$9000 HP-35 on TAS

[Mark Henderson]

As if the $1900 HP-65 wasn't enough, now there's a $9000 HP-35! And it's not even a Red Dot - looks like a Gen 3 to me ("35" on label)?!?!

[Don Shepherd]

The seller has set an opening bid at $9000; nobody has actually bid on it, not surprizingly. And shipping at $150! The seller obviously has a very high opinion of himself. He makes coburlin look like a piker.

Edited: 3 Jan 2011, 12:52 p.m. after one or more responses were posted

[Namir]

Freud would say that the the seller has a very inflated ego and a delusional outlook!

Carl Jung would say the seller is charging mythical prices!!

Dr Phil would ask the seller "How is that price working for you?"

The Buddha who tell the seller that his asking price is an illusion!

My own therapist would say "Humpty Dumpty sat of a wall ... Humpty Dumpty will have a great fall"

Saddam would ask "Who do I have to threaten and/or kill to get that calculator?" ... that's the trouble with folks who don't know jack!!

Edited: 2 Jan 2011, 3:42 p.m.

[Gonzalo Fernandez]

About these people who spends thousands dollars in calc/accesories I wonder how much will recover when from here to 10-15 years go to an antiques shop. 50% of what they payed?

[Martin Pinckney]

Odds are, anyone paying these obscene prices for collectibles won't ever sell them. Their children or grandchildren will, when they clean out the house. Pennies on the dollar. (Or should I say cents on the euro, Walter ;-)).

[Walter B]

Quote:

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Pennies on the dollar. (Or should I say cents on the euro, Walter ;-)).

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Cancels down anyway - so why don't you say % ?

[Mark Henderson]

Or, like that fantastic quote I think I saw here and on other collectors sites - "my greatest fear is that my wife will sell it for what I told her I paid for it" :-)

[Namir]

That is poetic justice!

[Howard Owen]

Quote:

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".. my greatest fear is that my wife will sell it for what I told her I paid for it"

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That is hilarious!

[Andrés C. Rodríguez (Argentina)]

If it is an HP-35 "S" with readable display, acceptable entry method for non-base-10 values, fixed bugs, and good polar-rectangular functions... it may warrant that price!

[Howard Owen]

But it's better than that. The machine is from an adjacent dimension where Quantum Mechanics has been applied to computation since Babbage's time. So this puppy will invert a 10^9 square matrix as fast as a 3X3.




Now what would you pay? Wait! There's more! If you bid now, we will throw in (http://www.greenoptimistic.com/2010/12/25/karpen-pile/) a 2nd degree perpetual motion machine for only $100.00!

BEWARE! The site linked to above will cancel your first attempt to navigate away using some Javascript. This annoying behavior is not a threat by itself, but the site does offer fraudulent merchandise for sale. The fairly amusing ad copy may not be worth the risk of malware, especially if you run an older, unpatched version of Windows/IE. (But nobody here does that, do they?)

Edited: 5 Jan 2011, 3:41 p.m. after one or more responses were posted

[Alberto Fenini]

C'mon, let's try to be positive,

I'm sure it will ships for free .... :)

[Martin Pinckney]

Beware! The linked site tries to keep you from navigating away from the page.

[Howard Owen]

Thanks for pointing that out, Martin. I've edited my post to remove the clickable link, and to add a warning about the nature of the site.

[Keith Midson]

Well coburlin has now listed a 35 with all the trimmings for a 'bargain' $489. Which to buy? Such a tough decision ...

[Michael Meyer]

Maybe it's a "public service" for sellers. The HP-35 I have in my office was about $30 a year or two ago. Now, suddenly, they seem to have jumped to $150 to $200!

I wonder: if I list a couple of TI-30's for thousands of dollars could I can then sell others for more than $5.00.....?

It does seem like the "buy it now" prices have driven up the regular auctions' prices some. Or do I have that wrong?

[Allen]

In nearly every time case I've seen longer than 15 days or so MAX(price.bidding) > MAX(price.buynow). Every year there are seasonal spikes around December, January, July, and March, dips in May, August, October- especially true for popular models.

You also see some echo sales when one model goes for more than expected, buyer thresholds go up while the max sale is still visible in TAS auction history- then people get their common sense back.

[Keith Midson]

I agree that prices fluctuate seasonally as well as randomly (depending on when two or more collectors 'have' to have a particular model at the same time thus driving prices up), but I can't figure out what would motivate someone to think that anyone would pay $9,000 for something that they can get for around $200 if they wait a few weeks or so.

I have 4 x 35's, two complete with boxes and all paperwork - two of these were given to me, one cost $90 and the other cost $200 (April this year). The $200 looks like it was never used - I still remember thinking that I paid too much! I have three versions, including one with the famous bug.

It's not like it's a 'rare' machine - important model in history yes, but plenty around to keep collectors happy. Maybe if it were a mint red dot it might be possible to ask in the thousands.

Be interesting to see what it gets relisted at after it finishes with no bids!

Cheers, Keith

Edited: 5 Jan 2011, 11:11 p.m.

[db (martinez, ca.)]

y'all considered that the decimal point on his computer may be defective?

[Keith Midson]

No - I asked him! Aparently it's "worth a lot more than that. i saw a red dot, not in this good condition, sell for over $1,900 just sell 4 days ago". So apparently there is something very special about this one that makes it worth MUCH more than any other i've seen.

[db (martinez, ca.)]

thinkin that seller's got red dots all over his thorax like those space bees on the latest Futurama.

[Walter B]

... or that 35 has a low battery. Many red dots = many times the price of a red dot d;-)