Getting my A500 out after 15 or so years

[fitzsteve]

@Prowler, how do you repair the disks? Do you just write an ADF back to it several times? Or is there another secret method you use

Steve.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

@Prowler, how do you repair the disks? Do you just write an ADF back to it several times? Or is there another secret method you use

Yes, that's the method I use mostly, and I usually repeat the operation in several disk drives. It works as long as ther's no physical disk damage.

Also, it is important to make sure that the ADF actually represents the true, original content of the target disk.

[paul2010]

Earlier in this thread, people were mentioning about getting a hard drive for the Amiga.

I've just this minute come across a boxed GVP HD8+ Series II 120 MB hard drive with 4 MB of Fast RAM installed on the Internet but there's a problem.....it's £100 or nearest offer.

Is this way too much to pay for such an item (it's in its original box with instructions and appears to be in good condition)?

Gawd - this Amiga addiction is really coming back to me.

I was earlier looking at getting an external CD-ROM drive to play CDTV games (such as the Commodore A570).

I've just remembered - before I do all this, I need a Workbench disc.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by paul2010

I've just this minute come across a boxed GVP HD8+ Series II 120 MB hard drive with 4 MB of Fast RAM installed on the Internet but there's a problem.....it's £100 or nearest offer.

Is this way too much to pay for such an item (it's in its original box with instructions and appears to be in good condition)?

I would say that around £65-£70 is a fair price to pay for that item.

Originally Posted by paul2010

I've just remembered - before I do all this, I need a Workbench disc.

Originally Posted by prowler

You can send me all your corrupted Workbench, etc. disks and I will repair them for you, FOC!

[paul2010]

Originally Posted by prowler

I would say that around £65-£70 is a fair price to pay for that item.

Thanks.

Auction has 19 days to run yet, so I'll see how it goes.

It's just that I know how rare they are (especially boxed ones) and I hate all that disc-swapping.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by paul2010

Thanks.

Auction has 19 days to run yet, so I'll see how it goes.

If it's this one, good luck! It looks like a good one. I would say £75 max. with 4MB RAM.

If it's not sold within a day or two of the end of the auction, make an offer and see what happens.

[paul2010]

Originally Posted by prowler

If it's this one, good luck! It looks like a good one. I would say £75 max. with 4MB RAM.

If it's not sold within a day or two of the end of the auction, make an offer and see what happens.

Yep - that's the one.

I wasn't sure if I could post eBay links on here.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by paul2010

I wasn't sure if I could post eBay links on here.

It's okay in this context, but there is a dedicated thread here for "Hey Guys, take a look at this!"-type links.

[paul2010]

I was just talking to someone about putting some old stuff in my bedroom on eBay and they said, "I thought you said you were going to put your Amiga on eBay?".

It's got me thinking - how much would I be likely to get for my A500 in its current state (also have 16 working cassette/boxed/disc only games and 15 magazine demo floppies) and would the Amigakit parts have added some value to it?

Also, say I was to pick up the GVP HD8+ hard drive mentioned above and also a 1010 external floppy (seen one for sale), would these increase the value much over the coming years?

I just find it a bit hard to believe that a 23 year-old, heavy Amiga is only worth £25 on average, according to Retro Gamer magazine.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by paul2010

I just find it a bit hard to believe that a 23 year-old, heavy Amiga is only worth £25 on average, according to Retro Gamer magazine.

That's the truth of it. They sometimes go for much more if "bidding fever" takes hold, so it can be very much a matter of timing.

I have two A500s and I paid £20 each for them within the last year or so.

Upgrades, and peripherals like external floppy drives and hard drives are best sold separately to get the most for them, IMO.

[ck1200]

From your pic it does look in fair condition so maybe a little more than 25.00 with what you have added, will also stand a better chance if you include foreign bids.

....and a gvp unit will ad value for sure but i'd say only the price of the unit or a little more again so maybe 65.00/70.00 max, i've seen them go a little higher together though. I would say just watch a few similar condition units to the 500 you have on e bay and see what they finish for

Edit: and as Prowler says it all depends on how much one person is willing to pay!


chris

[alexh]

You'd be mad to pay £75 + p&p for an A500 HD8+ just because it is boxed in "collectors" condition. You could get a nice unboxed A1200HD with RAM card for about the same price.

Wait a bit longer for an un-boxed one in the £30-40 mark or consider an A590 instead.

I also think that £25 suggestion by RetroGamer for an A500 is too high. They made millions and millions of PAL units. They are not rare, they are not sought after. They have little or no commercial value at all. £10 absolute maximum for an unboxed one. They are going the way of scrap cars. They are probably worth more as spare parts than a full working unit.

[ck1200]

Originally Posted by alexh

You'd be mad to pay £75 + p&p for an A500 HD8+ just because it is boxed in "collectors" condition. You could get a nice unboxed A1200HD with RAM card for about the same price.

agreed crazy prices i've seen unboxed ones in good condition go for the 65/70 mark though with gvp unit, there is a good condition a500 on e bay now bidding ends very shortly, current bid a fiver!!

[fitzsteve]

@paul 2010, Alexh offers sound advice.. Instead of a hard drive for your A500 look out for a cheap A1200, you can even buy one without all the leads if it were to crop up as you have them all from the A500.

You'll be able to install a 2.5in Laptop style hard drive or a CF Card via CF-IDE adapter.

The A1200 if you put an 8mb Ram upgrade inside is a very capable machine, you'll have access to a huge number of WHDLoad games that you can run straight off the hard drive, no more need for all those floppy's and they load a hell of a lot quicker.

I sold my A500 for £20, in fact it was Prowler who bought it! I just didn't need that along with my A1200 once I got the Ram upgrade. As the others have said they really don't sell for a huge amount unless they are in immaculate condition, maybe one to keep for nostalgia's sake.

Steve.

[alexh]

There is a guy here selling off his Amiga collection. Included is an A590 which needs a little TLC. Make an offer and see if you can get it for little more than the postage.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=53530

[paul2010]

I'm back again.

I've just started my 7 weeks off work (due to working at a college) and I'm spending miles too much time thinking about my A500, A500 accessories, the A1200 and accessories, other old computers.

I'm going to try and get a cheapish (no more than £60) A1200 and use my 'new' accessories from my A500 with it (but not the PSU, as won't be needed and I doubt will be powerful enough).

To keep or flog my A500 on eBay? I don't know, as I like most of the 15 or so games I've got (and another 15 or so demo discs) and I know they may not work under Kickstart 3.

[ck1200]

Have a look at this

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=54081

[paul2010]

Thanks for the link ck1200.

I first thought about getting an A1200 almost a year ago - when AmigaKit were selling 'new old stock' and 'refurbished' models for something like £165 and £100.

You were able to configure the 'new old stock' ones a bit, though.

It was a crazy thought at those prices but this was before I signed up to PayPal and eBay and there weren't many places you could buy them outside of eBay.

[ck1200]

You should be able to pick up a standard 1200 with some little goodies for a fair price on here or e-bay

[boyo]

Well I picked up an Amiga 1200 from E-bay with yellowing keys for £35 plus p&p. I then bought a 4GB Compact Flash disk off E-bay also for £39.99 inc p&p. This little device has 2,400 WhdLoad games on it so a bargain.

Once putting the CF hard drive into the Amiga, which was pretty straight forward, I soon realised that many of the games would not load due to low memory. I could run many from the CLI but I really wanted to run them from Workbench.

I was told about amibay.co.uk. Here I bought an Apollo 1220 Accelerator card with 4mb of memory for £53 inc p&p. I installed that and now my Amiga 1200 can run 95% games off the CF HDD and WB runs much, much quicker.

Also purchased a Zip Stick off E-bay for a few pound, and I had to source a mouse so chose the origianl A500 one.

So far I have spend around £130 to get myself a nice little Amiga 1200 that can run pretty much all the games I want.

Currently the Amiga is connected to my projector via composite, and to a Creative 5.1 surround system using left and right phono. I am looking into getting a Scan Doubler as I would love to use the computer on my existing 22" Acer LCD monitor.