HP Forum Archive 12

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32SII Message #1 Posted by Unspellable on 5 May 2003, 1:56 p.m. I'm a newbie here. Can anyone tell me why the 32SII seems to be a hot item on eBay? Seems to fetch a high price compared to other calculators of comparable ability.

Re: 32SII Message #2 Posted by D. Webster on 5 May 2003, 4:01 p.m., in response to message #1 by Unspellable It's pretty simple. More buyers than calculators. Have you tried to buy a shirt pocket sized RPN calculator lately at your local store?

Re: 32SII Message #3 Posted by unspellable on 5 May 2003, 5:48 p.m., in response to message #2 by D. Webster Supply and demand ultimately walways sets the price of course, but there seems to be enough demand for the 32SII to run the price up. So I'm still left to wonder what makes it more desirable than other HP's.

Re: 32SII Message #4 Posted by Paul Brogger on 5 May 2003, 7:18 p.m., in response to message #3 by unspellable I'll bet there has been lots of speculation on this recently. For my part, I suspect it's because it's the last (as far as we know at this time) of a proud line of H-P keystroke-programmable scientific/engineering RPN calculators. H-P's recent offerings have been impressive graphics-and-alphanumeric computer-like machines (HP-28S, HP-48G & derivatives) which to some tastes are too bloated with features and capabilities to be easily learned and used. The 32SII, however, is a simple, straightforward machine with impressive capabilities gathered into a nicely integrated and easily-grasped package. As such, it's a tool that can be more readily applied to certain problems than can, say, an HP-48G. (Part of the HP-41's appeal is no doubt that it served both camps: it was a straightforward keystroke progammable, and was amazingliy expandable for higher-end or special applications.) The 32SII is (I think) hamstrung by a lack of memory, but within its limits, it's a very nicely put-together machine, and a genuine pleasure to use. Keystroke programming on a 32S/SII (and on its sibling, the 42S and its parent, the 41) is significantly improved over that on earlier models via the use of mnemonic codes rather than x/y keyboard coordinates. This eliminated the repetitive translation of keycodes to operations, while not yet forcing the fundamental shift to RPL, a pseudo-infinite stack, and graphing & alpha complexities. So, on top of the collectors and people new to H-P calculators, it's in demand from users who know this simple, straightforward machine and want insure its availability for their forseeable futures. (That's my $0.02 worth . . . )

Re: Unspellable Message #5 Posted by Paul Brogger on 5 May 2003, 4:30 p.m., in response to message #1 by Unspellable Not to knock your "handle" or anything, but it reminds me of one of the few knock-knock jokes that I actually came up with: Knock! knock! Who's there? Nebuchanezzar Nebuchadnezzar who? Nebchadnezzar get his name spelled right! With regard to your question, The 32SII was recently discontinued, and is also a quite capable and still usable calculator, so there's a confluence of demand from users wanting a back-up unit, established collectors wanting to get one before it's too late, and various hangers-on and wanna-be's who've heard recently of its discontinuation and that HP calculators are all the rage . . .

Re: Unspellable Message #6 Posted by Patrick on 5 May 2003, 6:30 p.m., in response to message #5 by Paul Brogger What is sad is that I just bought a 20S for $26 and it reminded me so much of the 32Sii. Makes you wonder why they can still make the 20S but not the 32Sii... sigh.

Re: 20S Message #7 Posted by D. Webster on 5 May 2003, 6:58 p.m., in response to message #6 by Patrick Actually, they don't. Haven't made a shirt pocket machine in any form for more than a year. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Just because you can buy them doesn't mean they are still in production. The 12C does not count, sorry. And those things you can buy like the 30S and 10Bii shouldn't count as real HP calculators.

Re: Tales of Woe Message #8 Posted by Paul Brogger on 5 May 2003, 7:27 p.m., in response to message #6 by Patrick I've what I think is an even sadder tale on this score: As long as the 17BII was available, H-P could have been making the HP-42S, as they two apparently differ internally only in their ROM programs, and externally only in their keycap and faceplate legends. Bummer!!! Of course, with the discontinuation of the HP-17BII, the issue is moot, but it sure was frustating to know that!

Re: 32SII Message #9 Posted by Ellis Easley on 5 May 2003, 11:53 p.m., in response to message #1 by Unspellable Someone said here recently that where he lives (I think it was Texas), they have calculator competions among high school students and the 32SII is the favorite.

Re: 32SII Message #10 Posted by Anon on 6 May 2003, 2:16 a.m., in response to message #9 by Ellis Easley It is. I wasn't the original person that posted that, but I live in Texas and the 32sii is extremely popular at competitions (it was popular in middle school too when it was in production). Most of my friends from middle school got a 32sii, and they still use it in high school. I just recently bought mine off ebay primarily for the competitions (and school tests, since HP has a much better keyboard and add on RPN, I'll start typing physics equations much faster than before.) my 2 cents

Re: 32SII Message #11 Posted by Ellis Easley on 6 May 2003, 3:38 a.m., in response to message #10 by Anon I wonder if HP is aware of this. Some of y'all here in Texas are certainly aware of the "Robin Hood" system of public school financing, but others might not be. Basically, school districts that enjoy high property values have to collect extra taxes that are transferred to school districts with lower property values (nobody talked about that when Texas was being dragged through the mud during the 2000 election!) Let's just hope us poor taxpayers aren't forced to buy HP32SII's on Ebay for disadvantaged mathletes! Write your congressman and tell him to get on Carly to put the 32SII back in production!

Re: 32SII Message #12 Posted by Ellis Easley on 6 May 2003, 3:19 a.m., in response to message #1 by Unspellable Dear Unspellable, if you are stout of heart despite your disability (and I must say, you spelling seems OK to me), you might like to learn how to navigate the Archives of this Forum. The topic you raise has been discussed a lot in the past year or so. What I remember is that when the 32SII first started selling for ~$150 on Ebay, there were still some available in stores for the list price of $60. You can get to the Archives from the Museum home page or from the top of the Forum page (just under "Post a New Message"). The Archives work just like the Forum except each one has a very large index that takes a while to load. Instead of waiting for the full index to load, select "Search/Personalize Display" at the top of the screen just below the title. Then just type "32sii" in the box under the label "Only messages containing [Any] of the following keywords:" and select the radio button on that line, and then click "View Message Index". It will return an index of just those messages that match your search criteria. For instance, in Archive 9, 151 messages out of 3612 contain "32sii", and in Archive 8 there are 220 messages out of 3740. Once you select one of those messages, you have access to the entire thread it is part of (just call me "ungrammarable"). If you are careful, you can get back to your search results index using the "back" button. My browser always loses track after a certain number of levels but if you always go "back" to the place you entered the thread instead of using the "Next in Thread" etc. or just selecting another message, you are never more than two levels down from your search results index. This effort will save you the trouble of having to re-do your search when your "back" button runs out of levels. The highest numbered Archive is the one that the oldest messages in the Forum are being swept into on a regular basis. All the others are static (I assume). One difference between the Archives and the Forum is that in the Archives, you don't get the choice to "Respond". If you feel the urge to respond, just go to the Forum and post a new message. You can include a link to an Archived message in your new message, just copy the URL from the address bar while viewing the Archived message and paste it into your new message. You can turn that URL into a link in your new message with some of the simple methods described under "advanced formatting techniques" - there, I just used one! - which you can get to from near the top of the Forum page. http://www.hpmuseum.org/artfmt.htm - there's another one! I recommend opening a new window (by right clicking on the background of a window and selecting "Open Frame in New Window") to look at the "advanced formatting techniques" page while you are writing your message. I apologize for my references to Internet Explorer capabilities if these don't exist in your browser (although I imagine something equivalent does).

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