which kind of person throws out a working Amiga?

3 years ago my mother threw out the A1200 with 4meg ram expansion and 120meg HDD I left at home when I went to college.

Learned about this over the phone. 500 miles away. Gone forever.

Whyyyyyyyy

[alexh]

I'd probably offer it up free, "collection only" on Amibay & here, possibly freecycle first but certainly wouldn't mess about eBay and with posting etc.

It's just not worth a person's time or effort.

[BrooksterMax]

I agree with this, terrible as it is. The effort involved in bubble wrapping, boxing up kit for next to no money (postage costing more than the item) is very tedious when you have other real life challenges.

Giving it away for someone to collect in person is far more preferable for sure - but depends upon how lucky you are finding someone nearby. In Norfolk there seems to be a disportionate number of Amiga peeps and gamers per head of county. Its crazy but great!

[Smiley]

I remember selling my A500+ on Ebay for 99p a few years back!

At least offer it free for collection!

[chrispy]

Originally Posted by alexh

In the UK, you wouldn't be guaranteed to get much more than £10 on ebay for an A500. Not worth the effort.

There were just too many of them made.

If I was getting rid of my A500 it would go to the bin before mess about with eBay & posting etc.

It would kill me to toss something that still worked (that sounds a tad perverted doesn't it), hence the reason for my storage container.

If i'd have done that I would never have got back into the Amiga scene, fitzsteve wouldn't be pulling his hair out trying to help me in my dullards quest to get my 1200 set up correctly and Chris from Amigakit would save time in the day from packing up my stuff to post off and he wouldn't have to listen to my insane ramblings down the phone.

[JonSick]

I sold my A500 for £40 about 2 years ago... Well, it was more cobbled together. I found one at the dump, complete in the box... gave the dude a 4-pack of beer to look the other way. The disk drive was knackered, but I had several around anyways. Cleaned er up, sorted out a few cold looking solder joints, looked nice. I used it for a few months and hocked it.

I guess it all depends on condition and the right time.

[Nikolaj_sofus]

Just bought 8 mb of zip ram on amibay... so now it's time to test the supra RX and the alfapower hd chassis

[Monsterland]

Some dude on the Dutch e-bay gave away an amiga 1200 he found on his attic for free..unfortunately I was too late

[8bitbubsy]

You know, I throw away old PCs all the time... The Amiga isn't exactly superior to an old PC, it's just opinions and what kind of nostalgy you have associated with it.

It's very understandable that people throw away Amigas and other systems, they just don't have any interest and need for it anymore. And who would thought that Amiga was worth a lot? The first that comes to mind is: useless, no performance etc etc...
I wouldn't (but I know though, because I checked the Internet - and here I am).

[Photon]

Originally Posted by 8bitbubsy

You know, I throw away old PCs all the time... The Amiga isn't exactly superior to an old PC, it's just opinions and what kind of nostalgy you have associated with it.

It's very understandable that people throw away Amigas and other systems, they just don't have any interest and need for it anymore. And who would thought that Amiga was worth a lot? The first that comes to mind is: useless, no performance etc etc...
I wouldn't (but I know though, because I checked the Internet - and here I am).

Agree wholeheartedly - if it's not of interest anymore, it must sometimes be just thrown on the scrap heap. I'm not really a technology collector, but in this day and age it should be at least worth a try to get a buck for it on some auction site and make someone happy. Whether it's a VHS machine, perfectly good radio, yesterday's 300 GB harddisk, it feels like a shame to not let someone have a chance at it. But I know some people who think wrapping a parcel and dump it at the post office is an onerous chore.

[Mick_AKA]

My parents threw my A3K into a neighbor's skip while I was away traveling, I rang home and got "oh you're dads thrown away that old PC that was in the attic"

[danwood]

My parents binned a fully working amiga 500 about 15 years ago and their explanation for doing it was vague/bordering on alzheimezers :S

[Anakirob]

Q. What kind of person throws out a working Amiga?
A. A "normal" person.

Thankfully there are none of those "normal" people here on EAB :P

[Unknown_K]

To 99.99% of people old computers are obsolete junk. There are many computer collectors that would not recognize a million dollar work of art in a trashcan either.

Anything non working and not worth fixing I trash. If I think somebody might be able to use an item I don't want I either sell it or give it away (depending on the percieved value and effort needed to sell/ship something). At the end of the day if nobody wants it and I am tired of tripping on it I recycle or trash it.

I would think an A500 in the UK is like a C64 here in the US, very common and it is hard to give them away unless they are complete working systems. With 20 million or so C64s made they will never be rare anyway.

[s2325]

Yes, for most people old computers are just "PC keyboard with no cable". But they name electronic typewriters as computers...

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

Someone who doesn't know that he would actually get some quid for it on eBay

Or maybe they don't care! I bet that every thing I threw out to the streets could have been sold in an auction site. One person's junk is another person's treasure, never forget that.

[TCD]

True that I'd try to get some info first (Google is your friend as always) and then sell it if there's at least some minor interest for it.

[andreas]

Originally Posted by Akira

One person's junk is another person's treasure, never forget that.

Neither do ebay.
It's that very motto, which is the fuel to keep their (business) motor running

[Amiga1992]

Well I don';t see anything wrong with it.
If I have something that I am about to throw out, I put it on an auction site.
Even 2 bucks is better than none.

The problem is people that sell junk as if they were treasures :P

[andreas]