First honest true auction on TAS for an HP 15C LE

[Michael de Estrada]

So far all we've seen on TAS has been price gouging for the the HP 15C LE in BIN (Buy it Now) "auctions", but this one is a true auction with a low $9 start price and no reserve. It has already been bid up to well over $100 with 4 days to go, but at least it will get a fair market price. Brought to you courtesy of that German guy who normally sells TI calcs. It will be interesting to see the nationality of the winning bidder.

Edited: 21 Sept 2011, 2:24 p.m.

[Juergen Keller]

I live in Switzerland and have bought 5 HP-15C LE at Samson Cables. Final price including shipping and custom taxes was around $160 per calc. Now enter some numbers in your new gadget and you'll see that buying it directly in the US is cheaper than buying it on eBay.

[Thomas Radtke]

Grüezi Jürgen,

I conclude you already got your calculators. How long did it take? I'm still waiting for mine, also ordered from SC.

Thomas

[Juergen Keller]

It took a week (shipped Tuesday, arrived Monday).

[Michael de Estrada]

Quote:

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Final price including shipping and custom taxes was around $160 per calc.

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Not any more. Here

Edited: 21 Sept 2011, 2:51 p.m.

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

Mine have been charged $94.99 each, which looks now a low price to me :-)

Back to the auction, I sincerely hope the seller hasn't actually computed the square root of 8 on the 15 LE.

[Joerg Woerner]

Just look at the Datamath Calculator Museum - I always enter 2.8284271... on my calcs. Helps me to recognize my pictures on auctions ;-))

I calculated it multiple times on real calculators, aka AOS machines and memorized bout 14 digits of it.

Cheers,
Joerg

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

It's just there's a discrepancy in the last two digits: ...56 instead of ...25. One might think the HP-15 LE answer is wrong... Fortunately it appears this minor detail will not affect the final price :-)

Cheers,

Gerson.

[Michael de Estrada]

But, did you know that on the HP 15C LE that 8.000000000 Sqrt x^2 yields 8.000000001 ?

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

Yes, like on the original HP-15C. That's an expected result, considering the way the HP-15C rounds the results:

       sqrt(8) = 2.828427124746

                 2.828427125

 2.828427125^2 = 8.000000001436

                 8.000000001 

[Joerg Woerner]

Where was the link about keyboard quality?

Just kidding...

Joerg

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

Quote:

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Just kidding...

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Of course! I had checked it upon the 14-digit result. Furthermore, if there were any keyboard issue this would have been mentioned in the ad, knowing the seller as we do :-)

Something similar happened when the first official HP-15C LE image "leaked". It showed 3.141592653 instead of the rounded value of pi, which led to speculations about the HP-15C LC not replicating the answers of the original one.

Gerson.

[Namir]

The seller is forum member/friend Joerg Werner (Mr DataMath) and YES HE IS VERY HONEST!!! I am sorry that he is not attending HHC2011. I remember sitting right next to him at HHC2007 at HP's offices in San Diego. I recall teasing him about his TI calculators that he brought. I picked up my H-35S and challenged one of his TI prototypes in the style of the old west sheriff that tells an unwelcome intruder "This town ain't big enough for the both of us! You must leave town by sunset!"

This all reminds me of the lyrics of an old Seals & Croft song "We will never pass this way again!"

Edited: 21 Sept 2011, 3:10 p.m.

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

Quote:

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I picked up my H-35S and challenged one of his TI prototypes in the style of the old west sheriff that tells an unwelcome intruder "This town ain't big enough for the both of us! You must leave town by sunset!"

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Since you were the challenger, he might choose the weapons and easily win the duel. Too many
weak points in your gun for your opponent to take advantage of :-)

[Joerg Woerner]

Namir and All,

I'm really sorry to miss this great event - unfortunately I have to attend on Sunday/Monday the Pack-Expo in Las Vegas. I tried hard to combine at least Saturday in San Diego (my favorite city so far in North America) with Sunday in Las Vegas, but it didn't work out.

Hope to see you guys next year!!

I bought five of the HP 15c (missed the lowest price by a few days) to help my collector friends in Brazil, Switzerland, Germany and Portugal and couldn't resist.

I had no idea that they sell on eBay for $300 but I'm always short with calculator money. Had to split my living expenses from the Texas Instruments calculator expenses some years ago (I'm married and have four kids, two of them are already on colleges here in the US) and you know how expensive the last 10 calculators in every collection are. Looking for a CC 40 prototype, a TI-88 in the transparent housing...

Cheers and have fun on the HHC 2011!

Joerg

[Michael de Estrada]

What are you going to do with the Konkret 600 ?

[Joerg Woerner]

Trading with db for five TI-30's!

Cheers,
Joerg

[bill platt]

I think some people are going crazy.

[Joerg Woerner]

Michael,

So far on both auctions ONLY US bidders.

Regards,
Joerg

[Joerg Woerner]

At the end of the day, eh auction it will be like soccer in the good old days:

The ball is round and the game lasts 90 minutes. At the end Germany wins!

Cheers,

Joerg

(Currently its more like Mexico vs Norway)