This year was my 4th time at the VCF East Swap Meet in Wall, NJ. As usual, I left with a bunch of cheap vintage laptops to repair and enjoy!
We'll start with the Macs:
PowerBook G3 Pismo: Yep, finally got one. It's a 400MHz unit, HDD has been upgraded to 60GB. Seller says it works. Cosmetics are a little rough, but manageable. Paid $40 for it.
15-inch Early 2008 MacBook Pro: I already have one of these, but it's in very rough shape cosmetically. This one supposedly works but has a bad fan. Plan is to do a chassis swap since my other one has the fixed revision GPU. Paid $10.
15-inch Retina MacBook Pro: Seller said either a 2014 or an early 2015 model. Supposed to work, don't know much about it yet. Paid $40.
And then the PCs:
Zenith ZWL-183: This one is a very large CGA laptop from 1987 with a 10MB internal hard drive. Seller said it's dead, so this one is going to be a repair project. Cost $10.
IBM ThinkPad 500: Bought this one from a friend of mine who was there. Works and comes with all the documentation, but the hinge is physically broken in two pieces, so the screen is floppy. This cost me $100, and was the most expensive thing I bought this year, but was a fair price. TP500s aren't very common, this one has good cosmetics, and it does have the documentation and AC adapter.
Epson ActionNote 500C: This one is a 486SLC2 system with a tiny 8.4-inch passive matrix color screen. Mainly bought this one because the screen is neat. I forget what I paid for it, but it wasn't much. Untested, but I do know at a minimum it will need to have the LCD recapped. Also will have to do the dallas clock chip mod since this has one of those inside. For now, waiting on an AC adapter to come in from eBay.
Acer AcerNote Light 370C: I call this series "the only good Acers" because they have decent designs and don't seem to commonly have hinge problems. I wasn't going to buy it until the seller dropped the price from $40 down to $20, then I couldn't resist. He said it worked.
Dell Latitude XPi P133ST: I got an XPi last year, but it was a DSTN unit with no sound card. This one is TFT with a sound card, and came with the original charger! Seller said it works. Has a couple minor cosmetic things and is very dirty (was stored in a bag that was disintegrating). I forget what I paid for it, but it wasn't much.
Uniwill N340S8: This is a Socket 370-based generic/ODM laptop from 2001. Very pretty blue case. Seller said it fired up, I think I paid $10 or $20 for it. Has cracks near the hinges so will need to reinforce with epoxy ASAP.
Lenovo ThinkPad W530: Ivy Bridge-based mobile workstation laptop. Paid $35 for it and it included the AC adapter! Very happy as I've been wanting one of these, but didn't want to pay the high ebay pricing for one.
Misc things:
1. I paid $30 for around a dozen memory modules, including some 512MB PC133 sticks which I badly needed.
2. I paid $10 for an floppy drive module w/ external enclosure for the ThinkPad 600, and a NOS Ultrabay 2000 floppy module
3. For another $10 I got two floppy modules (including an external enclosure for one of them) for the AST Ascentia P laptop, along with a likely dead spare battery. These should be compatible with my WinBook FX, which was based on the same generic laptop from Quanta that the AST was.
4. For the steep price of $1, I got an external battery charger for the PowerBook 100 series laptops.
I'd say this was another successful meet! It's going to be fun to go through and get all these systems running nicely again
And of course, it was also nice to see @ClassicGuyPhilly, @Torbar, and @Dude.JediKnight in person, along with plenty of other familiar faces.
We'll start with the Macs:
PowerBook G3 Pismo: Yep, finally got one. It's a 400MHz unit, HDD has been upgraded to 60GB. Seller says it works. Cosmetics are a little rough, but manageable. Paid $40 for it.
15-inch Early 2008 MacBook Pro: I already have one of these, but it's in very rough shape cosmetically. This one supposedly works but has a bad fan. Plan is to do a chassis swap since my other one has the fixed revision GPU. Paid $10.
15-inch Retina MacBook Pro: Seller said either a 2014 or an early 2015 model. Supposed to work, don't know much about it yet. Paid $40.
And then the PCs:
Zenith ZWL-183: This one is a very large CGA laptop from 1987 with a 10MB internal hard drive. Seller said it's dead, so this one is going to be a repair project. Cost $10.
IBM ThinkPad 500: Bought this one from a friend of mine who was there. Works and comes with all the documentation, but the hinge is physically broken in two pieces, so the screen is floppy. This cost me $100, and was the most expensive thing I bought this year, but was a fair price. TP500s aren't very common, this one has good cosmetics, and it does have the documentation and AC adapter.
Epson ActionNote 500C: This one is a 486SLC2 system with a tiny 8.4-inch passive matrix color screen. Mainly bought this one because the screen is neat. I forget what I paid for it, but it wasn't much. Untested, but I do know at a minimum it will need to have the LCD recapped. Also will have to do the dallas clock chip mod since this has one of those inside. For now, waiting on an AC adapter to come in from eBay.
Acer AcerNote Light 370C: I call this series "the only good Acers" because they have decent designs and don't seem to commonly have hinge problems. I wasn't going to buy it until the seller dropped the price from $40 down to $20, then I couldn't resist. He said it worked.
Dell Latitude XPi P133ST: I got an XPi last year, but it was a DSTN unit with no sound card. This one is TFT with a sound card, and came with the original charger! Seller said it works. Has a couple minor cosmetic things and is very dirty (was stored in a bag that was disintegrating). I forget what I paid for it, but it wasn't much.
Uniwill N340S8: This is a Socket 370-based generic/ODM laptop from 2001. Very pretty blue case. Seller said it fired up, I think I paid $10 or $20 for it. Has cracks near the hinges so will need to reinforce with epoxy ASAP.
Lenovo ThinkPad W530: Ivy Bridge-based mobile workstation laptop. Paid $35 for it and it included the AC adapter! Very happy as I've been wanting one of these, but didn't want to pay the high ebay pricing for one.
Misc things:
1. I paid $30 for around a dozen memory modules, including some 512MB PC133 sticks which I badly needed.
2. I paid $10 for an floppy drive module w/ external enclosure for the ThinkPad 600, and a NOS Ultrabay 2000 floppy module
3. For another $10 I got two floppy modules (including an external enclosure for one of them) for the AST Ascentia P laptop, along with a likely dead spare battery. These should be compatible with my WinBook FX, which was based on the same generic laptop from Quanta that the AST was.
4. For the steep price of $1, I got an external battery charger for the PowerBook 100 series laptops.
I'd say this was another successful meet! It's going to be fun to go through and get all these systems running nicely again
And of course, it was also nice to see @ClassicGuyPhilly, @Torbar, and @Dude.JediKnight in person, along with plenty of other familiar faces.
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