HP Forum Archive 20

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Serendipity Message #1 Posted by Bob Patton on 17 July 2011, 9:38 p.m. Bored, Sunday morning, I checked local Craig's List for the first time in many months. Searching "calculator", the first pop-up was a 32S II posted an hour earlier, at a fair but reasonable price. E-mail got an immediate response and a phone number. The fellow had two 32S IIs, a 12C and a 10B. We met a couple of hours later and consummated a package deal. The machines are beautiful. Sometimes you just get lucky. What's your latest find?

Re: Serendipity Message #2 Posted by Paul Dale on 17 July 2011, 9:56 p.m., in response to message #1 by Bob Patton The 34s and 41cl :-) - Pauli

Re: Serendipity Message #3 Posted by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr. on 17 July 2011, 9:58 p.m., in response to message #1 by Bob Patton Quote: What's your latest find? A K&E 4080-5 for three dollars. That's the twenty inch log log model.

Re: Serendipity Message #4 Posted by bill platt on 18 July 2011, 10:44 p.m., in response to message #3 by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr. Holy Smokes! You can almost calculate earth reentry on the fly with that one!

Re: Serendipity Message #5 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 18 July 2011, 3:20 a.m., in response to message #1 by Bob Patton Not an HP but a Casio fx-5500L on flea market for less then 2€. I do not recall the exact amount, I just gave the seller all the small coins I could find in my purse.

Re: Serendipity Message #6 Posted by Brian K on 18 July 2011, 9:41 a.m., in response to message #5 by Marcus von Cube, Germany Is the Casio FX 5500L particularly valuable? I've got one downstairs in my "old electronics" cabinet, still has the little plastic flip case that it came in.

Re: Serendipity Message #7 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 18 July 2011, 1:37 p.m., in response to message #6 by Brian K Quote: Is the Casio FX 5500L particularly valuable? I've no idea, it has just a formula storage as a simple means of programming. But for the price it's a nice calculator. :-)

Re: Serendipity Message #8 Posted by Ren on 21 July 2011, 11:46 a.m., in response to message #5 by Marcus von Cube, Germany Quote: Not an HP but a Casio fx-5500L on flea market for less then 2€. I do not recall the exact amount, I just gave the seller all the small coins I could find in my purse. purse^H^H^H^H^H European Shoulder Bag! B^) (a joke based on a (USA) car insurance commercial) Ren dona nobis pacem

Re: Serendipity Message #9 Posted by Bart (UK) on 18 July 2011, 5:59 a.m., in response to message #1 by Bob Patton This past week I aquired an HP-85B in a flight case. Powers up fine and although the seller said the printer paper advances, I haven't tried printing as I want to check the rubber bits first. It belonged to Prof. George Isaak, leader of the Solar Oscillations Network. Unfortunately there were no data tape carridges with it.

Re: Serendipity Message #10 Posted by David Ramsey on 18 July 2011, 11:16 a.m., in response to message #9 by Bart (UK) Brand new (not NOS, but newly manufactured) DC100 cartridges are available from Athana.com, about $55/each.

Re: Serendipity Message #11 Posted by Bart (UK) on 18 July 2011, 8:25 p.m., in response to message #10 by David Ramsey Thank you, I will look into that.

Re: Serendipity Message #12 Posted by David Ramsey on 18 July 2011, 11:18 a.m., in response to message #1 by Bob Patton A Texas Instruments SR-60 (which Gene is trying to get me to give a talk on at HHC), and a 9810a. Both I just stumbled across on TAS after not looking at it for months.

Re: Serendipity Message #13 Posted by gene wright on 18 July 2011, 11:24 a.m., in response to message #12 by David Ramsey Trying? I thought we had a deal! :-)

Re: Serendipity Message #14 Posted by David Ramsey on 18 July 2011, 7:30 p.m., in response to message #13 by gene wright Oh, I've already started working on it, Gene. But everyone else, remember: it was his idea!

Re: Serendipity Message #15 Posted by Geoff Quickfall on 18 July 2011, 6:51 p.m., in response to message #1 by Bob Patton In the box; box still shrink wrapped from the UBC bookstore; a never opened or used HP 67. Beside it an unused battery pack charger. Had to open it, and found the books shrink wrapped, along with the prgramming pad and etc. Cost: 100 Canadian Dollars ($80USd at the time) in 2007. Geoff

Re: Serendipity Message #16 Posted by Gerry Schultz on 18 July 2011, 7:16 p.m., in response to message #15 by Geoff Quickfall OMG, what a find Geoff... I'm sooo jealous. Gerry

Re: Serendipity Message #17 Posted by Mike Morrow on 18 July 2011, 8:56 p.m., in response to message #15 by Geoff Quickfall Many university bookstores seem to lack a policy of clearing out merchandise that hasn't sold, even after years on the shelf. In 1997 at the University of Alabama at Huntsville bookstore, I found two "new" un-opened HP 42S units. They had 1993 serial numbers, and had apparently been on the shelf for four years. I bought both, paying $114 each. I thought I was very lucky because the HP 42S got very very hard to find after it was discontinued in 1995. I had been looking for one for two years. One of these two is still NIB, the other is still near perfect after 14 years of almost daily use. The HP 42S remains my favorite calculator of all time in a collection that goes back to a Bomar 901B I bought in 1972. Then, there's that old HP-35 that I got in 1978 (with hard case and accessories) by trading a fellow engineer my new but surplus TI-58. It has an 1143Axxxxxx serial number and yes, it is a "red dot" model. I attached no particular importance to that at the time. But Geoff, how many years had your HP-67 been on the shelf? It sounds like some sort of record for unsold merchandise. I'm thankful for stores like my local Walmart, which cleared out its inventory of TI-89 Titanium HW 4 models last year for $42.50. I almost think the TI-89 is worth that. :-)

Re: Serendipity Message #18 Posted by M. Joury on 18 July 2011, 10:58 p.m., in response to message #17 by Mike Morrow Found 4 HP-42S units at the UVA bookstore in '99. But a brand new 67 in 2007? Wow!

Re: Serendipity Message #19 Posted by Geoff Quickfall on 19 July 2011, 4:13 a.m., in response to message #17 by Mike Morrow An Archeology prof invited me over to his place in 2007. I had coauthored a palynology paper about some Queen Charlotte island native sites. We were talking when i spied the 67 box sitting on a desk in the living room with some other HP accessories. My surprise was that it was still shrink wrapped with the UBC bookstore price and logo 450 Canadian. I asked him about it and he told me he purchased, moved and forgot about it. He was writing a paper which required stat analysis so he got it down from the closet. I explained to him what it was worth to a collector, and what problems it would have if he opened it (gummy wheel). He did not want to be bothered as his casio would do the job. WOULD I LIKE IT? YES, but its worth quite a few dollars. He said "its yours for 50.00" I replied, make it 100 and you have a deal. Still feel guilty about not bidding him up higher ;-) By the way, he was 96 and finishing another Archeology article. Amazing! Geoff

Re: Serendipity Message #20 Posted by Calum Tait on 21 July 2011, 6:19 a.m., in response to message #1 by Bob Patton Just acquired a very early HP-11C complete with the bug at very moderate cost. I count myself as lucky as it was advertised as scratched but on arrival it turned out to have no more than a few minuscule marks and a slight bump in one corner of the keyboard faceplate. I have treated it to new rubber feet as the ones on it were rather soft and also to a new case - both bought at little cost from California. With new batteries I now have rather a nice calculator.

Re: Serendipity Message #21 Posted by Julián Miranda (Spain) on 21 July 2011, 1:00 p.m., in response to message #1 by Bob Patton Around year 2000 I saved for months to get a Faber Castell 2/83 slide rule from Venezuela. A month later paying at bookstore they opened a drawer and saw some slide rules. I got to an agreement and bought six 5" Faber Castell slide rules for around 12 euros. When I was leaving the owner showed up to ask if I would be interested in another big slide rule that didn't fit in the drawer, I said yes and for another 6 euros I got a new 2/83.

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