Saturday, November 06, 2010
Oy....
Monday, June 14, 2010
Time's flying...
tandy color computer 3 trs-80
This was a decent auction but DAMN!!! Shipping from Canada was a killer...
TRS-80 Color Computer T & D Software Disk #97
John over at gimechip.com, aka shadow_nightwarrior, had a butt-load of T&D disks up for auction. Not gonna post them all here, tho...
Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computers Lot of 2 Vintage
This was almost criminal... THe buyer got a hell of a deal.
RADIO SHACK TRS-80 COLOR VINTAGE COMPUTER
This IS criminal...
Tandy Color Computer 3 with original box!
Not bad....
Tandy Color Computer 3 (w/ 512k ram upgrade)
Wow, didn't see that coming....
That's about all I see of interest. Later...
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Rare, rarer or rarest?
One of the things I've noticed about eBay recently is the increasing use of the 'rare' moniker. That word has been attached to everything from hardware to software to 1980's Radio Shack catalogs. Quite honestly it's driving me bonkers. The question that's eating at me is this: when dealing with vintage/retro computer equipment, what qualifies as rare?
My line of thinking believes the white CoCo1 comes pretty close to being the rarest creature living in the CoCo family.However, I'm hesitant to even consider it a 'rare' item, especially compared to an IMSAI or an Atari Falcon, computers that would give even Indiana Jones a tough time finding. When those two pop up on eBay, they command a price one would think should accompany truly rare vintage/retro computing equipment.
I'll fully agree that certain items qualify as rare. One needs only look at the Exatron Stringy Floppy Controller and the PBJ Expansion Interface auctions to see two examples of rare CoCo artifacts. I've not seen these two items on eBay since I started tracking CoCo stuff in 2006. Add those to a mislabeled White CoCo with a Keytronic KB-500 keyboard - the white is rare enough, but, that keyboard has not shown up on eBay since I've been looking either.
Looking at the Vintage Computers category on
eBay, the Atari, Commodore, and PC categories usually out-number the
TRS-80 categories by a 3 to 1 margin. (I am boycotting everything,
including discussion, of the fruity computer company, so they are not
included) This easily makes the TRS-80 stuff 'more rare' than most
others. But, are they really rare to those looking for them? That's am
impossible question to answer, unfortunately, since I cannot read the
minds of the people viewing the auctions.
When compared to the the Commodore auctions, the TRS-80 items tend to sell for more, especially the CoCo3, Model I and III. The TRS-80 line also fares well when compared to a few of the Atari auctions, the exceptions being the Atari Falcon, MEGA ST and TT. The Atari 400 seems to be the red-headed step-child of the Atari family, rarely commanding a decent price unless it's accompanied by numerous accessories and software. The 800 line sells well, but, prices seem to be a moving target with no rational behind them.
What about software? Can that be considered a rare item. My opinion is this: the rarity of software is completely dependent upon completeness of the package, and demand. Remember, most of the software for vintage/retro computers is now freely available SOMEWHERE on the internet, as is most of the documentation. So unless people are looking for a specific package for a museum, club collection, or other reason, there's little reason to be looking for software. For software to be considered rare, IMO, it should include the original packaging, manuals, and media, all in good and working condition. The media or manuals by themselves do not make the item rare - yes they can complete a collection, but, for the media you can do that yourself.
What got me started on this subject is all of the auctions the have the 'rare' moniker listed boldly in the auction titles or description recently. While not in the title, this auction for the CoCo Winnie the Pooh game is an example, and it's price is ridiculous. Yes, it's original, and sealed, and it'd be a cold day in Hades before I paid that price. I already have a copy I got from the CoCo Lounge before Glenn closed it down (also got the Mikey's Space Adventure and Flight Sim II in complete packaging). The seal was broken, but, it is a complete package and I paid less than $20 for each package. There's also a TDP-100 listed for $300 right now, using it's rarity status. While in a different case, it IS a CoCo.
Friday, May 07, 2010
Another quickie...
Exatron FD Controller Tandy Color Computer + CCDOS!
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Just dropping in for a quickie - update that is...
PBJ Bus Expander for Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Okay.... I'm a slacker...
WICO NEW JOYSTICKS ADAPTOR FOR TRS80 COLOR COMPUTER
Well, what can I say, I was the lucky winner of this. I've been wanting one of these for a while now. Can't wait to get it in and start play with my WICO joystick I've had for three years...
Tandy Color Computer 3 with 512K RAM Upgrade
This was a good buy for someone.
Tandy Color Computer 3 Floppy Drives
Another good buy.
TANDY MULTI-PAK INTERFACE UNIT TRS-80 COLOR COMPUTER 3
Seller claims this has the PAL upgrade. I had expected this one to go a little higher ~ $75 mark. Wasn't too far off.
TANDY MULTI-PAK INTERFACE UNIT TRS-80 COLOR COMPUTER 2
I figured this one would go for about $50. Again, not too far off.
Orchestra 90-CC Stereo Music Synthesizer Tandy Coco 2
I suppose a fair price for this. God knows there are better speech and sound paks for the CoCo line...
Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer W 16 games and more
I was a little surprised this one sold for $125 - evidently someone thought it was worth it as there wasn't a lot of action on this auction...
Trs-80 color computer cart: Speech Systems "The voice"
Heh, I won this one also. If only the other bidders has a clue as to how close they came to going over my max bid... Now I gotta first see if the thing works, and second, related to the first, find the software...
Vintage Tandy FD 501 Disk Drive All Connections
Unless the winning bidder has a spare parts floppy somewhere, he'll have to replace this drive in this one. Not a bad price at any rate.
Tandy Color ComputerMetric Serial Parallel Interface
These are pretty rare devices, so, this isn't a bad deal at all.
Tandy Radio Shack Color Computer Multi Pack Interface
I guess I had to eat my words on this one... The seller and I passed a few emails regarding the starting price on this. I seriously doubted it would sell that high. Guess I was wrong. BTW, the seller was very gracious and not rude at all, so, I would deal with him in the future if he had a product I was interested in.
TANDY MULTI-PAK INTERFACE FOR TRS-80 COLOR COMPUTER 2
There's been a butt-load of MPI's on eBay this year...
TRS-80 Vintage computer Silver 4K Ram model 1 *RARE* RS
No comment for this one...
VINTAGE TANDY DELUXE JOYSTICK 26-3012B ++FREE SHIP++
This is just silly...
Vintage - TRS-80 color computer (radio shack)
Radio Shack Tandy Color Computer 3 with Manuals and Box
No too bad.
There were interesting auctions - if you've been watching eBay, you saw 'em and hopefully you won some. I'm not making any promises on updates here. I've got a ton going on right now. I'll try to pop in every so often and give an update. Cris is trying to locate his 'CoCo Collector' file. I'd like to update it with some newer data as well as add some rare items that have been spotted recently.
Later,
MCCM
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Sorry...
tandy 64k color computer 2
Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer - Works
Nice trs-80 26-3004a With trs-80 X-pad Rare Find
RADIO SHACK TRS-80
Extreme Rare Diecom Adapter+Sega Phaser / Tandy TRS-80
Vintage Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer 2 System
Vintage TRS-80 Color Computer System Tested Game
Sunday, February 14, 2010
I'm Back Fellow Coconuts
laters
Briza
Review - take 2
For some unknown reason, my last post about these had some formatting issues... So, we'll try again...
Radio Shack Tandy TRS80 Color Computer MIB W/access
Well, I can understand why this one didn't sell. $50 seems a little high as a starting price.
Radio Shack Tandy TRS80 Color Computer MIB W/access
Well, I can understand why this one didn't sell. $50 seems a little high as a starting price.
Tandy Color Computer 3 COCO 3 with 3 disc drives mouse
This auction was an interesting one. Up until the last hour it was stuck at $56 and change. In the last few minutes it exploded. It surpassed by expectations by selling for as much as it did. I figured it would go for about $125 or so. Guess the rarity of the Amdek unit definitely added to the value of this one...
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Not much still....
After the last few weeks of CoComania, things have settled down. The mailing list has been fairly quiet, and there's not been a whole lot going on on CoCo3.com. Even eVil Bay is still slow (unless you are into Atari, Apple and Commies). So, I thought I'd go in another direction and talk about collecting in general. Is anybody still actively collecting? Are you using your real CoCos or using emulators? Currently my collections consists of the following:
3 - 512k CoCo3' (2 have 6309's)
My repack CoCo3 which is 128k (soon to upgrade to 512k), upgraded to a 6309, 2-3.5" floppies, 1-5.25" floppy, Roy's VGA adapter connected to a 15" HP LCD, MPI, and a Radio Shack multimedia sound system is being installed. All jammed into a Model III case.
2 - CoCo2's (one is a 3127B lowercase capable)
1 - grey CoCo1
1 - White CoCo1
1 - MPI I am trying to repair
2 - FD-501 (1 with 2 DS/DD 5.25's, and 1 with 1 5.25 and 1 3.5)
1 - FD-502 with a single DS/DD drive
I have misc. games, cassettes, and software.
The reason I ask is I have come across a guy want to get rid of a BUNCH of CoCo stuff. My issue is that I'm really not sure I need it, but, I'd rather buy it than see it land-filled.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
THEY WON!!!!
You can check out all of the info here:
RetroChallenge
Aaron's CoCo served homepage
Jim's Project page
My congratulations to the three gentlemen. This was a very cool project with spectacular results. If nothing else, it certainly raised interest in the CoCo again for lots of people. And hey, it finally gave me the kick in the ass I needed to clean a spot on my desk to set up one of my CoCo systems again.
Way to go guys!!! You deserved it!!!
MCCM.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Quick eVil Bay update
Tandy Computer 3 TRS 80 System & Joysticks Plus Games appears to be a run of the mill auction; CoCo3, switchbox, video cable, couple games and joysticks.
The next one is billed as This is the BIGGEST CoCo package to ever hit eBay. While it is a fairly complete system, it's hardly the BIGGEST CoCo package ever to hit eVil Bay.It DOES have a very noteworthy piece of hardware - an Amdek dual mini-disk drive system. I've never seen one of these in person, but, remember drooling over them in ads in the Rainbow... While it doesn't live up to it's billing as the BIGGEST, it may well be in the top ten in the last few years.
Later,
MCCM
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Still pretty quiet
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Shhhhh... can you hear that...?
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
eVil Bay Auction results, and....
_________________________________________________________________
Below are some of the result from auctions I've noted earlier:
Reasonable looking CoCo1 with games went for a reasonable price...
This CoCo1 FDC 26-3022 went for a surprisingly low price. I figured it's at least go for $20.
This REALLY nice grey CoCo1 went for an insanely low price of $9.99...
That's it for now. I'm looking to post on some current auctions later today - I hope...
MCCM.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Quick update...
I lampooned this auction from KPSURPLUS earlier. I couldn't let well enough alone. Last time he put up a CoCo auction this ridiculous, I offered $5. I just did the same thing here. Why? I dunno, we'll see if I get the same result (was banned from making offers on any of his auctions for a while).
This Orchestra-90 went very reasonable.
The low serial is the only reason I can think of why this CoCo2 went for $51.00. Then again, CoCo2's seem to have a history for going at prices higher than I'd guess. Some much higher than CoCo3 prices.
Yet, here's an example of a CoCo2 that didn't sell...
Either someone was desperate for a 3029 controller, floppy and rusty case or, well... damn... I can't think of a reason.
Remember that CoCo2 & CoCo3 auction? Wow... I know they both needed a bath, but, I didn't expect this low of a price for a boxed CoCo3.
That's about it for now....
Later,
MCCM
Sunday, January 10, 2010
CoCo Developments and eVil Bay updates
Friday, January 08, 2010
More eVil Bay
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Update and eVil Bay update
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Just out of curiosity....
I haven't had time what with work, my ongoing recovery, trying to maintain my own blogs, CoCoing, Christmas, learning web design, etc... to do much here.
Has anyone missed the eVil Bay updates or has the lack of activity gone un-noticed? If this blog is even read any more, let me know and I'll try to get back to doing some semi-regular posting...
MCCM.