My assumption was that there actually are not that many of us. However, this 15C has had well over 2000 hits. I don't know if eBay counters count the total number of visits, or the number of unique visitors, but I was able to visit this item several times with freshly opened browser windows, without advancing the counter. I think this indicates a count of unique visitors (feel free to correct me though). I am very limited in my interactions with other collectors (and other people in general). Do you all know legions of other collectors, or are you familiar/aware of only a few? Is MoHPC the largest collection of collectors?

I'm an engineer and work with a bunch of other engineers. Surprisingly, although a great deal of them use vintage HPs, I'm the only collector. I've reminded my coworkers that if the 15C, 32SII or 41CV in their desk ever bites the dust, they won't be happy trying to find another one. At least the owner of a 28S with a dodgy battery door is actively seeking a replacement.

Hello!

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Do you all know legions of other collectors, or are you familiar/aware of only a few?

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I only know a few of them through eBay purchases and EMail exchanges. One of them I met personally under completely different circumstances once and did not know then, that he owns what is probably the largest collection of Ti calculators worldwide...

About the total number of collectors I can not even guess the order of magnitude (10.000?). Who knows.

Greetings, Max

Edited: 13 Feb 2007, 3:15 p.m.

I would call anyone with more than one Hp who doesn't use the extra ones extensively, A Collector. I suspect there are several hundred collectors by my definition. However, that doesn't mean there are hundreds of serious collectors. I don't think we rate anywhere as large a bunch as coin, stamp or baseball card collectors.

Serious collectors are probably someone with 10+ Hp calculators. There are probably many people with large Ti collections that may even be unaware (or have little knowledge) of the Hp line.

With this as my definition of a serious HP collector, I would still bet that number is at least two hundred in the US alone.

If you include Ti's in my 10+ calculator count, it easily gets over five hundred calculator collectors.

Hello!

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If you include Ti's in my 10+ calculator count, it easily gets over five hundred calculator collectors.

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I think there must be many more. If there is a way to find out in what numbers the book "The complete guide to pocket calculators" of Guy Ball und Bruce Flamm was printed, one could draw an estimate from that number. Interstingly, this book seems to have become a collectors item by itself, on Amazon Germany, the only two copies (used!) on offer have price tags over 90 Euros!

Greetings, Max

Hi, Maximilian:

Maximilian posted:

"[...] he owns what is probably the largest collection of Ti calculators worldwide [...]"

One of my closest friends has a truly impressive HP calc collection, matter of fact he has every model but the unreleased HP-95C, including such rarities as HP-70, HP-94's, etc., most of them in mint condition. He was the one that gave me the (limited) collector bug, where 'limited' means I only get those models I like, exclusively, which aren't that many. No RPL contraptions for instance but the revolutionary HP28S. Plenty of Voyagers, 71's, 41CX's and the odd HP42S or two thrown in for good measure.

"About the total number of collectors I can not even guess the order of magnitude (10.000?)."

10,000 !!? I'm positively sure that you're off by an order of magnitude, at the very least, assuming a collector is someone who has a number of models and positively strives to get more, even though he/she doesn't actually need them for real work and they aren't meant as an investment per se.

If there are as much as 1,000 such people I'd be surprised. Furthermore, some highly impressionable individuals do momentarily catch the bug and get hold of a considerable number of overpriced models at whatever the expense only to try and sell them for whatever they can get once they realize the sad truth.

Best regards from V.

Edited: 13 Feb 2007, 3:50 p.m.

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I would call anyone with more than one Hp who doesn't use the extra ones extensively, A Collector.

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Where do I fit into this equation? I was worried about losing my beloved HP41C and having to replace it on ebay. That was enough motivation that I designed, with Eric Smith, the DIY-RPN calculator.

-- Richard

I know of three in Norway (including me), and I'm pretty sure there aren't more than 10 serious ones. I'd rather not extrapolate though...

Too bad we just can't count the number of those frequenting this site that are registered in the "Biography" section. I enjoy reading the backgrounds of the collectors here and learning what common threads may have brought all of us to appreciate these wonderful machines.

I don't know if I fall under the category of a collector or not. I have several models of HPs, older, newer, ones that I bought, knowing I wouldn't use much, just because I liked them. At the same time though, I just want one of each of those few, and that's it.

When I look at Ebay on occasion, just to see if I can get one that I don't have, I see the same people always buying them. Maybe it's an OCD thing? Speculating? Maybe there is a reason for wanting many copies of the same model, I don't know. Even my friends that collect stamps and coins tend to just get one of something and that's it.

I have nine HP's(two others were given to a friend or a relative). Bought everyone brand-new. I don't consider myself a collector.

tm

I don't think he was counting the DIY-RPN. But IIRC, you have a 41C and a 6S, both of which you actually use. Any others?

On the other hand, I have a metric ****load of HP calculators, and use none of them extensively any more. The reason I got most of them was to dump their ROMs.

Hi Ron.

Poking around my bookmarks, I stumbled on this one:

http://www.xnumber.com/cgi-local/fmgen2.pl?colldefs1.txt

It is (was?) a list of collectors that registered themselves.

I've counted more or less 500 of them (about 487), but:

1 - not all of them are HP collectors

2 - not all of the HP collectors are registered there (I guess)

Just my two cents...

Best regards.

Giancarlo

In my office (not mine, but my boss'), there are:

my boss: HP-11C, HP-32SII (plus a HP-97 in a closet)

his son: HP-20S

me: HP-11C, HP-49g+, HP-12C (plus a dozen at home)

I'm the only collector, but the other two would never sell their models. And my boss is willing to buy other Voyagers/Pioneers models.

-- Antonio

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plus a HP-97 in a closet

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Get that thing on a desk! Show it off!

Scandalous!

I am holding off doing my tax return until I get my 97 back from Randy in a few weeks. The 42S with the IR printer doesn't have quite the same feel for bookkeeping type stuff.

Les

Bookkeeping with a 97 definitely should have been in that Weird Al video, too ;-D

In response to Les Wright (I hit the wrong link!)

I agree. I asked him to sell it to me, but he doesn't want. He doesn't seem to be strictly convinced, so I'll try asking him again in a while. In the meantime, he wants to hide it. Bah!

Just to add a thing, I recently discovered that in the past he used a HP-67 too, but he told me it got broken (I think **he** has broken it). What a pity! I could have had for nothing, and I'd get it even if broken.

-- Antonio

Edited: 14 Feb 2007, 9:50 a.m.

I live in Canada's largest city and I have yet to meet a collector, much less a user, on this Forum who lives near me. Our friend Namir has family about an hour from me, but that is about as close as I have gotten.

Les

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I don't think he was counting the DIY-RPN. But IIRC, you have a 41C and a 6S, both of which you actually use. Any others?

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Let me see...

The calculator I use most is the HP41C. It would hurt severely if this calculator failed. It is in near mint condition. I was amazed how good it looked when I cleaned it up to take some pictures of it.

I use the 6S only for decimal/hex conversions. I wouldn't have put this in the list if you hadn't mentioned it. It is NOT an HP calculator in my opinion. The main reason I have it is that it only cost me $3 (new) -- Maybe a bit more than it is worth. (Actually I have another one that I rarely use).

I have a HP32SII that I use on the road. It fits nicely in a pouch in my carrying bag.

The HP32S I have is badly corroded and if I can find it I will try dunking it in the ultrasonic cleaner.

Going back in time I had an HP25 until it failed. I bought it used from a coworker. I was given another HP25 that I used until it failed as well. I believe that you now have both of them. I really liked the HP25's when they were working. I especially like the way they fit my hand.

The first HP25 replaced a National RPN calculator (I don't remember the model number) that was "programmable". All it really had was a keystroke recorder. Without conditional branching it was worthless for running a program. I wish I had kept it just because it was a non-HP RPN calculator.

For a while, I had an HP33E. It was OK but I never got real attached to it. I sold it to a coworker.

A while back I bought a Sinclair Scientific. It is small and cute but without a stack it is hard to use for any but the most basic calculations.

OK, maybe I am an HP collector even without counting the DIY-RPN. :-)

-- Richard

I was probably as obsessive as anyone years ago about collecting calculators. I tried to collect only scientifics, but latched onto many financials as well. As many as I have, I would like to think I might be a top 25 candidate, but the reality is, I am probably only in the top 40-50 in the US. If you start looking worldwide, I may fall way back, and be lucky to make the top 100.

I can name 10 collectors off the top of my head who have more calcs than I do (probably, I purposely do NOT count as then I would have to answer the question of how many I have. Once knowing, I would confirm to others that I am indeed NUTS!). And knowing that, I suspect there are some collectors who remain below radar so as to not expose themselves to ridicule and be known for their lunacy. So I would say, for every known collector, there is probably at least one unknown serious collector.

On Hp's (and Ti's) I actually count the models I do NOT have (I am missing a few LED models and an Hp 16c and the newest Hp 39gs and Hp 48gii). I also have duplicates or triplicates of my favorites or often used models, so that I can use them without fear of being without, should something happen to my workhorse.

I used to buy a LOT off of ebay, but now I restrict myself (I just DON'T look, too often anyway). 8^)

My favorite is my first, the Hp15c. However, I actually use my next favorite the Hp 42s much more often and it is actually a better calculator for use aside from the fact that while my Hp42s has 32K of RAM, without I/O, I never add too many programs for fear of the dreaded MEMORY CLEAR message you can get on a battery change (You don't need to change often, but when I have, once I kept memory, once I didn't).

I don't know if this has been done on here before, or if there is even interest, but a you can register by topic on a site like http://www.frappr.com/, and it will map out roughly where people live. It would just be interesting to see the distribution.

I have more than 10 that I use as well as a 92 and an 80 that do not get use. I am not a collector and am surprised that having just 10 would qualify a person as a collector. I have also bought and given 41's and 10b's to relatives. Oh, and I bought half a dozen Aurora FN1000's. I carry one in my shirt pocket and find a use for it every day. They are amazing little calculators. My wife says I am a calcuholic and I don't deny that.

Don

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Hello!

I think there must be many more. If there is a way to find out in what numbers the book "The complete guide to pocket calculators" of Guy Ball und Bruce Flamm was printed, one could draw an estimate from that number. Interstingly, this book seems to have become a collectors item by itself, on Amazon Germany, the only two copies (used!) on offer have price tags over 90 Euros!

Greetings, Max

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IMHO any really serious collector of HP machines will have purchased Mier-Jedrzejuowicz's books "A Guide to HP Hand-held Calculators" and "RCL 20". Wlodek visits this site occasionally. Maybe he will tell us how many books were sold.

Last time I checked there were about 88 HP calculators ever released.

While sizeable, this is no big collection.

On the other hand, TI has issued more than 500 machines ever IMHO, so do you REALLY count the TI you don't have ?

If so, hats off to you.

Hello,

Probably not many collectors only focus on HPs, I KNOW you have TIs in your drawers (I do) !!

Collectors don't gather together as there is a sense of competition in this crowd (which is stupid because one benefits much more in sharing than keeping by oneself). The MoHPC is an exception.

So, while knowing personally only 3 collectors and being the only one in my organization, I think the count of about 10 000 collectors is probably in the correct range.

Collecting can be not so dedicated as seen here, many people have a "box of these" around.
Small collections IMHO start at 5-10 machines, medium being 100-300 and large 1000-3000.


Very few have biographies on the dedicated page here, this is misleading, for example mine would be utterly boring and so is not needed.



Is it Joerg that guy who "owns what is probably the largest collection of Ti calculators worldwide" ?



A last note : "**THE** BOOK" by Ball & Flamm is obviously a collectible, but not in short supply, just send a message to Guy Ball and he'll ship copies (he accepts PayPal, and I'm late in my last order BTW...). More than well worth having.

Well, the HP number gets bigger when you count variations such as the different versions of the HP35, but it's still much smaller than the TI number.

I think Ron said he only focused on the scientific and some financials. If you dismiss the huge lot of TI-30 models TI has made, etc., the TI number drops a lot too.

TI has made too many non-scientifics for anyone but Joerg at www.datamath.org to ever have them all. :-)

Hello!

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1. Probably not many collectors only focus on HPs, I KNOW you have TIs in your drawers (I do) !!

2. Small collections IMHO start at 5-10 machines, medium being 100-300 and large 1000-3000.

3. Is it Joerg that guy who "owns what is probably the largest collection of Ti calculators worldwide" ?

4. A last note : "**THE** BOOK" by Ball & Flamm is obviously a collectible, but not in short supply, just send a message to Guy Ball and he'll ship copies (he accepts PayPal, and I'm late in my last order BTW...). More than well worth having.

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1. The same with me, I keep every interesting calculator that I can get hold of, where "interesting" for me basically means: luuminous display, scientific, programmable and "special in some way" (like a CalcuPen and other miniature calculators, navigation aids and so on).

2. A good distinction I think. Puts me some way between "small" and "medium", at least, when I also count all the crappy LCD calculators...

3. Yes, of course :-)

4. Good to know in case I ever lend mine to somebody and don't get it back!

Greetings, Max

Well I am quite aware of your extensive knowledge of calculators and can infer how extensive your holdings are, and THAT therefore you are an individual who can probably call my collection small.

As Gene states below, I only bother to collect scientifics. That said, "Yes, I still count the Ti's I don't have."