Do You Think a Listing Error Was Made?

[Jim Johnson]

New, still in box, HP32SII. Do you think the seller may have made a listing error when specifying the price? At least they had the courtesy of offering free shipping!
HP 32SII Hewlett Packard Scientific Calculator NEW in Box Sealed!!

[Dave Shaffer (Arizona)]

The seller does seem a bit optimistic.

Every now and then, I see Ebay prices that make no sense at all, and wonder if sellers are completely out of touch with the real world, or if something like a decimal place was missed! I looked at a camera lens yesterday for which there are any number of sellers in the $450 range, yet somebody in Japan had one listed for almost $3000! (These were all brand new, so it wasn't used versus new.)

[Mike Morrow]

I think it is a very reasonable price. Did you not read the auction description? It states that this HP 32Sii: "uses a small built-in solar panel to keep its three LR44 batteries fully charged from any light source."

I don't know which are more collectible...the very very very rare 32sii with the solar panel, or any of those three extremely scarce rechargable LR44 batteries. :-)

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

But because "the basic unit has a 384 bit memory", I think I'll ask for a rebate :-)

[Mike Morrow]

The seller's bullshit machine giveth, and it taketh away! :-)

I wonder if he would take an even trade for an HP 6S.

Edited: 3 Sept 2013, 11:46 p.m.

[Matt Agajanian]

Whoa Nellie!!! Is this a prototype unit??? I've got three 32S II (two from Tam's and one from eB**) and none have an extra battery compartment other than the usual bay that holds the three A76 batteries. And, nowhere in the manuals does it mention a solar cell as a memory power source.

So, where and when did HP incorporate this backup battery variation of 32S II calculators?

Edited: 3 Sept 2013, 7:29 p.m.

[Mike Morrow]

You don't have a very sensitive sarcasm detector, do you Matt?

[Matt Agajanian]

Well, not when it comes to print. If I can hear an actual voice, then I can definitely get the joke.

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

Matt, the smileys at the end of the text might be a hint :-)

[Matt Agajanian]

Okay. That helps. Thanks for the tip,

[robert rozee]

well, technically you can get rechargeables in an LR44 size, but i am quite sure not so in this case. you can also get rechargeable CR2032 cells, called an RCR2032 as i recall. but the charging rate is very low and they are only of use in quite specific applications.

now given that these calculators shipped with batteries installed (yes?) i wonder what condition those batteries are in after sitting there in the calculator for all these years? every now and then you do see calculators and other items in the original sealed packaging, and i always wonder if inside there may be a pile of leaked batteries and corrosion waiting.

just as they don't make calculators like the original 10C range any more, neither do they make batteries of the same quality as HP used back then!

[Mike Morrow]

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well, technically you can get rechargeables in an LR44 size...

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Yes, but the described LR44 batteries are by definition not rechargeable. A rechargeable equivalent would not be an LR44.

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now given that these calculators shipped with batteries installed (yes?) i wonder what condition those batteries are in after sitting there in the calculator for all these years?

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Yes, the Pioneers (and Voyagers) were shipped with batteries installed. I suspect these have been installed for about 15 years. I've had the same set of 357 batteries installed in an HP-15C for about that long.

In 1997, I found two "new" HP-42S units that had been sitting unsold on the shelf at University of Alabama Huntsville's student bookstore since 1993, judging from their 3328S serial numbers. I bought both, and found no damage from the dead four-year-old batteries. But apparently, the Pioneers are not as frugal in standby current draw as are the Voyagers.

[Massimo Gnerucci (Italy)]

Quote:

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In 1997, I found two "new" HP-42S units that had been sitting unsold on the shelf at University of Alabama Huntsville's student bookstore since 1993, judging from their 3328S serial numbers. I bought both, and found no damage from the dead four-year-old batteries.

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In 2002 I bought a NIB HP-27S from 1988; after carefully cutting the plastic I only found a single drop of clear liquid forming among two of the batteries: no other damage.

[Eddie W. Shore]

The price is way too rich for my blood, by a factor of 10.