dustfilledhobo Posted August 4, 2010 Share Posted August 4, 2010 (edited) So, I live in Utah where Commodore stuff is scarce to find in the local classifieds, and when they do pop up people want ridiculous amounts of money for them (like $350 for a C64 without the power supply that worked the last time the seller used it, 15 years ago). Every so often I check craigslist for other cities to see what is offered as to live vicariously, and about 2 months ago I found (and eventually answered) an ad: "Commodore 64 + other stuff - $25". So here's the adventure (I feel that this could be a long post so I will just make a numbered list and then post some pictures). (1) I contacted the seller and discussed shipping. (2) I found out the contents of the lot and wanted it even more. (3) I found out the shipping price and couldn't afford it any more. (4) I remembered that my wife has a cousin who lives in the same city as the seller. (5) Contacted wife's cousin, and set up the deal with the seller. (6) I was going to go house sit for my wife's aunt this summer and have a vacation of my own in Moab (3-4 hours away from my house). (7) My wife's cousin comes to visit his family in Moab about every 2-3 weeks (he lives 3 hours away in a different direction in Colorado). ( We were going to be in Moab at the same time, to make the drop off. (my 8 turned into a cool-dude smiley, aaahahhhh!) (9) I got the stuff and hauled it back to my place for testing. The seller was the nicest guy I've ever dealt with. He delivered all of the stuff to my wife's cousin's house, and said I didn't have to pay him until I got everything and tested it to see if it worked. And amazingly everything worked (no alignment problems on the disk drives, no psu problems). The C64 has a few hard-to-push keys, but I'm going to fix that with a little cleaning. Here's the list of the stuff I got: C64 (breadbox)::: All cables and psu 1541 Disk Drive::: cable + power cord 1541-II Disk Drive::: cable + psu Monitor (forgot the manufacturer, but the model number was something like SC-100)::: power cable + cable to connect to C64 Commodore 1526 Printer::: Power cable Carts::: A Red Fast Loader-type cart, and Currah Speach 64 (this one is fun to use) Other software::: Mostly copies on disk, but some loose originals on disk Many C64-related texts An Atari joystick Thanks (I'll post pictures in the next post) Dusty Edited August 4, 2010 by dustfilledhobo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustfilledhobo Posted August 4, 2010 Author Share Posted August 4, 2010 Here's the pictures of my craigslist adventure: Dusty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shephda Posted August 4, 2010 Share Posted August 4, 2010 Nice find Dusty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frizo Posted August 10, 2010 Share Posted August 10, 2010 What an amazing find. Good searching! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted August 10, 2010 Share Posted August 10, 2010 (edited) Excellent haul, that printer looks great! What I do is hook it all up (at least once if there's a printer) and send a letter to my Mom. Kinda like the football phone, "You'll never guess where I'm calling from" type of thing. Hey, it makes it interesting. Just realised your area, I am in El Paso where computer stuff like this is just as rare, and I am lucky to have gotten the few C= items I do have. It seems this part of the country just has better things to do than keep their machines alive. Edited August 10, 2010 by nathanallan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silntdoogood Posted August 11, 2010 Share Posted August 11, 2010 NICE!!! I love the screens! And does the printer actually print? I would think finding ink at this point would be a bear! It's hard enough for a printing calculator anymore... Have any singing floppy programs in there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted August 11, 2010 Share Posted August 11, 2010 Ink for a ribbon printer? If adding WD-40 doesn't work then get a ribbon cartridge that looks kind of like that one, get the ribbon from it and rewind it all into the one you need to work. Gets messy, but works. There's a printer here that works great still because I oil it (imagine! Oiling an deskjet!!) and the ribbons are still available at the huge price of $12 each and they tend to last over a year apiece! I love that one (Epson something or other, it's in a box right now). Excellent haul. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silntdoogood Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Ink for a ribbon printer?... Oh yeah...I forgot about ribbon printing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted August 12, 2010 Share Posted August 12, 2010 Ink for a ribbon printer?... Oh yeah...I forgot about ribbon printing I will never forget about ribbon printing, so far it has outlasted every other type of printing in this house. Even after being crated up for years, if I was to yank out the Epson, or Okimate or any of the other ribbon-using printers they will still work no problem. A personal fav is the Atari 2050, that thing is like a tank; a big, slow noisy tank that refuses to be stopped I think it's main strength is that it has Inertia on its side 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustfilledhobo Posted August 13, 2010 Author Share Posted August 13, 2010 Excellent haul, that printer looks great! What I do is hook it all up (at least once if there's a printer) and send a letter to my Mom. Kinda like the football phone, "You'll never guess where I'm calling from" type of thing. Hey, it makes it interesting. Just realised your area, I am in El Paso where computer stuff like this is just as rare, and I am lucky to have gotten the few C= items I do have. It seems this part of the country just has better things to do than keep their machines alive. I would have hooked the printer up, but I was short on time, and I didn't know how to network it with my floppy drives (these are the first floppy drives I've owned for the C64). NICE!!! I love the screens! And does the printer actually print? I would think finding ink at this point would be a bear! It's hard enough for a printing calculator anymore... Have any singing floppy programs in there? I don't know if the printer works, and I'm not sure what you meant by "singing floppy programs." I'm guessing you are talking about the programs that make your drives misalign musically. If this is true then, no I didn't get any. It did come with the incredible musical keyboard program (not the keyboard overlay), and a few other music composition programs, but I still like my Cynthcart better. Ink for a ribbon printer? If adding WD-40 doesn't work then get a ribbon cartridge that looks kind of like that one, get the ribbon from it and rewind it all into the one you need to work. Gets messy, but works. There's a printer here that works great still because I oil it (imagine! Oiling an deskjet!!) and the ribbons are still available at the huge price of $12 each and they tend to last over a year apiece! I love that one (Epson something or other, it's in a box right now). Excellent haul. Thanks for the tip, I gave you a rep point for it. Thanks for all of the posts. Dusty 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silntdoogood Posted August 14, 2010 Share Posted August 14, 2010 Ink for a ribbon printer?... Oh yeah...I forgot about ribbon printing I will never forget about ribbon printing... A personal fav is the Atari 2050, that thing is like a tank; a big, slow noisy tank that refuses to be stopped I think it's main strength is that it has Inertia on its side Haha, it sounds awesome!...but call me a noob, I have never heard of the 2050... Mind posting or sending me a picture? I tried google and youtube, turned up empty handed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted August 15, 2010 Share Posted August 15, 2010 Ink for a ribbon printer?... Oh yeah...I forgot about ribbon printing I will never forget about ribbon printing... A personal fav is the Atari 2050, that thing is like a tank; a big, slow noisy tank that refuses to be stopped I think it's main strength is that it has Inertia on its side Haha, it sounds awesome!...but call me a noob, I have never heard of the 2050... Mind posting or sending me a picture? I tried google and youtube, turned up empty handed. DOH! Not 2050, I was getting my numbers mixed up. I think this happens when you get older I meant the 1025, I have this one, here's a pic: http://picasaweb.google.com/nathan.dkassandra4/UntitledAlbum#5038021931806883842 Thanks for the rep point, too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silntdoogood Posted August 15, 2010 Share Posted August 15, 2010 Ink for a ribbon printer?... Oh yeah...I forgot about ribbon printing I will never forget about ribbon printing... A personal fav is the Atari 2050, that thing is like a tank; a big, slow noisy tank that refuses to be stopped I think it's main strength is that it has Inertia on its side Haha, it sounds awesome!...but call me a noob, I have never heard of the 2050... Mind posting or sending me a picture? I tried google and youtube, turned up empty handed. DOH! Not 2050, I was getting my numbers mixed up. I think this happens when you get older I meant the 1025, I have this one, here's a pic: http://picasaweb.goo...021931806883842 Thanks for the rep point, too haha, I clicked the link to here, closed it, and maybe five seconds later got an email notification about a reply haha. Thanks for clarifying! That's an AMAZING PIECE, and I now have a new thing to hunt down! I think I need one of these, man I wish I didn't live in such a luddite community. There is nothing older than a windows 95 machine. It makes me sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silntdoogood Posted August 15, 2010 Share Posted August 15, 2010 nathanallan, if you have a youtube account, I'd LOVE to see that thing in action! I can't find any video, and pictures are scarce. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted August 15, 2010 Share Posted August 15, 2010 oy, well if I can get everything set back up I will definitely make a video of it. Right now I am strapped for space but when I do I will. I am a bit of a show-off and love to show what's happening when anything interesting happens. When i do make a video of it at work, it'll likely be a kind of long one as it's not a fast printer-- just works perfectly and I would trust it over an inkjet for the next 20 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silntdoogood Posted August 15, 2010 Share Posted August 15, 2010 oy, well if I can get everything set back up I will definitely make a video of it. Right now I am strapped for space but when I do I will. I am a bit of a show-off and love to show what's happening when anything interesting happens. When i do make a video of it at work, it'll likely be a kind of long one as it's not a fast printer-- just works perfectly and I would trust it over an inkjet for the next 20 years. Just keeping it in mind when you have a chance is all I can ask Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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