Collection sale and rescue

[ronwoch]

Hello folks,

Long time lurker here. Not sure I ever made it to any meetings as I live down in Tacoma, and getting up to you all was a bit of a hike.

Anyways, long story medium: My house has been foreclosed, and I am packing up to move. As much as I want to take my whole collection with me, it's not very practical or feasible to do so. 

I have a pretty ridiculous collection of mostly the usual fare - Commodore 64's, 128's, accessories and software (a couple boxes of a commodore mag with disks from back in the day) etc. I have a PET with two dual 5 1/4" floppy drive units. I have two or three TI-99A's, and a PEB with expansions installed. Bunch of other stuff too. 

I have a bunch of assorted electronics stuff, things I collected/hoarded over the years for projects, parts, etc. that I just can't be bothered with now. 

I mostly want to save it from going to the dump when the realtors hire someone to clean out the house after I leave, but I would *REALLY* appreciate some cash to help me on my way. 

My electricity is shut off, so I have no way to plug things on to show or test if they are working or not, nor the time to go through it all if I did.. So it will be my fuzzy memory, but I will give you a rough idea when I can.

Preference to people willing to show up in the next 3-6 days with cash and a pickup or box truck.

My glorious electronics workbench is staying behind as well - also free to a good home. It breaks down into four sections for moving, but still takes up too much room in the truck I can afford. My loss, your gain - the bench is six foot deep and 10 or 12 feet long. It is huge, it has served me well over the last decade since I bought it from the guy who built it.

Various bits of old test gear and equipment as well.

Bring some flashlights/lanterns, basement is a bit dark with no power.

This breaks my heart, and I should have started sooner, but I kept hoping to get myself into a better spot without having to do this. Too late now, time for a fresh start.

Oh, some luggables, a Kaypro 4 and Osborne 1. Both worked last time I checked them. I used to have software for them both but couldn't find it after my last move. Probably in one of the zillion boxes of disks floating around my basement.

Cheers, 

Ron

PS - pickup is in TACOMA, a few blocks from Lincoln High School.

[ronwoch]

Apologies for the extra spam:

Among the other stuff I forgot to list:

Apple II Platinum with two floppy drives, and some software, including some MECC educational titles (no Oregon Trail, sorry).

Two Amiga 3000's with a TON of games, video and photo software (several boxes of software) a drawing tablet, too much to remember or list. They both worked when I got them over a decade ago. Last tested them a few months ago and only one of them still fired up, but it worked fine. The non-working one powered up, but no video output. This might just be user error and not a hardware issue but not sure.

I also just found out I have a lot more time than I originally thought, but the stuff still needs to go. Feel free to make offers.

Thanks,

Ron

[ronwoch]

First: Thank you all for all of the support and messages, it is very appreciated. At this point, finally having a place to land and a way to get there are such a huge relief, compared to the stress of the last few years. I am trying to force myself to let go of as much as possible, both for space considerations and to let people enjoy these things, rather than hoarding them in my mom's shed. A very few things I plan on hanging on to, but most of it is up for grabs. 

Adding some rough numbers for people to aim towards. Everything is "best offer" so if you think I am asking too much (or too little) feel free to offer what you can. A few things are "offer me enough to not haul it across country with me" so I am asking more for those, but will still consider offers. 

Folder of images:

https://ibb.co/album/VxSdQW

Additional items that I forgot to list yesterday include:

blue Mac G3 - worked last time I messed with it. Had OS X on it, I believe. $100

A Mac plus? Mac Classic? Not much of an Apple guy, so I don't remember what version of hardware it is. Never tested it as I don't have a kb for it.

A couple of power macs? also untested.

I have a Next station as well (the pizza box). No peripherals. Untested, as-is. Would like to get 300. 

Atari stuff: Atari 400, 800, 600xl, 800 xl. Accesories including floppy drives, stuff I don't remember. Programming manuals. It's a pretty nice Atari collection. No monitor for those. I hate getting rid of these, and don't know what to ask on them, so I am arbitrarily saying at least 1000 just to convince me not to find a way to squeeze them into the moving truck.

Atari 520ST. This thing is yellowed and dirty, but functions. I don't have an Atari wired serial mouse for it, never got around to mutilating an Amiga mouse to make it work (but can set one aside for you if you need one to convert.) It comes with an external 3.5" floppy and the black and white monitor that matches (plus the funky monitor cable.) Planned on making it into part of my synth setup, so this is another "offer me enough to convince me not to take it with me" deal. Call it 600.

Servers, server racks, cisco networking gear. May or may not interest people, you can give me money for it but really just want it gone. Pretty large amount of it, truck would be ideal. 

For the folks interested in the bench:

The bench is built from 2x4's and plywood. The rear sections are open framed underneath, the two front sections are plywood cabinets for storage. This thing is built to withstand a nuclear bomb. I have always used a box truck for moving it, the four sections and the back piece can be packed into a truck pretty well, but I don't recommend trying to tear it down further than that. It would take forever and be a nightmare to reassemble. It is HUGE.

I have a pair of Ikea solid pine desks that can be used as separate corner desks or combined into one bench with a center notch. These are also available. $100 each or 150 for both? Make an offer. 

The Kaypro is a 2X, not a Kaypro 4. My apologies for my middle-aged senility.

The PET is a 2000 series, NOT a 4032. Why my brain pulled that number out of thin air, I am unsure. But apologies to whoever I gave the bad model number to.

The Apple II Platinum has also gotten a lot of interest. This is another one in the "I don't really want to let it go" category, but 350 is probably a good way to convince me otherwise. 

Again, thank you all, thank you for your patience, and if I haven't gotten back to you directly by tomorrow, feel free to shoot me another email. I think that covers most of the questions.

I am aiming for Thursday and Friday to have people actually come look at things and take the away. Cash and Venmo are both good options. If you absolutely have to schedule for sooner, shoot me an email directly and let me know you have to meet before Thursday. Sorry, I have a bunch of replies I'm going through and stuff gets missed or lost as I am discombobulated.

Allergy warning: I have two indoor cats that need to be locked up, and the house is a bit dusty.

Thank you, and apologies for my lack of organization.

[ronwoch]

Ooops. More addendums:

The Heathkit ET-3400 works, and I successfully ran one or two of the demo programs from the manual that I printed out. $200?

The ET-3200 Digital Design Experimenter I am keeping, but the photo is in the folder because I have a boxed, unbuilt one that I AM open to selling. $300? 

[ronwoch]

The Apple & Next stuff has all been spoken for; pending pickup tomorrow. Thanks!

[Ronald Wochner]

I have had a few other inquiries about them, so I do in cact believe you! I tried to use and love the system, but the keyboard didn't impress me, and the quirks were frustrating, but that is hindsight / in comparison woth all the other options in my basement. My early computing was done on Apple IIs and an IBM PC 5150, but I liked the concept behind the TI.

On the items themselves:

I have three consoles ( two black and silver, one in box and one of the white plastic ones), the black and silver cassette unit, and a PEB with expansions in it, though I can't tell you exactly what ones. I *think* some memory expansions plus the floppy drive, but my memory is rusty. I haven't really paid attention to it in the last ten years or so.

There is also a bankers box full of software, manuals, a soeech synthesizer, cables. 

At least one or two of the units oower on, last I played with them a few years ago. I think one of them had stopped working on me, and I never got around to trying to troubleshoot. Which one of the three it was, I have no idea.

I'd like to get 800 for the entire TI lot. Feel free to make an offer of course.

Thanks,

Ron

On Tue, Sep 1, 2026, 16:55 Laura Thompson <wildmon...@gmail.com> wrote:

Believe it or not, the thing I am most interested in is the TI-99/4a stuff. It was my first computer, and it turned into a career that took me to the highest levels of the industry. I still have one, but not all of the accessories you mentioned. Are any still available?

-Laura

On Sep 1, 2026, at 11:55 AM, ronwoch <ron...@gmail.com> wrote:

The Apple & Next stuff has all been spoken for; pending pickup tomorrow. Thanks!

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[gjd.link]

I’d defer to Laura on the TI’s, especially if they have nostalgic meaning for her!  I’ve had Commodores (64 and Amiga) and an Atari 800, but always admired the TI’s from afar, and have been very curious.  Laura, I’d love to see your set-up if you ever attend the monthly meetings!

George

On Sep 1, 2026, at 5:08 PM, Ronald Wochner <ron...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[ronwoch]

Quick update: Thank you again to everyone who has reached out with support, offers, and helped me thin down the herd. The PET, Atari collection, TI-99 collection, The two Heathkit Electronic trainers, Osborne, and Kaypro are all gone. The Amigas are spoken for with a secondary.

The 64's and 128's with boxes of software (mostly 64) manuals, cables, etc. are still available. 

Boxes (at least two, one quite large) of assorted mobos, video cards, network cards, etc. still available.

The ginormous bench is still available. If someone is willing to rent a uhaul to pick it up, they can have the bench. I really want it to go to a good home as I don't have room to take it with me.

Additional items found/rediscovered while spelunking in the cave of wonders:

TRS-80 Model III. Powers on to the Basic Rom, but has a blanking plate with no disk drives. Does have a cassette port on the back for loading software.

TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo) in the original box (a bit worn but sturdy) with an assortment of cartridges and two (I think!) joysticks in the box.

A box of FOUR IBM PC JR.s. Last I checked them (about ten years ago) they all worked. No way to confirm that they still do, but I suspect at least one does. You certainly have enough parts to put together one good one, I suspect. I do have some software to go with, specifically labelled for the PC jr., and of course there is lots of DOS software that is compatible (though not all.) Four keyboards - One is the original style wireless chicklet keyboard. The other 3 are the enhanced 'real keyboard' wireless (IR) keyboards. Included is ONE adapter, that allows you to connect from the PC Jr. to the DIN style video plug found on a wider range of monitors - I used a Commodore monitor with these when I played with them.

Some assorted portable computers. 

A bunch of other stuff that may or may not interest folks. 

Make me offers - bonus points if you want to adopt some old servers, or other stuff out of the cave of wonders. Or just come look around and make offers, take stuff home.

I am sure there are people I have missed or need to follow up with. My apologies, please feel free to ping me. 

Again, thank you all, you have been a huge help getting through this all. 

Cheers,

Ron