Collection Redundancy

[Michael de Estrada]

Inevitably a collection ends up with more than one sample of any given item. Sometimes it is the result of buying bits and pieces with different accessories in order to complete a set (cases, manuals, AC adapter) or even subcomponents in order to obtain complete functional and cosmetically undamaged units. I had to buy 13 Spice units in order to get 10 good units and at least one sample of each model. However, at some point this redundancy becomes wretched excess, and it's time to prune the tree so to speak. In my case, it's the HP-45. I have 7 complete sets for goodness sake, even though I have already disposed of two additional units. How exactly this happened, I'm not quite sure, but they just seem to reproduce like rabbits. I wonder if any of you have this problem of collectormania, or if it's just inevitable?

[Karl-Ludwig Butte]

Hello Michael,

I wouldn't see this as a problem. For one side you've got a repository of spare parts just in case the one reaaly good unit needs repair. On the other hand you have items to exchange with other collectors and therefore the chance to get missing items while at the same time come into contact with others who share the same hobby like yourself.

Just in case you like the latter idea just send me an email.

Kind regards

Karl

[Valentin Albillo]

I plead guilty.

I now have no less than 4 (four) HP-15C and 4 (four!) HP-71B (+ MathROM) ! :-)

Same with some SHARP models as well ... Quite frankly, having just two of each would be more than enough, what with the many excellent simulators/emulators freely available nowadays such as Nonpareil, say. Its HP-15C emulation is perfectly adequate for article, program, and challenge writing. Not that I indulge in any of that as of late ...

Best regards from V.

Edited: 20 Sept 2009, 10:52 a.m.

[Saile (Brazil)]

I have that problem.

For more than 35 years I have been collecting.

My father's collection that was given for me

I have been making everything to organize my collection.

Now I have 600 items.

It still exists more than 8 boxes for me to organize where

they are several HP41CY, HP-01, PC-1600, CFX-200, Ruputer and

several documents and manuals

I am always giving a present my friends calculators and pocktes

that I have more than 2 units

Partially (PDF) of my collection of calculators and pockets (megaupload link)

I hope my children like my collection, because if they don't like

will have to do several happy people donating my collection when it

arrives the moment of my end or I begin of a new life without

worrying with HP Texas Sharp. . . :-)

Excuse my English am not good in the universal language ;-)

Edited: 20 Sept 2009, 12:03 p.m.

[Palmer O. Hanson, Jr.]

Quote:

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I hope my children like my collection, because if they don't ...

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My wife, my children and my friends don't exactly like my collection. They are more properly described as bemused by it, but they do tolerate it and have even helped me add to it.

What will happen to it when I am gone is another matter. What possible use can they make of over 600 old out-of-date hand-held calculators, over 200 old slide rules, an untold number of printers, chargers, battery packs, books and three large anchors (a.k.a. Fridens)?

Edited: 21 Sept 2009, 3:35 a.m.

[Ron G.]

My wife told me just last night, that she's sure going to have a lot of calculators to sell for $2 a piece, when I die.

[Michael Meyer]

Ron- could you let me know ahead of time? I'll try to do the same. (Though I'll tell me wife to try to get $5 a piece for mine). Sigh.

[Palmer O. Hanson, Jr.]

It isn't just my calculators and slide rules. It's also my Ohlsson & Rice 23 model aircraft engine; the trowel, brick-hammer and level that I used to pay for college (1944-1950); my collection of cigarette lighters from places like Barber's Point NAS, Iwakuni NAS, Kadena AFB, Clark Field and Wheelus AFB; the Simpson Model 355 Midgettester that I used on F-100, F-101 and YF-12 programs (1957-1966); my Handbook of Chemistry and Physics Mathematical Tables and my AMS-55; my Annals of America and Durant histories; my chain saw; and so on, and on and on.

[Bart (UK)]

:) :) So if wait long enough I can start up my own collection really cheaply. Although 600+ calcs @ $2-$5 a piece can still total a few thousand dollars. Maybe the pound will be stronger by then (and pigs may fly).

[Egan Ford]

I do not suffer from this condition. :-) I suppose that if it where critical to my job/life that I have a working unit 24x7 then I'd need a backup or two. Until recently I did this with my laptop--I always had a close to identical backup. Since I mostly use emulators, my physical calculators are my backup and my source for benchmarking and testing the accuracy of emulators/simulators.

[Juergen Keller]

If your HP-45s really reproduce themselves like rabbits I would like to buy them :-) Anyway, I know your problem; often I think this unit is even nicer than the one I have, and oops, there is another calc in my collection. But luckily, there are these NOS (new old stock) items which eventually end this loop. But these NOS units have the disadvantage that they look so nice that you do not want to touch them, and I don't want to have calculators to only look at them...

Cheers,
Jürgen

[Martin Pinckney]

Quote:

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... I don't want to have calculators to only look at them...

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As I have said before, I am a user, not collector. But since the calculators I use are all out of production, I keep spares of the most important ones.

[juan demin]

I’ve started my collection recently… Without any experience I bought the wrong calcs (of course)… then I realized that cases were important….and manuals too… then I realized that manuals in mint condition were a must…and calculators should not only work but look like new…Even though I bought and sold trying to have only one of each model, I now understand that this is a never ending story… I simple want to have the best and nicest calc fully equipped… Maybe this is not normal, but I check on ebay almost on a daily basis….

[Michael Meyer]

Well... normal from the perspective of collecting. I was very active in collecting for about 5 years, until I had at least one working model, restored and functioning, of each model I wanted. I'm missing very few: 10C, 16C, 10 printing, etc. And I have several of the ones I love... 19C, 67, 97, 41, 71.

While I'm still involved enough to follow the posts here, and buy an occasional model now and then, it's slowed down. I can't justify spending the money for yet another HP-25 just to restore it, though I still throw some losing bids in.

So, don't worry. If it's an ongoing thing, you'll end up trading and selling. If not, you'll slow down when you collect the ones you want.

And if you just keep adding to the collection, there will be a day when somebody else, hopefully, will appreciate what you have done.

[db (martinez, ca.)]

Many of us here bear the same cross. Don't worry; it's not fatal.

Do you also collect Calculators from your patria? Do you have a Microcifra or Magiclik?

[juan demin]

Hi, I do not collect other than HP (and this bug is enough...), but you can find a nice RPN Microcifra at less than 30 bucks in Buenos Aires market.

[Michael de Estrada]

Juan,

Te envie un correo electronico en respecto a la Microcifra 10.

Saludos,

Michael