There are a few machines that either never seem to show up on eBay, or if they do, the prices tend to be very high.

Apple II - or the IIe, IIc etc.

There are a number of these on eBay most of the time but they tend to go for pretty high prices. Part of the issue seems to be that they’re almost always still working. Those things were apparently built to last!. In addition, the machines are usually sold with a monitor and/or one or more floppy drives. For my purposes, all I really want is the main machine. Keeping my eyes peeled for a busted one.

Oric-1

Although this machine never hit the sales figures of something like the ZX Spectrum, it was pretty popular so it’s a little bit surprising how rarely these are on eBay. Supply and demand being what it is, they command a pretty high price, even if they’re not working or sold “as-is”. Most of the machines I’ve purchased have usually cost me $40-80 including shipping. An Oric-1 is going to be closer to $200.

Oric Atmos

The successor to the Oric-1 was really just the same computer in a different case, but oh, what a case. Black and orange color scheme, a real keyboard. This thing looked awesome. Unfortunately, the writing was already on the wall for the manufacturer and it looks like not many of them made it to market. You’re talking closer to $350 - 400 for one of these.

Dragon32/64

I’m surprised how few of these show up. The Dragon32 in particular was a pretty popular machine (like the Oric Atmos - Dragon was in deep trouble when the 64 showed up so there are even fewer of these). Again you’re looking at $350 - 400.

MSX

The original MSX machines (as opposed to MSX2) are very few and far between, They didn’t make much of a dent in the US or European market so almost all the machines I’ve seen are from SE Asia.

Timex Sinclair 1500

This confused the hell out of me when I first saw it. It’s physically very similar to the UK ZX Spectrum, although it’s silver rather than black, BUT it’s much closer to the ZX81 on the inside. The ACTUAL US Spectrum is the Sinclair Timex 2068.

Color Genie

To be honest, I know next to nothing about this other than it got a reasonable amount of coverage in the computer magazines of the day. Not many of these around.

Grundy NewBrain

Apparently, this machine was in the running to become the BBC Micro before Acorn swept in and won the contract. They were probably banking on that because Grundy and the NewBrain didn’t last for long.

Jupiter Ace

This was a true oddity. It came out around the same time as the Spectrum but had specs much closer to a ZX81. Also, it didn’t include a BASIC interpreter. The Ace used Forth. I keep meaning to look into Forth, but if I ever do, I won’t be doing it on one of these. I’ve only seen one on eBay and it went for somewhere north of $500.

Sord/CGL M5

Now this one is a doozy. I don’t think it ever really got properly released in the UK, but it was reasonably popular in Japan. Expect to pay > $500 for one of these.

Of course…

if anyone has one or more of these gathering dust in the attic and want to get rid of it, please let me know…

Jul 26 Hens' teeth