Vintage Technology Collector

Historian George Dyson tells stories from the birth of the modern computer -- from its 16th-century origins to the hilarious notebooks of some early computer engineers.

Here is a rare auction on eBay, its a KIM-1 computer. This is a very early home computer, with a simple keypad and an LED displays. Here is an text excerpt from the auction: "At auction here is a very nice, rare, KIM-1 Micro computer. This computer was originally released by MOS Technologies in 1976 as a way to demonstrate the power and flexibility of their new 6502 chip to engineers. It quickly found a following among computer hobbyists, and is widely considered the first commercially successful 'home' computer. This computer cost $245 when released. It consists of a 6502 microprocessor running at 1Mhz, 1024 bytes of RAM, a 6 digit LED display, on-board data entry through a hex keypad, 30 digital I/O lines, cassette recorder interface, and a small operating system in ROM. This computer is an ORIGINAL MOS Technologies board, before that company was bought by Commodore, making this item rarer still."

See TechRepublic's Photo Gallery of screen shots of Microsoft Bob, which was an early attempt to make computers easier for new users. The interesting thing is that some of Bob's features survived into later products (such as Office 2003 and Windows XP).

Here was a very rare item up for sale on eBay, it's Minivac 601 Computer from 1961. Here is excerpt from the acution text: "Up for auction is a nice 1961 vintage Minivac 601 computer. The really neat thing about these is that when running a program the relays are clicking, and the lights are blinking, etc. A real conversation piece. This unit is tested and fully functional, but due to it's age I'm selling it as-is." Then you find some of the problems with it: "Let's talk about the problems that I have attempted to highlight in the photos, there are a few stains on the base paint, the frames of the relays have oxidized, and the most serious is a crack in the top panel that was difficult to photograph. It would be extremely simple to reinforce the crack if it's of great concern. None of these flaws affect operation in any way. One last item, the unit originally had 6 rubber feet, and now it has 5. Quite frankly, the method that was used to secu...

Here is something you don't see to often a MITS Altair 680 For Sale on eBay. This is not worth as much a MITS Altair 8800, but its worth a look. Here is an excerpt from the auction: "here is a neat vintage computer up for auction. you dont see many of these for sale and its in pretty nice condition too! this was from an estate and i am almost positive he was the original owner. i have powered it up and it seems to work (i was told that it did). all i have is the computer itself - i didnt get any documentation or software with it, sorry, but there is a lot of information about these on the net if you google it. you can get all the documentation and schematics and user manuals on the net. i got this with an mits imsai which i am going to auction later too. this thing has been sitting in a box put away for ages so i am unsure of its electrical condition, so it is sold as is, but i did have it powered up for quite awhile. winning bidder pays shipping cost and please be in touch...

This guy had an prototype Apple Lisa 1 with Twiggy drives (5.25" floppy drives, known for being unreliable) donated to him. This computer would be the prize for any computer collection. Check out the photos on this site , they're pretty detailed.

eBay had a very complete IMSAI Computer system available for about $2000. It really was one of the most complete systems I have seen there for a long time. I would check out this eBay page before its gets cleared off the system. Here is an excerpt from the auction: "This IMSAI Computer system was purchased and constructed in the late 1970’s. It was used in the office of a small company to handle bookkeeping and inventory. This system was used daily right up to the day that more advanced computers came available, that our office eventually purchased. This system has been carefully stored for almost 30 years and I hope the pictures reflect that. All items have the basic wear of items with this much age behind them. There are no dents – bangs – or deep scratches on the hardware - the manuals and floppy disks were stored in dry location with no water or mold damage."