Home Computer Archeology
Discovering Lost Silicon Treasures
Collecting classic home computers is quite a bit different than other kinds of computer collecting. Remember that these computers were designed for home users so unlike business computers that are amortized by companies and then sold by brokers, most classic consoles are sitting at the top of someone's closet. The most obvious resource is of course the Internet. On the Internet there is an active community of friendly and supportive researchers, archivists, private collectors and public museums who work closely together. But the Internet only represents those computers that are already in the hands of the 'community'. The real joy and challenge is searching for, discovering, identifying and then 'liberating' a great treasure.
Finding Lost Treasures
Ok, so how do you do it? Finding classic home computers takes a shrewd eye and some clever legwork. Here are some strategies based on our experiences...
1.) Networking - Put the word out with your friends, family, co-workers and club members. We've discovered many lost computers this way. It usually happens like this, someone says "hey, I remember that my cousin had a home computer, it might still be in the attic at my aunt's house". Another good place to network is your local computer clubs. Every town has them and it doesn't matter what computer the club is for. The people that attend computer clubs invariably have other computers or know someone who does. Most computer clubs have an 'Open Floor' part of the meeting where anyone can make an announcement. Check the local paper or the web for your local clubs and go to a meeting. Bring copies of an alphabetical list of what you're looking for. Put your phone number on it. The other option is to put an ad in the club newsletter. The ads usually only cost $10 or $20 and are often free for non-commercial listings from club members.
2. ) The Web - Get on the web. People searching around the web will find you.
3. ) Swap Meets - (called car boot sales in the UK) Go to swap meets, you'll find stuff. But you'll have to locate the right kind of swap meets to go to. Some swap meets are full of people selling new products like diet pills and phone cards. Others focus on antiques. This is not what you want. You want the kind of swap meet where a table is just a few dollars. The kind of place that a family will go with their own household items.
4.) Thrift Stores - These can be a literal treasure chest.
Without doubt some of our best hunting is done while on safari at thrift stores. For those of you
in other countries, a thrift store is a store usually run by a charitable organization (a
church or handicapped group). They take in donated household items from the public and
then resell them in the store at low prices to raise money for their cause. Classic
home computers migrate to these places because many people just can't bear to throw away
something they paid several hundred dollars for (even though they haven't turned it on in
years). So they keep it around until they make their yearly thrift
store donation. The trick here is locating the right thrift stores to visit. Some just
never seem to have any good computers, while others constantly have great items.
We've
found that the secret is to pick the right geographic/demographic areas. You want to find
a neighborhood or part of town that has lots of upper middle class families. The kind of
people who buy home computers. More precisely you want to locate an area that was like
that about 15 years ago. Once you've identified the right stores you need to get yourself
known there. Most of the people that work in thrift stores are volunteers. They don't know
much about computers. They typically have someone (perhaps a church member) who is a
computer hobbyist come by and check out all the donated computers every month to see if
they work etc. Get to know this person! Give them your phone number, give them your 'hot
list'. Offer them a reward or 'special donation' to the cause if they call with a computer
on the list.
When you go into a thrift store always ask if there are any computers 'in back'. Many
times they are sitting back there waiting to be 'priced' and because no one knows what
they are worth, they don't get priced for a long time. Make yourself useful to your local thrift
stores. We frequently offer advice on classic computers to thrift
stores.
5.) Pawn Shops - We haven't done well at pawn shops. They buy items that they can easily assess the value of like gold, guns and jewelry. Computers require way too much expertise and they might break and become worthless. Pawn shops also turn over their inventory pretty rapidly. If something doesn't sell quickly, it's gone.
6.) Garage Sales - You'd think that garage sales would be a great place to find classic home computers. And you'd be right IF all garage sales were at the same location. The problem is that the overall success rate is just way too low and you have to do too much driving to get to them. You can easily spend several weekend days driving all over and discover nothing. One strategy is to scan the newspaper's garage sale notices because they usually list a few lines of what will be on sale. The problem is that most people list the items they think they'll get the most for such as furniture and TVs. The odds of finding a computer in the listing are slim.
7.) Classified for Sale Ads - Once again you'd think that this would be a great place to find computer treasure but sadly it's not. You usually have to pay to list items and most people don't think of listing that ancient computer because whatever they'd get for it wouldn't be worth the cost of the ad and the hassle of selling it. We've looked in many newspapers from around the country and invariably the "computers for sale" sections have nothing but PCs and Macs from the last four or five years.
Do you have any comments or strategies to add?