26-02-2013, 05:08 PM
Brings back happy memories!
£175 in 1982 for a 16k Speccy equates to £560 when adjusted for inflation. Think what they buys now - EG, a decent laptop and wireless printer.
They couldn't turn them out fast enough - I remember going on the waiting list for one for our sons. I later upgraded it to 48k, which I think cost about £50. I had quite a lucrative sideline going - buying dead Speccys at car boot sales for a fiver - invarably because some kid had pulled off or fitted the joystick interface with the PC powered up, which jiggered the CPU. I used to snip through all the IC pins, then melt each pin on the board one at a time and pull it out with forceps. Impossible to remove the CPU any other way without damaging the plated through holes in the PCB. Membranes were also a shortcoming, but were easy to replace. I must have fettled up scores of Speccy bought for a fiver and sold for £75.00. I also did a roaring trade upgrading them to the better keyboard.
I later bought a QL when they were being sold off cheap. It had an excellent suite of four programs - the word processing one was called Quill - a spreadsheet was called Abacus.
All of 'Uncle Clive's' stuff has become collectable - known as 'Sinclair archeology' I believe.
I rushed to buy a kit for a Sinclair four function pocket calculator back in 1973 when the price dropped from (I think) £64 down to a mere £24.00. (In today's terms, down from £700 to £260). You can get a better calculator than that at Poundland nowadays. A pound today would have been two shillings in 1973.
I think as good an example of any as to how prices have plumetted is memory sticks. Quite novel and expensive not so long ago, but they're no so cheap that smaller ones ( 1 or 2 GB) have become hard to come by - just not worth making them.
Have fun with your Speccys!
£175 in 1982 for a 16k Speccy equates to £560 when adjusted for inflation. Think what they buys now - EG, a decent laptop and wireless printer.
They couldn't turn them out fast enough - I remember going on the waiting list for one for our sons. I later upgraded it to 48k, which I think cost about £50. I had quite a lucrative sideline going - buying dead Speccys at car boot sales for a fiver - invarably because some kid had pulled off or fitted the joystick interface with the PC powered up, which jiggered the CPU. I used to snip through all the IC pins, then melt each pin on the board one at a time and pull it out with forceps. Impossible to remove the CPU any other way without damaging the plated through holes in the PCB. Membranes were also a shortcoming, but were easy to replace. I must have fettled up scores of Speccy bought for a fiver and sold for £75.00. I also did a roaring trade upgrading them to the better keyboard.
I later bought a QL when they were being sold off cheap. It had an excellent suite of four programs - the word processing one was called Quill - a spreadsheet was called Abacus.
All of 'Uncle Clive's' stuff has become collectable - known as 'Sinclair archeology' I believe.
I rushed to buy a kit for a Sinclair four function pocket calculator back in 1973 when the price dropped from (I think) £64 down to a mere £24.00. (In today's terms, down from £700 to £260). You can get a better calculator than that at Poundland nowadays. A pound today would have been two shillings in 1973.
I think as good an example of any as to how prices have plumetted is memory sticks. Quite novel and expensive not so long ago, but they're no so cheap that smaller ones ( 1 or 2 GB) have become hard to come by - just not worth making them.
Have fun with your Speccys!
Regards, David.
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
