Going price for ZX Spectrum?

[juansolo]

My first computer was a spectrum, as was the second and third... Even back in the day, their reliability was somewhat legendary. Mostly for me it came down to the expansion slot and other people not treating it like red hot lava and keeping the hell away from it when the machine was powered up. Still, we were kids and there was a pair of joystick interfaces stuck out the back of it (a RAM Turbo and a ComCon hanging out the back of that...) inevitably meant that someone at some time yanked on a cable, jostled an interface and killed the Speccy.

 

I'll give them their due, Sinclair were really good about replacing them considering it was technically misuse that killed them. The third Speccy I got was actually after the Amstrad takeover and they sent me a toastrack 128. I bloody loved that machine, despite how long it took to load Renegade 128 and Starglider from tape. Really regretted selling it. Mint in box, I got buttons for it. If only I knew then what I know now!

 

As it is, I've got a replacement, and it's a bit awesome: http://80.229.1.38/geekery/uberspeccy.html

Edited August 18, 2020 by juansolo

[youxia]

49 minutes ago, juansolo said:

As it is, I've got a replacement, and it's a bit awesome: http://80.229.1.38/geekery/uberspeccy.html

Very neat. Yep, Zaxon makes some superb 8-bit micro gadgets, I have his GX4000 converted into 6128+.

[Nateo]

Aaaaaand I was WAY outbid on the Speccy I was eyeing. After reading some of the responses and weighing the notion of getting a fixed upper when I will have to order most, if not all repair parts from overseas, I think I'm gonna go the Harelquin 128k route. It'll be a great quarantine project to build a Spectrum from the ground up!

[carlsson]

Well, most 74 series chips, RAM, voltage regulators, capacitors, transistors etc should be available from the US unless you're saving cents to get those from Asia. If there is a ROM fault, you supposedly can replace it with an EPROM, which leaves the ULA as the custom chip you probably only can find spares of within the ZX Spectrum community.

 

Edit: I forgot about the keyboard membrane and the ribbon cables, which also are custom parts...

Edited August 18, 2020 by carlsson

[Nateo]

I got an unexpected bonus on my paycheck, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the Harlequin 128k from Byte Delight. Now I just gotta get a system ROM, a case, a keyboard membrane, rubber mat and faceplate. Basically, this is now the retro computer equivalent of the Johnny Cash song "One Piece At a Time".

[Cepp]

On 8/17/2020 at 5:26 PM, Nateo said:

That's been my trouble so far - finding someone who will ship to the states and not have the shipping cost be astronomical. This seems to be an issue unique to the UK so far, with shipping costs from the rest of the EU often being about 30 - 40% less than what the UK is offering.

Damn it, I just want a bog standard Speccy!

I usually have this issue in reverse when shipping from America to the UK. I wonder if it's some kind of trade agreement issue?

[Nateo]

21 hours ago, Cepp said:

I usually have this issue in reverse when shipping from America to the UK. I wonder if it's some kind of trade agreement issue?

Must have gone awry with Brexit. I remember stuff being shipped to America from the UK was peanuts about 5 years ago.

[juansolo]

It's just become a bit more of a pain. It is still possible to ship reasonably to the US, it just requires being smart about how you package it and getting things as light as possible. Things are far, far worse coming into the UK as a rule...

[English Invader]

49 minutes ago, juansolo said:

 Things are far, far worse coming into the UK as a rule...

I had to wait three months for a record needle to arrive in the UK from the US which was ordered a few days after the March 23rd lockdown (I even joked that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it was for my needle to enter the UK).  By comparison, the PC Engine Mini I ordered from Amazon Japan arrived in the space of a few days.

Edited September 8, 2020 by English Invader