The Museum of HP Calculators

HP Forum Archive 16

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Collection Announcement
Message #1 Posted by Walter B on 28 June 2006, 11:53 a.m.

Hi everybody,

this is to let you know I successfully completed my line of Voyagers today by receiving a cute little HP12C of 1986, made in USA. I'm a tech guy, so this is the one and only business calculator in my modest collection. Nevertheless, I just wanted to have a 12C because it represents the root of the most successful RPN model of all times (so far ;) ).

So, let us rejoice and dance and sing: Hail Atlantis ... :) :))

      
Re: [Completed Voyager] Collection Announcement
Message #2 Posted by Karl Schneider on 28 June 2006, 11:17 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Walter B

Hello, Walter --

Congratulations on the completion of your collection of Voyagers. You must indeed be unenthusiastic about financial calculators, because the 12C is the cheapest and easiest to get. For most people, the 10C is the last one (rare, expensive, and less capable).

Here's a link to my archived post, when I got a 10C to complete my collection. The post contains a link to a similar thread.

http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/archv014.cgi?read=69504#69504

-- KS

            
Re: [Completed Voyager] Collection Announcement
Message #3 Posted by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr. on 29 June 2006, 8:35 p.m.,
in response to message #2 by Karl Schneider

Karl is correct about the availability of the 12C. I can't afford the internet prices but have managed to find four USA ones with manuals at garage sales and thrift stores at an average price of about five dollars.

I purchased an 11C new when they first came out. It has the little glitch. I purchased two more which don't have the glitch at garage sales. I also purchased a 16C with manual and carrying case at a garage sale for two dollars.

I have never seen a 10C or 15C at a garage sale or thrift store at any price.

                  
Re: [Completed Voyager] Collection Announcement
Message #4 Posted by Walter B on 30 June 2006, 2:13 a.m.,
in response to message #3 by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr.

You are lucky to find such calculators in garage sales so often. Enjoy!

Here in good old Germany, HP calcs were far less popular at their time. Dominant reason was they were quite more expensive than in USA and people were travelling overseas far less than today. For a reason I don't remember, TI priced their equivalent calcs always considerably lower than HP, gaining a good share at universities, even in branches where a calc was a bare need and used extensively, so quality could show. Most HPs were therefore bought by companies (which disposed them after some years, directly into the garbage bin), or by professors and scientists at universities and institutes, where they tended to run down the hierarchy until breakdown.

The only vivid market for used calcs I remember here was in the late Seventies and early Eighties, when new models quickly outperformed previous ones. So, when I found I needed (and could pay) a repaired HP25C to replace my TI SR 50, and later, when I bought a new HP11C, both times I found some younger student to take my old calc for a reasonable price still, although far less than the price I paid years before. BTW, I found my customers by placing a paper (!) note with a photo print cut out of a paper (!) ad on a huge wooden (!) blackboard below our central cafeteria on the campus, stating my office phone number - no internet nor cell phones, kiddies!!

The probability to find a vintage HP on a "Flohmarkt" (flea market, corresponding to your garage sales) here and now is < 1E-04. I've never seen one there so far.

Edited: 30 June 2006, 2:21 a.m.

      
Re: Collection Announcement
Message #5 Posted by Valentin Albillo on 29 June 2006, 5:45 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by Walter B

Hi, Walter:

Walter posted:

"I successfully completed my line of Voyagers today by receiving a cute little HP12C of 1986, made in USA."

    Congratulations ! Completing the Voyager's mini-collection is a *must* to every real HP calc fan, and has to be accomplished at least once in your life. I did it a number of years ago, my first Voyager being an HP-11C, the last being a nearly mint, hard-to-find HP-10C, so I know how you feel.

"I'm a tech guy, so this is the one and only business calculator in my modest collection."

    I'm also 100% the tech guy, but after I got my first HP-12C (USA made too), which I did just in order to build-up my Voyager collection, I made the (to me) astonishing discovery that this financial machine can indeed be used for technical purposes if desired, and further, it's actually quite enjoyable to try and bend its built-in programming in order to accomplish technical feats that on first sight would appear unfeasible or, at the very least, unconvenient.

    For instance, would you believe that the HP-12C has the very best polynomial solver among all Voyager models, the HP-15C included ? It can find roots of arbitrary polynomials up to incredible degrees at microcode speeds, something the HP-15C can't do !

    You can see it by yourself, have a look at these HP-12C-related articles (in PDF format, freely downloadable) of mine published in Datafile, the second of which discusses and gives examples of the polynomial solver in action.

    After reading them and trying the examples, I'm sure you'll agree this small, financial calculator does hold some potential (and a lot of fun!) for us teachie guys.

Best regards from V.
            
Re: Collection Announcement
Message #6 Posted by Walter B on 30 June 2006, 5:03 a.m.,
in response to message #5 by Valentin Albillo

Hi Valentin,

thanks for your kind response and the links you provided. Your website is already listed in my favourites, so I knew about the existence of your articles. It will take me more time to try and dig into those calcs and their capabilities. BTW, mine are "almost mint" just on their keyboard side, some backs show "significant signs of use" - but I prefer the top side anyway ;)

Regards, Walter


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