You lived in Kaiserslautern?! That was my first introduction to Germany, spending about 6 days between the city and Ramstein Air Base. Everything in the area was beautiful - the people, the architecture, the nature - and I would give just about anything to go back.
Imagine how many personal scripting projects have died on personal pc's being swapped for new firmware and hardware over these 50/60 years of computing.
I don't have too many vintage PC's, even though they're in every room but the toilet room... Just need to get smarter with my usage of the little space I have.
CDROM drives not opening is usually the belt (deformed and stiff from being in same position). There is a rubber rejuvenating spray that can help if you don't want to replace them
I'd buy some of I could afford them. I want an XT or clone and a 286 machine, also an orange ttl monitor. Those have gone way too expensive these days.
64mb of ram? jesus, that's clockin.... 3d graphics capabilities !!!!! I think the first pc I touched was in the 90's with 32mb or less that's the era where duke3d could be installed on a single cd or 16 individual floppy disks, right?
16:07 In 1997-98 i had PC with exact same case, it was P-166 MHZ, or it was 5x86 133 mhz can't remember, 16 mb ram, 4 gb hdd and S3 Trio. It has awesomo frequency screen I wish i had that case and PC today.
Selling all these at once in a short period of time will probably result in a significant loss - you'll have to spend more to rebuild your collection. It also doesn't seem like you want to part with some of the most valuable machines in your collection (Amstrad, Tandy, IBM). So unless someone makes you a really good wholesale offer, I wouldn't try selling. Honestly, being a retro hardware seller is almost a full-time job unless you're willing to make big discounts. I would probably set aside a bare minimum kit of your favourite and well tested standard baby AT components (say, 5 motherboards, 5 videocards, soundcards, etc) - enough to build 5 or so distinct generations of hardware from XT to Pentium (it doesn't seem like you care for stuff newer than that). That can fit in one big bag and weigh less than 10KG. I would take that to a new home and once I'm there, I'd buy the rest locally - an AT case, a monitor, an FDD/HDD and a keyboard. Back in Germany I would rent out a storage unit for a year and try to wait out the current problems. In any case that would buy some time so that you wouldn't have to move to a different country and solve your hardware dilemma at the same time.
I understand your dilemma. Over the years, I've also collected so many vintage parts that I'm now starting to drown in them. I've decided to actually construct a separate hobby room adjacent to my main house so that I can display some of my hardware and then also slowly start to go though all my stuff and sort them out.
At some point one just has to go through them and hang on to the stuff that means the most. Otherwise it just ends up being a problem as far as I can see. Some of my friends who are collectors have been far more discerning.
@@PCRetroTech - totally agree. My intention is to eventually go through everything, keep those that I really want, and redistribute the remaining items to local vintage computer enthusiasts.
I’ve been working on plans for a new shed for just this reason. And by shed, I do of course mean environmentally controlled room of retro goodness. :-)
Feel free to contact me by email about it. At least Sweden and Germany are in a customs union. That's a very large and heavy computer case; you might not find it so interesting when you look up the send amount. Indeed I'd prefer to find a local solution, but that might not happen. At any rate I'll show it in the next video on the channel, more because it is interesting for other reasons than that it is vintage in any sense.
Those are good retro computers, and I hope they get a good home. Pentiums with ISA slots (not to mention ISA soundcards) are excellent for DOS as they can run the full spectrum of DOS software at insane speeds, and 486 machines are becoming hard to find and expensive.
I would rent a storage space and store the stuff that I am not ready to sell/hand over. At some point in time, when that shipping prices may go down, I would ship them to where I want. Going from UK to Germany is not too far and I think not too expensive. When I closed my electronic repair shop, I rented a 3x3 storage room for 30€/month or 350€/year. I fill it up with almost half the stuff that I wanted to keep (tools, replacement parts, components, few vintage computers) and it`s the third year paying the rent. It is cheaper that to throw the things away at scrapyard or to sell them for nothing.
Unfortunately this no longer works due to the lack of a customs union. It's only possible to ship the stuff without paying a huge customs bill if they go at the same time I do. Storing the stuff here is also not an option as I won't be returning, most likely.
No worries, mate! Looking for a vintage pc here in germany!. kaiserslautern is right around the armchair, too! I´d love to take the chance and pay you a visit!
I wish you the best of luck in finding ways to downsize your collection and not have to bin or recycle anything. If only costs weren't so expensive, right?
That 1st one, its the same case as my first pc :D Still have it in my collection, missing the hdd holder for some reason but no problem. Mine was a AMD K5 Pr133, 16Mb EDO Ram, a S3 Trio 64V+ 2MB , a WDC21600 1.6GB HDD, a ESS Audiodrive 1868, and a Octek 12x CdROm :)
So, looking at the bureaucracy angle, you say you'd have to individually declare each item. But the screenshot you show at 1:30 seems to suggest that you only have to give numbers of items by category (and only approximate numbers, at that) - so would it be possible to just submit a list saying "PCs: 42 (approximately); PC components: 250 (approximately)" and then chuck everything into a rental van? Then again, customs might ask questions about why you're importing dozens of computers and whether that's a commercial operation... I'm reminded of when a friend of mine was getting rid of a 19" server rack he'd had in his house for a while. The recycling centre wanted to charge him for disposing of it on the grounds that it's commercial equipment, he spent some time explaining to them that no, it was just his hobby...
Yes the computers are easy to itemize. It's the hundreds of other items that are complicated. "Computer part" isn't descriptive enough and is likely to result in questions. Brands are not needed, but a description of the part is.
As an avid audio geek and ex-recording engineer, let me tell you how we saw it in recording studios back in the day. We would say, "If you have an empty space in your rack, you need more gear. If you don't, you need more racks." As for the government, there's no answer for that. Governments exist so that inept nephews who cannot work as a Wal-Mart greeter can have a high-paying job, guaranteed for life.
id take a couple 486 with a side of agp. hope you can find a home for what your not taking. Maybe try vintage pc forums to find locals. Id also be worried trying to move with crts hoping they make it undamaged.
It must be aweful having to making choices about downsizing your collection😢 I would strip the machines to take as much away as you can for future builds i. e. those lovely optical drives. As a UK collector it would be interesting to hear how different it is to be a retro collector in mainland europe to the UK (once you get here) . I get the impression stuff is easier to come by still in local classifieds etc. over there.
I'll be interested in that myself. I get the impression that Germany is retro central (well as long as you don't live where I live). In England I am expecting it to be a much more throwaway culture and that it will be hard to find anything. Maybe car boot sales are the main source of stuff, and even then it is fairly recent stuff. However, I think it is pretty easy to get a lot of 8 bit stuff there. Not PCs maybe, but something. Of course there are plenty of Amstrads come up over there over time. I've purchased a few and had them sent over because I prefer to see Amstrad rather than Schneider branding and I also prefer stuff in English.
@@PCRetroTech yes, plenty of amstrad stuff which is cool. Bad because so much of their stuff is is proprietory i.e. Psu's in monitors, which are rare even here. Will be interested to get your take on the different scenes once you have settled here!
If you want to get rid of any UMPC's, mini laptops [like the sony picturebooks] etc, if you have any, I'm your man. I live in Holland, so easy shipping.
@@PCRetroTech Obviously I have no idea about such matters, but do you really have to pay VAT on your own possessions that had the VAT paid on them 30 years ago? That seems really mean to me.
Moving to UK now is more like moving art collection or overseas tour. Third countries now, can't move stuff willy-nilly. Need international shipper and logistic company/agency - near zero hassle, prepare to open wallet widely.
@@bsdjunkie1805 And import duty as well. But only if the stuff is not part of a transfer of residence. That has to happen at the same time you move and there are some conditions.
@@mindaugasstankus5943 Zero hassle doesn't exist unfortunately. The owner of the goods must provide detailed inventories of everything just to get permission to pack the stuff. No removals company will or can do that. They certainly aren't going to know what a CPU looks like for example, or an AGP video card. So the inventories have to be done by the owner. And they only have two standard box sizes and some boxes for things like LCD televisions. Most old computer gear just doesn't fit. So you have to get your own boxes. It's a logistical nightmare.
Ha ha. I have only five vintage computers: a DEC Alpha DS10 that is going in my rack one day, a Philips NMS-8255 (MSX2), a no-brand 486DX4-100 and a Sun Blade 100 workstation that needs a bit of a repair. My gf already things I have way too much garbage as she calls it ;-). That 486 may need a slight upgrade in the near future, even if it is just the BIOS. I replaced the NVRAM & Clock chip with one that I know works, but regardless of whether I put in that one, the original or the other spare that I have, if I set the date past 2019, the date does funny things.
Hey Will I have a question. The old AT style case with the green logo that you said either May spell LUI or CNI I have an old 386 fx3000 motherboard that I would love to put that in how much would you sell that case for and would you ship it to the United States. Thank you for reading. If you're willing to ship how else can I get a hold of you to buy it.
Shipping to the US is just impractical right now. Customs and the shipping crisis have seen to that. At the moment I'm not looking to ship stuff outside the EU. Sorry I can't be of more help.
Is there such thing :D? I have mine all over my house, but I still need more. MY wife ofc does not approve :D You can sell them here. Make a Gdrive listing along with prices and pictures and I think we'll buy most of your stuff.
In the UK yes, I won't be returning to Germany. But I'm already factoring in the cost of considerable self-storage. The stuff I need to get rid of already takes that into account.
First time commenter, didn't know you were moving to the UK... wasn't there talk of moving back to Australia some time ago? Anyway, I'm a German living in the UK, I'll skip the rant about Brexit but ugh. I saw in another comment that you're moving to somewhere near Cambridge... I'm not in that area but I have friends around there that I visit occasionally, so erm, want to grab a beer next time I'm nearby? I didn't realise customs was that much of an issue just for moving personal effects, but yeah, it figures that they'd make it harder than necessary. Cost of shipping containers seems a bit irrelevant though, as others have said for DE->UK you could just rent a Transit van and haul stuff over yourself. If it wasn't for the bureaucracy, that is. As for what to do with your stuff, I'm pretty sure there's a CCC (Chaos Computer Club) group somewhere in your area, might be worth contacting them to see if any of the local nerds are interested. On the slightly naughty side, I wonder how much stuff one could get away with bringing in without triggering any customs issues. My parents came to the UK recently as tourists (and left again, to be clear, they really were here on holiday), with a car, I'll have to ask them for details but I'm pretty sure they didn't have to go through any customs checks. So potentially, you could just ferry your things into the country spread over a number of trips...
If I ever get to Cambridge by all means look me up. I was originally planning to return to Australia but at the last minute got this job offer in the UK. Transit van is harder than it sounds as I don't have a German license and don't have a driver. I don't want to smuggle thousands of items in suitcases over multiple trips because the stuff needs to leave my apartment within weeks and the sheer number of trips would be huge. You'd get randomly selected eventually and then face fines, to say nothing of the cost of all the trips in time and money.
Ah the old days. The problem with collecting early 90 to later 2,000 pc's is everybody started to have one. If not due to multimedia. The internet came along. At the small shop I was working at. It went from about 10 pcs a month to 3+ a day for a while. All with windows 95 or 98, multimedia aka cd-rom and sound card. Plus a modem. Nothing special about them. Now you may ask what about C64 and such. Well that was before people was collecting and by mid 90's Tons of 70's, 80, and even late 80's was chucked in the land fill. I'm guilty of that. I do see a few ways around it. Example: Find a later socket or super socket 7 motherboard. That stakes pretty much all Pentium CPU's Thus, you only have to switch out a processor. You can also avoid the horrible cache on a stick board. I'm also pretty sure that some boards did both 5v and 3.3v procs. But, to many years ago.
3+ a day for a small shop is pretty good. I wasn't selling that many back then. But there might have been one or two nearby that were. Problem is all the profit went out of it.
@@PCRetroTech Yea that lasted about 8 months during the internet craze. Then it went back to about 1 or so every so many days. Way to many years ago. I also remember when the I-mac came out. We could have sold 1 of those a day too. But, Macintosh had some stupid rules for reselling
i also got way too many vintage PC's (mainly Pentiums, a few of them i've never even tried on yet) and parts (even got a Bigfoot hd), but i'm glad i don't have your problem :/ Personally, i'd find your situation really annoying. Hope you'll find a good solution.
It's a lifestyle change. My current job was in a dead end career. The UK job gives me possibilities. It's actually a very exciting project (could lead to press releases in the best case scenario).
.... I still need a few pieces for my own collection in the Netherlands, if you've got some parts and are willing to part with them for a nice price. >.>
It's possible I guess. I'm hoping for a more local solution at the moment, but perhaps later I have to look at sending them around the EU. Just not sure how much time I have though unfortunately.
@@PCRetroTech the irony is that in every way the bureaucracy got worse. There are now far more checks on goods, and British companies have to account for British and EU standards as they diverge. Turns out the EU was very efficient.
It irritates me how many people just accept government bureaucracy at face value, like anything that has happened in the last 2-3 years is remotely normal or acceptable. I understand that there's not much a single person can do about it, but ffs at least speak out while you still can.
There's very little one can do when under time pressure. For example I have to deregister in Germany to stop paying taxes (on all income worldwide) and health insurance. For this I need a certificate from the Town Hall. You can only get this in the final week you are here. There are no appointments for months and if you try to queue up down there they refuse to issue a ticket because the queues are longer than 8 hours. I spoke to a local member of council about this and the matter has already been dealt with in council, but this is the result of that action (formerly queueing without an appointment was not allowed, now it's not allowed without a ticket which they won't issue). You can deregister after leaving the country, but they will only send the certificate to the address you were registered at (the one you already left) and not to an overseas address. These sorts of things that people have to deal with at the last minute are impossible to get anything done about. There simply isn't time left to initiate a legal process.
@@PCRetroTech Right, I get the nightmare... We all live in something similar, unfortunately. It's just well past time to point it out and at least express some anger, for what little it may be worth. Like I said, I don't expect one single person to be able to do anything, but the least any of us can do is stop pretending this shit is normal/acceptable, and speak out as such. Best wishes to you and your collection/hobby. It hurts to think that you'll lose any of it because I'm trying to build up my own collection, and retro tech prices are off the charts. I'm spending upwards of 150 USD for just a single, generic, non-working 90s PC, so to know someone has to throw away working stuff is a serious jab in the gut to all collectors.
@@ruthlessadmin I managed to get most of my collection shipped and cleared through customs, however the removalist wants to deliver it to me today in the UK and I am not allowed to enter the UK until Monday at the latest. I did have to dispose of 15 PCs in the end and a large quantity of graphic cards and assorted pieces of hardware. Every single person who said they'd take stuff let me down. It all went to the tip.
@@PCRetroTech Wow.. hurts even more to know people let you down on taking the stuff. They lost out on good value in everything you showed in the videos. I would have loved to have any/all of it lol I trust with your knowledge, you maximized the losing situation, but it's hard to quantify these days. Thanks for the replies anyway... I look forward to more videos in the future. Cheers.
Vende todo eso a los gringos USA por Amazon o McdoLibre, ellos pagan lo que sea por viejas computadoras y accesorios; les implementan tarjetas para leer USB, SD, hdd mayor capacidad, a las xt8088-86. En México puedes resurtir tu colección nuevamente habemos muchos nostálgicos a oldies PCs. Si tienes hermanas tráetelas.
