Vintage computer parts: in-person appraisal

[Matthew Barrett]

hi,

I have come into possession of a large collection of vintage computer parts (going back to the 80s or earlier). The parts include servers/server components (including VAX and more recent but still obsolete parts), CRT monitors, vintage keyboards and other peripherals.

I am hoping someone can help appraise them. Please let me know if you can help with this.

The parts are in San Carlos, CA.

thanks,

Matthew

[Robert Harker]

Do you have any early Sun Microsystems parts or systems?  Not SPARC.

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

[Stan Sieler]

RLH writes:

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.

Thank you!  Over the years, I've brought this subject up to a number of collectors, and am usually ignored. 

One friend had several HP 3000 Series I and II computers, which were junked when he died and his estranged brother disposed of everything (not knowing their possible value).

I've been slowly "deacquisitioning" part of my collection, a process I've accelerated after my wife died ... seeing what she left behind made me realize I shouldn't leave my executor with a similar problem.

I printed out my executor contact info (and some other medical info), labelled it ICE (the good kind: In Case of Emergency), and taped it to my refrigerator, where I'm told that EMTs would look (e.g., after a wellness check).

Stan

[Jeffrey Brace]

Yes. The issue of managing collections and what happens when you pass was a topic with a lot of interest at VCF East: https://youtu.be/n_rlNrX3fDc (VCF East: The Computer Collection Lifecycle and estate planning for your collection). 

On Wed, Dec 31, 2025 at 1:04 PM Robert Harker <rhar...@mail.ccsf.edu> wrote:

Do you have any early Sun Microsystems parts or systems?  Not SPARC.

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.

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

On Tuesday, December 30, 2025 at 2:25:31 PM UTC-8 kior...@gmail.com wrote:

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[Jeffrey Brace]

Matthew,

I asked my contact at the Computer History Museum and this is what he said:

"The one IRS CERTIFIED appraiser I know with experience in computing collections  is Jeremy Norman. 

He is based in Novato (not too far from San Carlos).

You can reach out to him here: https://www.historyofscience.com/ "

I hope that this helps!

If it doesn't, then I suggest posting to forum.vcfed.org.

Jeff Brace

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[Adrian Chadd]

hi!

I'd suggest splitting this into two parts:

* get someone who can help you audit and build a list of all of the
parts, whether working / not working, photos of condition, etc, and
build that list first.
* then you can spend time getting the appraisals done.

The appraisals can differ based on the groups that are interested in
the hardware. You can also crowd source that from various groups of
people,
you can bring the list to VCFED events / meetups to get feedback, etc.



-adrian

[Robert Harker]

I ave moved this to a new thread:

EOL planning for your treasured vintage computer collection
RLH