Hi Evan, Thanks for sending this over. I'd be interested in making a run down to take a look at the collection. Does anyone have ideas for space for storing / vintage computer gear in the mid Atlantic? I have a storage unit but if anyone has better ideas for this I would be open to suggestions. Thanks! Eric On Tue, Feb 19, 2019 at 7:00 PM Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

Mid-Atlantic folks: have at this! (We're declining for the VCFed collection.)

CC:ing Alan H. so he can bring this to AHCS attention too.

Maybe it's the kind of collection that people can do as a group haul.

THE OWNER IS NOT ON THIS LIST, so don't be the person who replies on-list and makes me roll my eyes. :)

On 2/19/19 6:26 PM, Erik Klein wrote:

...

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: *Gene D. Robinson* <robinsgd@wctel.net <mailto:robinsgd@wctel.net

...

Date: Mon, Feb 18, 2019 at 10:45 AM Subject: PC Collection To: <webmaster@vintage-computer.com <mailto:webmaster@vintage-computer.com>>

Erik,

The purpose of this letter is to see if you might have any interest in acquiring my collection of approximately 100 old PC computer systems. There are also approximately 20 early laptops going back to the early 1980s

I am nearly 76 years old and can no longer adequately curate my collection gathered over the past 25 years. Although some are quite valuable, such as a very low serial number original IBM PC and the Columbia PC (the first PC clone) and an early Eagle PC, I would like to keep the collection together rather than sell them individually on eBay. I hope you might be interest in acquiring the collection, or if not, you might offer advice as to how I should proceed.

The heart of my collection is perhaps unique and is based on a realization that hit me when in the late 90s while pricing out that the original IBM PC would have cost about $3,500, adequately equipped to be useful and productive in 1981-’82. I realized that was still what a high end, well equipped PC would cost. As I investigated, I soon saw that $3,000-$3,600 had remained constant down through the years as the cost of a high-end PC. Thus, the idea for my collection was born:

A high-end PC each year, priced in mid-year, with software installed appropriate to the year.

Below is a list:

*YEAR*

*SYSTEM NAME*

*PRICE $*

*CPU & SPEED*

**

**

**

**

*1981*

*IBM PC Model 5150*

3,480**

*80088-4.77 Mhz*

*1982*

*Columbia MPC*

3,195**

*80088-4.77 Mhz*

*1983*

*Eagle PC-2*

3,613**

*8088-4.77 Mhz*

*1984*

*XPC-XT*

3,515

*8088-4.77 Mhz*

*1985*

*Conquest PC Turbo*

2,900

*8088-8 mhz*

*1986*

*PC's Limited AT*

3,122

*80286-8 Mhz*

*1987*

*PC Limited 286-12*

3,499

*80286-12 Mhz*

*1988*

*DMP 386*

2,907

*80386-20 Mhz*

*1989*

*Home Smart 386*

3,117

*80386-25 Mhz*

*1990*

*Comtrade*

3,370

*80386-33 Mhz*

*1991*

*Computer World 486-33*

3,520

*80486-33 Mhz*

*1992*

*Strobe MPC*

3,416

*80486-50 Mhz*

*1993*

*Gateway 2000 4DX2-66V*

3,345

*80486-66 Mhz*

*1994*

*Gateway 2000*

3,446

*Pentium-90 Mhz*

*1995*

*MidWest Micro P5-133 PCI*

3,494

*Pent-133 Mhz*

*1996*

*Dell Dimension XPS P200S *

3,287

*Pent-200 Mhz*

*1997*

*Unicent Titana II266XLA*

3,263

*Pent II-266 Mhz*

*1998*

*Quantex QP6/400 SM-4x*

2,899

*Pent II-400 Mhz*

*1999*

*Compaq Presario 5700t *

2,828

*Pent III-550 Mhz*

*2000*

*Tiger TM71A*

3,149

*Athlon 1 Ghz*

*2001*

*Gateway 1800*

3,160

*Pent IV 1.8 Ghz*

*2002*

*ABS Digital 8*

3,100

*Pent IV 2.53 Ghz*

*2003*

*Gateway 710XL*

3,090

*Pent IV 3.2 Ghz*

*2004*

*Cyberpower *

3,411

*Pent IV 3.6 Ghz*

*2005*

*Cyberpower*

3,389

*Athlon 64 FX 57*

*2006*

**

**

*2007*

**

**

*2008*

**

**

The only non-PCs in the collection are the three original home computers that came on the market in 1977 within a few months of each other: Apple II, Commodore PET 8k, and Tandy TRS-80. There is also an original Mac from the fifth week of production in February 1984 that comes with all the original disks, manuals and accessories. At last check these all worked properly including the cassette tape drives on the Tandy and PET. There is also a large selection of original software cassettes for the PET, extremely rare.

I also have a hundred feet of shelf space filled with old software going back to VisCalc, Lotus 123, and DOS 1.1 and numerous games going back to the early 80s. The first of these computers to have a hard disk drive (Zenith Z-100 in 1984) plus each subsequent computer has the correct software installed on it for its year including Windows 1.0. Some of the computers are the actual brands shown in the table, and some are generic versions patterned after brand name machines.

In addition, I got interested in how a high-end machine would compare to a low-priced PC ($400-$500 including monitor) and started accumulating those machines (or building generic versions). I found that generally these low-cost machines had the performance of the hig-end PCs from about three years earlier.

I have some other machines of particular interest such as the a new, never removed from the box, IBM PCAT, an IBM PCXT with the original 10 MB hard drive that boots and runs programs just fine. There’a a Tandy 2000 (80186 cpu and its own unique operating system), and the first 386 PC (Compaq Deskpro). There’s also a complete collection of /PC Magazines/ from Vol 1-No.1 up to fairly recent plus many old /Byte/ magazines and /PC World/.

I’m hoping you might have some interest in this collection or, if not, that you can advise me what to do. Perhaps you might know of an auction company that could sell the collection. I can send images if you want to have a better idea of the scope.

Gene D. Robinson

Abbeville, SC

-- Evan Koblentz, executive director Vintage Computer Federation

www.vcfed.org evan@vcfed.org (646) 546-9999

VCF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.