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What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
04-04-2019, 01:46 PM
Post: #1
What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
Mine would be $210 after tax/shipping: TI Voyage 200 in 2002, and this year Swiss Micros DM42.

The most I ever paid for a HP calculator is a tie: $150: HP Prime and HP 32 SII
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04-04-2019, 02:34 PM
Post: #2
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
These are the approximated retail prices (excluding taxes) I have paid at the time ...
  1. 1984 ~1400.00 USD HP-75C+Math+8KB RAM
  2. 1985 ~1150.00 USD HP-71B+HP-IL+CardReader+Math+Forth/ASM
  3. 1981 ~1000.00 USD HP-41CV+CardReader+Wand+Printer
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04-04-2019, 02:34 PM
Post: #3
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
(04-04-2019 01:46 PM)Eddie W. Shore Wrote:  Mine would be $210 after tax/shipping: TI Voyage 200 in 2002, and this year Swiss Micros DM42.

The most I ever paid for a HP calculator is a tie: $150: HP Prime and HP 32 SII

If you buy it in pieces (e.g. building a 41CL), it doesn't seem so bad :-)
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04-04-2019, 03:02 PM (This post was last modified: 04-04-2019 03:03 PM by Maximilian Hohmann.)
Post: #4
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
Hello!

Of the ones that I bought for calculating (because I needed a calculator then) it was probably the Ti-59 in 1978. Around 400 German Marks it must have been. I only ever paid more than that for desktop computers, laptops and my iPad, but I don't see these primarily as calculators - even if I did several figures of magnitude more calculations with them than with dedicated calculators...

My most expensive one for collecting is a very nice HP-01 for which I paid something like 1100 Euros followed by a Curta 1 for 550 Euros. For all my other ca. 1000 calculators I paid mostly 2-figure amounts, lots of them even came for less than 10 Euros. I guess that I paid about as much for my 10 most expensive ones as for all the others together.

Regards
Max
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04-04-2019, 03:49 PM
Post: #5
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
The first programmable I bought was the Casio fx-502p plus the FA-1 cassette adapter for a grand total of £95 back in 1979. Adjusting for inflation, that would be about £470 in today's money. Considering I was still at school with a "Saturday job", it was a fair chunk of change at the time!

— Ian Abbott
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04-04-2019, 03:52 PM
Post: #6
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
In 1979 or 1980, I bought my first HP-41C. $295.00, I believe.

smp
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04-04-2019, 04:12 PM
Post: #7
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
(04-04-2019 02:34 PM)Sylvain Cote Wrote:  These are the approximated retail prices (excluding taxes) I have paid at the time ...
  1. 1984 ~1400.00 USD HP-75C+Math+8KB RAM
  2. 1985 ~1150.00 USD HP-71B+HP-IL+CardReader+Math+Forth/ASM
  3. 1981 ~1000.00 USD HP-41CV+CardReader+Wand+Printer

I purchased a 71B in November '84 with that exact configuration. I also added a CMT 32K RAM module later on. That would certainly be the most I ever spent on a calculator (although I really consider the 71B to be a pocket computer rather than a calculator).
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04-04-2019, 04:39 PM
Post: #8
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
In 1996, I bought an HP-48GX for about $450 USD in Sandton, South Africa. I was teaching math at an isolated American school in Zaire, and my senior student Firoz wanted a programmable graphing calculator, specifically, an HP. He asked me to purchase a calculator sight unseen when our staff went to a teaching conference in SA.
I bought the calculator, though it was not my money.
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04-04-2019, 05:37 PM (This post was last modified: 04-04-2019 05:37 PM by pier4r.)
Post: #9
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
100 € my first 50g in December 2010 (self gift)

The rest of the 50g (I have other 3) between 50 and 40 euro.

The ti and casio that have the advantage of being popular - and still a lot of people throw them away instead of selling/giving them away - costed all less than 25 €
(9860G, 9860GII, voyage 200, algebra fx 2.0, nspire the first without cas, ti89 [gift], ti 34 from 1987, sharp el 506w)

The prime app on android 25 €
The prime app on win 10 pro 15 € (although I ended up using the "free" virtual calculator as the prime app was not able to connect to the connectivity kit)

Best purchases so far in terms of ROI, in order or priority
- 50g. It let me discover a world, this forum and others.
- Prime app on android. Amazing little math library that runs on the android monsters so I am happy as I can squeeze some additional value from those. It is practically what people asking for basic wants as the language is really easy. Although I end up using the 50g practically for everything.
- sharp 506w. I love the little thing. It does a lot and I still discover things that it can do with a bit of creativity or patience.
- ti89 . It let me appreciate what is the difference of having a large dedicated community. There are so many awe inspiring solutions for it.
- 9860g . Not as usable as I expected (very clumsy for programming if one discards the C SDK), but it is a nice big brother for the 506w when the 506 reaches its limits. While I use the 50g for programs or automated number crunching, I use the 506w / 9860g for real time manual number crunching. For example quick stats, especially if I have to data entry the values in any case (there is no way to get a CSV or is it cumbersome for my setup at home). For example it has no real problems for data pairs. See http://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-12205.html

Wikis are great, Contribute :)
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04-04-2019, 06:07 PM
Post: #10
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
Probably the DM42 for around $240USD or so. Next runner up would be the HP48GX I bought around 1998. I don't remember the price, but I faintly remember it being about $200USD.
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04-04-2019, 07:12 PM (This post was last modified: 04-04-2019 07:16 PM by Massimo Gnerucci.)
Post: #11
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
€269.06 for the first 49G in 2000. Much more valuable items came for way less.
The mean on my whole collection is €49.26.

Summing all up I could have changed my car one time more... Rolleyes

Greetings,
    Massimo

-+×÷ ↔ left is right and right is wrong
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04-04-2019, 07:36 PM
Post: #12
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
Around 1976/77 I bought my hp67 for approx 1300 Deutsche Mark. I just started to study physics and I had to work hard to earn the money. The calculator was a replacement for a hp21 (400 Deutsche Mark) and was my companion till 1985 where I became PhD and it was my favourite calculator for many more years in business. Today it is still working (the card reader needed the usual repair) and is now a valuable part of my collection.

Roland
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04-04-2019, 09:16 PM
Post: #13
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
Hello!

(04-04-2019 07:12 PM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  Summing all up I could have changed my car one time more... Rolleyes

Luckily I prefer old cars over new ones, just like I prefer old calculators over new. Therefore I don't see this as sacrifice... My car will be 20 years old in a couple of months which is still very young compared to some of my calculators :-)
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04-04-2019, 10:14 PM
Post: #14
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
For a new one, I think that must have been for an SR-52 at Macy's in Colonie, NY. It was $495.00 in 1976. I just paid $1200.00 for a used HP 9810a, though.

Tom L
Cui bono?
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04-04-2019, 10:22 PM
Post: #15
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
HP65 in 1974 - $700.00 from Olympic Sales.
[Still have it - awaiting gummy wheel replacement!]
TomC

(04-04-2019 01:46 PM)Eddie W. Shore Wrote:  Mine would be $210 after tax/shipping: TI Voyage 200 in 2002, and this year Swiss Micros DM42.

The most I ever paid for a HP calculator is a tie: $150: HP Prime and HP 32 SII
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04-04-2019, 10:30 PM
Post: #16
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
 
Hi, all:

Quote:What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?

I bought a brand-new just-released HP-67 for the equivalent of $500 back in 1976. Best spent calculator-money ever though it left me broke, it was quite a lot of money at the time (43 years ago), especially for a teenager.

Most sadly, I had to sell it in order to be able to buy a barebones HP-41C, and then I discovered that I couldn't run my best HP-67 programs unless I also got a Memory Module (which I didn't expect) and couldn't read my mag cards or write new ones unless I had an expensive card reader for it. That took much longer to get so in the end it was appreciably more expensive.

40 years later, I paid $250 for a truly mint HP-15C and $200 for an HP-10C in excellent condition. Again, well-spent money, nice little machines.

V.
 

  
All My Articles & other Materials here:  Valentin Albillo's HP Collection
 
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04-05-2019, 12:00 AM
Post: #17
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
First HP RPN programmable calculator I got is the HP-12C+ (not the original) for $55 and the most I ever paid for a calculator is the HP-11C for $160

Gamo
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04-05-2019, 01:46 AM
Post: #18
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
In 1972 I bought the original HP-35 for around $400.00 US. When they offered to upgrade the firmware for free, I could not part with it during the school year, so by the time summer came around the free firmware upgrade offer had expired and I had to pay an additional $135.00 to have the firmware upgraded getting rid of the exp(ln(2.02)) bug. So the total cost was about $535.00
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04-05-2019, 01:56 AM (This post was last modified: 04-05-2019 01:57 AM by Monte Dalrymple.)
Post: #19
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
In 1974 I bought an HP-45 for $395, shortly before the HP-65 was announced. I remember being devastated that there was now something better. But it's just as well, because tuition for one quarter at UC Berkeley was only $300 at the time, and I could barely afford the HP-45 as it was. I still have that machine, and it still works fine, although some of the keys are a little mushy.
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04-05-2019, 02:12 AM
Post: #20
RE: What has been the most you ever paid for a calculator?
I paid us$235 for my HP48gx back in 1995.
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