Cheap Osborne 1a

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Cheap Osborne 1a

Postby YetiSeti on Wed Feb 09, 2011 11:04 pm

worthy of a post, because either it's a last minute bid to buy, or it's a bit of a sign of the market, and collectors having most of what they want, or running out of space. The price seems pretty good. I have bought a fair few $200+ computers over the last few years which I think would struggle to hit the $150 mark nowadays. People are buying more wise now as well, with untested items selling quite cheap, i.e. the Amstrad CPC6128. I feel a lot of my buying in years gone has been quite top dollar for untested items, and it wouldn't have got to those prices without others also willing to pay those near the price as well.
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Re: Cheap Osborne 1a

Postby tezza on Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:30 am

Hopefully someone will give it a home. It cost me $220 when I bought it and it is certainly in better condition than when it was received!

Prices are always fickle with vintage computing though. The Osborne 1 is a classic. There are only a limited number of us collectors in New Zealand and we all probably have an Osborne 1 (or two) by now.
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Re: Cheap Osborne 1a

Postby YetiSeti on Fri Feb 11, 2011 12:18 pm

You're right Osborne is a classic. I think this would be an indicator that would have good cross-site appeal on TM. The highest prices often go to the nostalgic non-collectors variety, so perhaps spending some pennies on promoting the auction might pay off. I've never spent upgrading an auction but I have been noticing that it seems marshal in four to five hundred views on an auction.

See 'Dick Smith VZ300 Computer' with nearly a hundred views a day.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Vintage/auction-352995421.htm

Hardly a classic or interesting or even useful vintage computer (thought I might consider it as a spare if the price were to stay the same), but that's a tonne of views which might be coming through from somewhere else. I'm not sure if you can tell by looking at an auction whether they've paid for the cross-site type ads and some of the other extras.

With a wider market, I'd even try my luck at listing the Osborne for $200 as you're now looking outside the penny pinching VC collector for potential buyers. I never really understood how vintage software depreciated so much. Those old Sega carts which only can fetch $5-$10 at times use to cost around $100 each.
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Re: Cheap Osborne 1a

Postby YetiSeti on Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:55 pm

A deserving price in the end that exceeded not so much my expectations but just the previous market results for the Osbornes, as the previous pair sold for about $160, and I paid a similar amount for a single one last year.

The current one magically listed after yours was offered for $750 which is a bit opportunistic and quite outside of the parameters of the value even of the item linked to in the auction listing.

I'll try not guess again an auction price in advance. It seems all the classic computers values lately are determined in the concluding minutes of an auction. The Commodore SX-64 will probably be a point in case.
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Re: Cheap Osborne 1a

Postby lizardb0y on Tue Feb 22, 2011 9:09 am

YetiSeti wrote:The current one magically listed after yours was offered for $750 which is a bit opportunistic and quite outside of the parameters of the value even of the item linked to in the auction listing.


And a reserve of $1000 no less! I'm tempted to offer him one of mine for $500 that he can then turn around and resell for $750 for quick profit!
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