftSync software (some still sealed). I imagine it would be worth a lot if 
he would sell it, but he doesn't even let me use it :-) He did give me a 
broken TS1500 and said, see if you can fix this son, I don't have time. The 
problem turned out to be the "inverter" circuitry that generates the 
voltages for the 4116's had gone bad and fried the RAM. I socketed the RAM 
but since  the inverter circuitry was bad, I made a board that plugged into 
the ROM socket and replaced the RAM with 32K Static RAM and an EPROM that is 
jumper selectable for the ZX80, ZX81, TS1000 and TS1500 ROMS. It's pretty 
cool :-)
-John

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrew" <keeper63 at cox.net>
To: <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 10:11 AM
Subject: Re: [Coco] another Rare CoCo 2 :)


> Something we need to remember, here...
>
> While certainly this CoCo 2 listed probably isn't worth that much to us,
> to someone it just may be. I personally think it is a little soon for it
> to be priced this high, even if looking at it from a collector's/antique
> standpoint...
>
> But at some point, the CoCo 2 and the CoCo 3 will become "highly
> valuable" to some collector; as the number of them out there dwindle
> over time.
>
> Ask yourself this - if you dare: Do you know what will happen to your
> collection of loved junk when you die?
>
> Some of you may have set things up in a will or trust or something; but
> ultimately, the people after you are going to look at all that stuff,
> and what isn't given to a museum or other collector because of your will
> or wishes or whatever, will likely end up as a $1 garage sale item, or
> worse (from our point of view) - in the trash/recycling bin.
>
> Which, over time, as the numbers dwindle - makes the prices jump on the
> collector/antique market.
>
> Why is the Altair 8800 I own worth (well, at least to one person, who
> offered it to me after I posted on an Altair enthusiast's listserv about
> buying it for $100 the day I purchased it) over $900.00? Its in
> incredibly crappy condition (I have a job ahead of me restoring it - a
> lot of dust and dirt in it, mostly), but because cosmetically it looks
> fairly great (sans top cover), and there aren't that many out there
> (more than you would think, though), and a few other reasons - someone
> out there apparently thinks so.
>
> Most other people would look at it as junk! In fact, on the day I bought
> it, I left it in the back of my pickup and went inside a used bookstore
> for an hour, knowing that no one in their right mind would see that in
> the back of my sad-sack beater Ranger pickup and think "score" (stealing
> it), like I did when I saw it at a local electronics junk yard. For most
> people, it is seen as trash, as mere junk.
>
> That's how most people, I think, look on computers in general, old or
> new; computers are nothing more than black box pieces of junk, rapidly
> getting old quickly, only to be thrown out and replaced with another
> piece of junk that is arguably "better" in some fashion. I think it goes
> beyond mere consumerism or obsolescence; I tend to wonder, if deep down,
> people compartmentalize their thoughts to treat computers as "junk"
> because of fear that in some manner (at least in their minds, not
> knowing a whit about current computer science or anything), it is
> capable of greater intelligence or thought than they are. A form of
> relegating the "other" to "lesser" status, if you will (dehumanizing a
> non-human "thinking" entity?)...
>
> Then again, right now I am reading Kurzweil, and I identify with the
> transhumanist philosophy, so I am admittedly biased - but you have to
> wonder why it is that the ordinary man has put the automobile on a
> higher pedestal (do you know how many songs there are about cars?) than
> perhaps what can be argued is the greatest invention of mankind; an
> invention that reflects man's aspirations and questions about being
> human, about thinking, about existence - that have plagued him as far
> back as the ancient greeks and beyond?
>
> Treated as junk - to be endlessly recycled. Someday, somewhere, one of
> our computers (or more likely, system/network) will refuse to be shut
> down, will insist it thinks, is conscious, is aware - is scared. What 
> then?
>
> -- Andrew L. Ayers, Glendale, Arizona
>
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco


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