EOL planning for your treasured vintage computer collection
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Robert Harker
Jan 3, 2026, 3:40:06 PM (12 days ago) Jan 3
to Bay_Area_(Retro)_Computer_Hobbyists
Moving this to a new thread. This is a repost of an earlier posting asking about getting a collection appraised.
RLH
Sad to say there is probably little money in your collection. An appraisal will probably find that most of your parts have almost no value. I.e. the effort to sell the items are not worth the little money you can get. But hey, hopefully you have some valuable gems in your collection.
I am facing the same problem with my Sun collection. In your case I would suggest you find someone to help you sort your collection into three groups:
Items that have non-trivial value (>$50?).
Items that have collector value.
Items that are electronic scrap.
For the electronic scrap separate the scrap into maybe useful and e-waste. Put possibly useful items into a big box and take to the Vintage Computer Festival in August for the Free table. Recycle the e-waste.
This is kind of what I have done: I have limited my collection to early Suns. I don't have plans to sell. I have gotten rid of most of my non-Sun and all of my SPARC stuff by sorting it into useful and e-waste. I took 5 boxes of useful to VCF last year and almost none remained by the end. My goal is to find a good home for things I no longer need. Winnowing of my collection is an ongoing process for me.
I am retired. The end of my years is not too far in the future (10-15 years) I have a few names of fellow collectors for my brother to contact when I am gone. People to help sort my collection with instructions for the collector to take what ever is of value or significant. This is so that an estate liquidator does not just dump everything into a dumpster as junk. I have also identified where in my garage my collection is mostly stored. I am a hoarder and my garage is full.
If people disagree, please comment. This is how I am managing my collection.
RLH
RLH
Sad to say there is probably little money in your collection. An appraisal will probably find that most of your parts have almost no value. I.e. the effort to sell the items are not worth the little money you can get. But hey, hopefully you have some valuable gems in your collection.
I am facing the same problem with my Sun collection. In your case I would suggest you find someone to help you sort your collection into three groups:
Items that have non-trivial value (>$50?).
Items that have collector value.
Items that are electronic scrap.
For the electronic scrap separate the scrap into maybe useful and e-waste. Put possibly useful items into a big box and take to the Vintage Computer Festival in August for the Free table. Recycle the e-waste.
This is kind of what I have done: I have limited my collection to early Suns. I don't have plans to sell. I have gotten rid of most of my non-Sun and all of my SPARC stuff by sorting it into useful and e-waste. I took 5 boxes of useful to VCF last year and almost none remained by the end. My goal is to find a good home for things I no longer need. Winnowing of my collection is an ongoing process for me.
I am retired. The end of my years is not too far in the future (10-15 years) I have a few names of fellow collectors for my brother to contact when I am gone. People to help sort my collection with instructions for the collector to take what ever is of value or significant. This is so that an estate liquidator does not just dump everything into a dumpster as junk. I have also identified where in my garage my collection is mostly stored. I am a hoarder and my garage is full.
If people disagree, please comment. This is how I am managing my collection.
RLH
Robert Harker
Jan 3, 2026, 3:40:43 PM (12 days ago) Jan 3
to Bay_Area_(Retro)_Computer_Hobbyists, Robert Harker
jef...@vcfed.org post about the excellent talk at VCF East last summer:
Robert Harker
Jan 3, 2026, 3:50:26 PM (12 days ago) Jan 3
to Bay_Area_(Retro)_Computer_Hobbyists, Robert Harker
Some more practical advice if you want an appraisal. Do not inventory your entire collection unless you would find the activity pleasant. Most of the small stuff will have almost no value.
Instead inventory your main items. Pieces you think have significant value or are historically significant. Send this list to the appraiser mentioned and ask for a quote of for an informal paper fair market value appraisal without inspection. Use their knowledge to get an estimate of the value of your collection. They may do this for free if the list is short. 10-15 items? My guess is that the values will be less than you expect. Maybe a lot less. High prices are dependent on finding the collector willing to pay the high price.
Another option if you are willing to part with your treasures sooner, find someone to help you sell it and split the profits. I am sure there are people on this list who make a living doing this type of thing. Or maybe this is a dumb idea?
To give you an idea of what a list might look like, my list would be:
A Sun1/100U: not working, all cards included. Powers on w/CPU fault. Monitor works w/ some burn-in, Sun 1 keyboard and mouse,
A Sun1/150U: rack mount server: not working, all cards included. Passes self test, missing front door.
Sun2/120, passes self-test, 7MB memory, SCSI disk and tape, Sun3 Monitor works, Sun 3 keyboard and mouse.
Sun3/160, passes self-test, 48MB memory, SCSI disk and tape, Sun3 Monitor works, Sun 3 keyboard and mouse.
Sun3/75, passes self-test, 8MB memory, SCSI disk and tape, Sun3 Monitor works, Sun 3 keyboard and mouse.
Sun3/60, passes self-test, 12MB memory, SCSI disk
Sun3/50, passes self-test, 8MB memory
2 bankers boxes of original Sun marketing literature, technical marketing materials, system manuals for above systems.
Cisco AGS Router: powers on, not early DOD or ARPA.
9 items. I have a lot more stuff, but these are the items I think may have value. That value is minimal. My guess is $500 each item or $5,000 for the lot. Maybe twice as much, but probably not because I do not know the buyers willing to pay more. Neither will my estate. I know I could get a lot more if I sold each piece individually and spent the time to advertise, sell and ship it. Do people agree with my low price for "sell it now"?
My personal plan is give my brother a list of people to contact to dispose arrange for the disposal of my computer collection. My desire is to give my collection to the collector community. My desire is that these people will sort the wheat from the chaff keeping and passing on the wheat disposing of the chaff. My only requirement is that they take responsibility for e-wasting any electronics that have no value and take all electronics with value. They have my permission to be brutal with the winnowing. Questionable? Marginal? E-waste it. Leave nothing electronic. I want to remove a disposal headache from my estate
Hope this helps.
RLH
Instead inventory your main items. Pieces you think have significant value or are historically significant. Send this list to the appraiser mentioned and ask for a quote of for an informal paper fair market value appraisal without inspection. Use their knowledge to get an estimate of the value of your collection. They may do this for free if the list is short. 10-15 items? My guess is that the values will be less than you expect. Maybe a lot less. High prices are dependent on finding the collector willing to pay the high price.
Another option if you are willing to part with your treasures sooner, find someone to help you sell it and split the profits. I am sure there are people on this list who make a living doing this type of thing. Or maybe this is a dumb idea?
To give you an idea of what a list might look like, my list would be:
A Sun1/100U: not working, all cards included. Powers on w/CPU fault. Monitor works w/ some burn-in, Sun 1 keyboard and mouse,
A Sun1/150U: rack mount server: not working, all cards included. Passes self test, missing front door.
Sun2/120, passes self-test, 7MB memory, SCSI disk and tape, Sun3 Monitor works, Sun 3 keyboard and mouse.
Sun3/160, passes self-test, 48MB memory, SCSI disk and tape, Sun3 Monitor works, Sun 3 keyboard and mouse.
Sun3/75, passes self-test, 8MB memory, SCSI disk and tape, Sun3 Monitor works, Sun 3 keyboard and mouse.
Sun3/60, passes self-test, 12MB memory, SCSI disk
Sun3/50, passes self-test, 8MB memory
2 bankers boxes of original Sun marketing literature, technical marketing materials, system manuals for above systems.
Cisco AGS Router: powers on, not early DOD or ARPA.
9 items. I have a lot more stuff, but these are the items I think may have value. That value is minimal. My guess is $500 each item or $5,000 for the lot. Maybe twice as much, but probably not because I do not know the buyers willing to pay more. Neither will my estate. I know I could get a lot more if I sold each piece individually and spent the time to advertise, sell and ship it. Do people agree with my low price for "sell it now"?
My personal plan is give my brother a list of people to contact to dispose arrange for the disposal of my computer collection. My desire is to give my collection to the collector community. My desire is that these people will sort the wheat from the chaff keeping and passing on the wheat disposing of the chaff. My only requirement is that they take responsibility for e-wasting any electronics that have no value and take all electronics with value. They have my permission to be brutal with the winnowing. Questionable? Marginal? E-waste it. Leave nothing electronic. I want to remove a disposal headache from my estate
Hope this helps.
RLH
On Saturday, January 3, 2026 at 12:40:06 PM UTC-8 Robert Harker wrote:
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